Armenians in Crimea

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Armenians in Crimea
Total population
10,000 (8,700 in the
Hamshenis, Cherkesogai
groups
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The Armenians in Crimea have maintained a presence in the region since the Middle Ages. The first wave of Armenian immigration into this area began during the mid-eleventh century and, over time, as political, economic and social conditions in Armenia proper failed to improve, newer waves followed them. Today, between 10 and 20 thousand Armenians live in the peninsula.

History

Early communities

In an ethnic and national sense, the Crimea has been a host to wide group of peoples. Historians and other scholars have dated the Armenian presence in the Crimea to the eighth century and have distinguished three distinctive stages of their settlement in the region. The Crimea was under the control of the

Armenian Highlands and other Byzantine cities came to settle here as well.[4]

As life grew more unbearable in Armenia proper following the destructive

Catholic) of their own in Kaffa.[6]

As the foreign wars in Armenia continued unabated, greater numbers of Armenians chose to settle in the Crimea, to the degree that some Western sources began to refer to the region as Armenia Maritima and the Sea of Azov as Lacus armeniacus.[7] A rich literary tradition and the art of illuminated manuscript writing were created. The Armenian Church played a central role in Armenian social life, and in 1330 it counted 44 churches under its jurisdiction.[8] From the fourteenth to eighteenth centuries, the Armenians formed the second largest ethnic group after the Tatars. Many of them began to speak Tatar as their home language, writing it in Armenian script.[9]

The flourishing of the community came to an abrupt end, however, when the

First World War and the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1923. The immigrants of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were largely from Western Armenia
and the various regions of Ottoman Empire.

Soviet era

In 1919, there were 16,907 Armenians living in the Crimea. In 1930, in the newly established

All-Union census of 1989, the number of Armenians living in the Crimea had dwindled down 2,794.[12] On May 29, 1944, Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union, Lavrentiy Beria, introduced a specious report to Joseph Stalin: "Armenians live in various parts of the peninsula. An Armenian committee, established by Germans, actively cooperates with Nazi Germany and is carrying out anti-Soviet [acts]." Later on, he suggested to deport all Bulgarians, Greeks and Armenians from Crimea. On June 2, 1944, he signed Directorate 5984, entitled "The Deportation of German satellites - Bulgarians, Greeks and Armenians from Crimea." This resolution deported 37,000 Bulgarians, Greeks and Armenians. The Armenians were sent to Perm Oblast, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Omsk Oblast, Kemerovo Oblast, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and Kazakhstan.[13]

In 1989, the communal life of the Crimea's Armenians was institutionalized with the formation of one of the peninsula's first national-cultural associations, the Armenian Luys (Light) Society. Later, after re-registration in 1996, it was renamed the Crimean Armenian Society. At present, the Crimean Armenian Society consists of 14 regional offices, coordinated by the National Council of Crimean Armenians. The highest governing body is the National Congress, which convenes at least once every four years. Operational management of the society is carried out by the executive committee, which functions in the periods between meetings of the National Council. The society runs the Luys Cultural and Ethnographic Center and publishes a monthly newspaper, Dove Masis. The one-hour Armenian-language program "Barev" airs twice a month on Crimean television, and radio broadcasts are made five times a week. There are Armenian churches in

Evpatoria, while the first Armenian secondary school opened in 1998 in Simferopol.[citation needed
]

Distribution

Armenians in the Crimea are currently concentrated in the cities of

Evpatoria, Feodosia, Kerch, Yalta, Sevastopol, Sudak. The Armenia Diaspora Encyclopedia estimated that there were 20,000 Armenians living in the region as of 2003.[2]

Feodosia (Kaffa)

In the 1470s, Armenians comprised two thirds of the total population of Kaffa (numbering 46,000 out of 70,000).[14] Until 1941 Armenians in Feodosia formed more than 20% of the total population of the city. According to the Feodosia Office of Statistics, there are only 557 Armenians living in Greater Feodosia itself.[5]

Community life

The community has taken a very lively role in affairs concerning Armenia and Armenians and has contributed greatly to the region.[15] This is seen more prominently in the context of Turkish foreign policy interests in the Crimea.[16]

The Armenian community of the Crimea forms one of the most important centers of the Armenian Diaspora in the Black Sea region. Its members attach a great importance to Armenia and its foreign policy interests.

Gallery

Saint Hripsime Church of Yalta

Surp Khach Monastery

Armenian Church in Feodosia

Other

Cultural heritage

Churches and cathedrals

Surb-Khach monastery near Staryi Krym, Crimea
.

The Armenians were mostly adherents of the Armenian Apostolic Church. There were a number of churches built in Yalta (Saint Hripsime Church of Yalta), Feodosia and Yevpatoria.[17] Construction activity took place from the 14th century and according to one manuscript the monastery of Gamchak had been built by the fifteenth century in Kafa.

