Armenians in Ukraine

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Armenians in Ukraine
Հայերն Ուկրաինայում
Вірмени в Україні
Total population
99,894 (2001)
Regions with significant populations
Armeno-Kipchak (historical)[1]
Religion
Armenian Apostolic Church (predominant), Armenian Catholic Church (small community)
Related ethnic groups
Armenian diaspora

All figures from [2]

Armenians in Ukraine (

guest workers which has yet to be ascertained. The Armenian population in Ukraine has nearly doubled since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989, largely due to instability in the Caucasus. Ukraine was home to the fifth largest Armenian community in the world before the invasion by Russia displaced millions of people.[4][5]

Early history

Surb Khach Armenian Monastery, Ukraine

Armenians first appeared in Ukraine during the times of

Halychyna, concentrating around Lviv
which in 1267 became the center of an Armenian eparchy.

.

At the end of the thirteenth century, when members of the

Kipchak people was still current in the 16th and 17th centuries among the Armenian communities settling in the Lviv and Kamianets-Podilskyi area of what is now Ukraine.[7]

After Crimea fell to the

Rostov on Don in 1778, twenty years later Russia having conquered the peninsula called to colonize it and many Armenians arrived from Turkey, establishing new Armenian colonies. During World War II
in 1944 Armenians were deported en masse along with Greeks, Bulgarians and Tatars as a "antisoviet element" and allowed to return only in the 1960s. During Soviet rule Armenians came together with people from other Soviet ruled nations to Ukraine to work in the heavy industry located in the eastern parts of the country.

Armenian community in modern Ukraine

Today, the Donetsk Oblast holds the greatest number of Armenians in Ukraine (~16 000, 0.33% of the population).[3] Armenian communities can also be found in Dnipro, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Odesa where the late Ukrainian-Armenian artist Sarkis Ordyan spent most of his life. The city of Lviv is a "spiritual capital" of Armenians in Ukraine serving as an eparchial see for both Catholic and Apostolic churches, under which Ukraine as a single eparchy is split between both of them. Alas, the Armenian Catholic Archeparchy of Lviv is not occupied ever since the end of World War II and the Armenian Apostolic Church is predominant.

The Armenians continue to have a historic presence in Crimea, which remains under Russian control since the

Hovhannes Aivazovsky, the world-renowned Armenian painter lived and worked his entire life in the Crimean city of Feodosiya.[8]

Many Armenians living in Ukraine have been Russified with about half speaking Armenian as their mother tongue but over 43% speaking Russian and only 6% Ukrainian.[9]

Distribution

Notable representatives

Cultural heritage

Armenian cultural heritage in Ukraine:

  • Armenian Dormition Church in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi (14th century)
    Armenian Dormition Church in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi (14th century)
  • Armenian Belltower in Kamianets-Podilskyi (16th century)
    Armenian Belltower in Kamianets-Podilskyi (16th century)
  • Armenian church in Horodenka (18th century)
    Armenian church in Horodenka (18th century)
  • Armenian church in Zhvanets (18th century)
    Armenian church in Zhvanets (18th century)
  • Armenian church in Ivano-Frankivsk (18th century)
    Armenian church in Ivano-Frankivsk (18th century)
  • Armenian church in Kuty (18th century)
    Armenian church in Kuty (18th century)
  • Armenian church in Sniatyn (18th century)
    Armenian church in Sniatyn (18th century)
  • Armenian church in Chernivtsi (19th century)
    Armenian church in Chernivtsi (19th century)
  • Armenian Surb Grigor Lusavorych church in Odesa (1995)
    Armenian Surb Grigor Lusavorych church in Odesa (1995)
  • Armenian St. Resurrection church in Kharkiv (2004)
    Armenian St. Resurrection church in Kharkiv (2004)
  • Armenian Surb Gevorg church in Mykolaiv
    Armenian Surb Gevorg church in Mykolaiv
  • Armenian church in Luhansk
    Armenian church in Luhansk
  • A 19th century postcard of St. Nicholas Armenian Church in Kamenets-Podolsk (destroyed during the 1930s)
    A 19th century postcard of St. Nicholas Armenian Church in
    Kamenets-Podolsk
    (destroyed during the 1930s)

See also

References

  1. ^ An Armeno-Kipchak Chronicle on the Polish-Turkish Wars in 1620–1621,Robert Dankoff, p. 388
  2. ^ The distribution of the population by nationality and mother tongue, Kiev: State Statistics Committee of Ukraine, 2001, retrieved 2009-06-17[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ a b c d 2001 Ukrainian census Archived July 6, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "At Least 23 Armenians Have Died in Ukraine Conflict". Asbarez.com. Retrieved 2023-06-21.
  5. ^ "Situation Ukraine Refugee Situation". Operational Data Portal (UNHCR). Retrieved 2023-06-21.
  6. ^ An Armeno-Kipchak Chronicle on the Polish-Turkish Wars in 1620–1621,Robert Dankoff, p. 388
  7. ^ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland – Page 85 by Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
  8. ^ "Biography of Ivan Aivazovsky by the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg". Archived from the original on 2007-02-03. Retrieved 2007-02-04.
  9. ^ 2001 Ukrainian census Archived November 1, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Bespyatov, Tim. "Ethnic composition of Ukraine 2001". pop-stat.mashke.org. Archived from the original on 1 May 2021.

External links