In Kaffa, there were a number of Armenian schools, dozens of churches, banks, trading houses, caravanserai, and craftshops. The town served as a spiritual center for the Crimean Armenians, and its stature grew so prominently that in 1438 the Armenians of Kafa were invited to send representatives to the Ferrara-Florence Cathedral (Florence ecumenical council).

The second largest Armenian population after Kaffa in the same period was

Surb-Khach (Holy Cross). There were many Armenian churches, schools, neighborhoods here as well. Other major settlements included Sudak, where until the last quarter of the fifteenth century and near the monastery Surb-Khach there was a small Armenian town called Kazarat. Armenian princes kept the troops there and on a contractual basis to defend Kafa.[18]

The social life of the Crimean Armenians surged in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They organized themselves into community organizations. Wealthy Armenians and the church tried to "raise" the nation to the level of modern civilization, and to carry out charitable activities. The sources of money and material welfare of the church were grants, wills and offerings.[19]

The church's role in the colonies was to some extent becoming secularized. In 1842, the Catholicos in Crimea lost his position to the Chief Guardian of the Crimean Armenian churches.[20]

Notable natives

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Statistics on the Demographics of Ukraine Archived July 6, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. State Statistics Committee of Ukraine.
  2. ^ a b (in Armenian) Հայ սփյուռք հանրագիտարան (The Armenia Diaspora Encyclopedia). Hovhannes M. Ayvazyan (ed.). Yerevan: Haykakan Hanragitaran Publishing, 2003, p. 601.
  3. ^ (in Russian) В Крыму проживает до 20 тысяч армян, – информация Габриеляна
  4. ISBN 1-4039-6422-X
    .
  5. ^ a b (in Ukrainian) "Народы Феодосии: Крымские армяне: Барев Archived 2014-11-07 at the Wayback Machine" [The Armenians of the Crimea]. The People of Feodosia.
  6. ^ a b Maksoudian. "Armenian Communities", p. 53.
  7. ^ Maksoudian. "Armenian Communities", p. 55.
  8. ^ Maksoudian. "Armenian Communities", pp. 56, 58.
  9. ISBN 0521269318
    ), p. 186.
  10. ^ Maksoudian. "Armenian Communities", p. 56.
  11. ^ (in Russian) «Этнография народов Крыма» - Этносы Крыма: Армяне
  12. ^ (in Russian) Ethnic Groups in the Russian Federation: Armenia.
  13. ^ Movsisyan, Jivan (24 June 1998). Ղրիմահայոց ողբերգությունը [The Tragedy of Crimean Armenians]. Azg Daily (in Armenian). Yerevan.
  14. ^ See Maksoudian. "Armenian Communities", p. 54.
  15. ^ Своим постановлением №1322-4/05 от 19 мая 2005г. Верховная Рада Автономной Республики Крым решила считать 24 апреля Днем памяти жертв трагедии армянского народа. 22 апреля 2007г. состоялся круглый стол «Геноцид армян, без права на забвение». Организаторами и учредителями круглого стола стал Комитет армянской молодежи Крыма при поддержки Крымского армянского общества и Русского культурного центра. По словам председателя Крымского армянского общества Олега Габриэляна (Симферополь, 24 апреля 2007г.) «У армян нет чувства реванша к турецкому государству, мы хотим обозначить для себя и жителей Крыма, что армянская диаспора развивается»
  16. ^ «Влияние Турции на Крым охватывает все сферы жизни полуострова, как политические, так экономические и культурологические. Однако в последние годы наибольшее участие Турции в жизни Крыма специалисты отмечают в экономике. Именно экономическую составляющую считают превалирующей во взаимоотношениях Крыма и Турции и политологи и экономисты. Эксперты отмечают большой интерес Турции к реализации крупномасштабных программ по развитию туристско-рекреационного комплекса автономии, к строительству отелей. На встрече с руководством Автономной Республики Крым премьер-министр Турецкой Республики Реджеп Тайип Эрдоган сказал: «Крым – это та часть территории Украины, которая ближе всего расположена к Турции и является связующим звеном наших стран. Турецкие деньги могли бы превратить крымские берега во вторую Анталию с ее более чем комфортными местами для отдыха»» (Влияние Турции на экономику Крыма: экономический обзор[permanent dead link]
  17. ^ Таврический Национальный Университет им.Вернадского. Этнография народов Крыма:армяне. Численность и районы проживания.
  18. ^ Таврический Национальный Университет им.Вернадского. Этнография народов Крыма:армяне. Первые поселения.
  19. ^ Таврический Национальный Университет им.Вернадского. Этнография народов Крыма:армяне. Общественная жизнь
  20. ^ Таврический Национальный Университет им.Вернадского. Этнография народов Крыма:армяне. Деятельность церкви.
  21. ^ "Հայ մաթենագրության Թուանշյան գրադարան".

External links

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