The Armenians (, Hayer) are a nation and an ethnic group originating in the Caucasus and eastern Anatolia. A large concentration of them have remained there, especially in Armenia, but many of them are also scattered elsewhere throughout the world (see Armenian Diaspora). They have populated primarily eastern Anatolia and the southern Caucasus for some 3,500 years.

History

Until modern times, the history of the Armenians is the history of Armenia. Prior to the 6th century BC, the predecessors of the Armenian Kingdom were the Hayasa-Azzi, Hittite Empire, Kingdom of Urartu, as well as other small states and tribal confederations. Herodotus claims that Armenians were colonists of the Phrygians. Hypotheses based on this narrative could place Armenians in their traditional homeland of eastern Asia Minor anywhere from around 1200 BC ("colonizing" at the same time as the Phrygian influx) to around 700 BC (pushed eastward by the invasions of the Cimmerians who ravaged Phrygia in 696 BC).

A competing view was suggested by Thomas Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav V. Ivanov in 1984 in the context of their Glottalic theory, placing the Proto-Indo-European urheimat (i.e. homeland) in the Armenian Highland, implying that the Armenian language, as one of the daughter languages of Proto-Indo-European, is native to the area and was spoken there for much longer. A recent study (Gray & Atkinson) that applied the statistical tools used in timing genetic evolution to the lexical evolution of Indo-European languages strongly implied that the Indo-European homeland indeed appears to be in Asia Minor, and Armenian language (hence a well-defined group speaking it) split from it (along with Greek) at around 5300 BC, and split from Greek shortly thereafter (but the "split" from Greek was statistically less obvious, probably implying some interaction between the diverging populations until the split was "complete").

The first state that was called Armenia (which is not the name Armenians themselves use) by neighboring peoples (Hecataeus of Miletus and Behistun Inscription) was established in the early 6th century BC. At its zenith (95–65 BC), the state extended from northern Caucasus all the way to what is now central Turkey, Lebanon, and north-western Iran. Later it briefly became part of the Roman Empire (AD 114–118). Historically the name Armenian has come to internationally designate this group of people but interestingly enough Armenians don't call themselves Armenians in the Armenian language, instead they call themselves Hay (pronounced Hye; plural: Hayer), the roots of the word may have links to the popular Armenian name Haik, the name of the legendary founder of the Armenian nation.

In 301 AD, Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion (see Religion). During its later political eclipses, Armenia depended on the church to preserve and protect its unique identity.

The history of Armenia consists of periods of independence interrupted by conquests by other peoples, during which time Armenia continued being an autonomous kingdom subject to various empires. The span of time during which Armenia itself conquered areas populated by other peoples is mainly limited to the imperial period (83 BC - 66 BC) during the reign of Tigranes the Great. Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia created by Armenians pushed westward by the invading Seljuk Turks could also be added in that regard, although demographics in the region might have already shifted by the time the newest wave arrived and the kingdom was established. From around 1080 to 1375, the focus of Armenian nationalism was the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, which had close ties with the Crusader States. As with virtually all other nations of Near East and Asia Minor, between the 5th and 19th centuries, Armenia was conquered and ruled by, among others, Persians, Byzantines, Arabs, Mongols, and Ottoman Turks. In the 1820s, parts of historic Armenia under Persian control centering on Yerevan and Lake Sevan were later incorporated into the Russian Empire.

The ethnic cleansing of Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire is widely considered a genocide, with one wave of persecution in the years 1894 to 1896 culminating in the events of the Armenian Genocide in 1915 and 1916. With World War I in progress, the Turks accused the (Christian) Armenians as liable to ally with Imperial Russia, and used it as a pretext to deal with the entire Armenian population as an enemy within their empire. The exact numbers of deaths in the latter period is hard to establish. It is estimated by many sources that close to a million perished in camps, which excludes Armenians who may have died in other ways. Most estimates place the total number of deaths between 800,000 and 1.5 million. Turkish governments since that time have consistently rejected charges of genocide, typically arguing either that those Armenians who died were simply in the way of a war or that killings of Armenians were justified by their individual or collective support for the enemies of the Ottoman Empire.

Following the breakup of the Russian Empire in the aftermath of World War I for a brief period, from 1918 to 1920, Armenia was an independent republic. In late 1920, the communists came to power following an invasion of Armenia by the Red Army, and in 1922, Armenia became part of the USSR, later forming the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (1936 - September 21, 1991). In 1991, Armenia declared independence from the USSR and established the second Republic of Armenia.

Geographic distribution

A small Armenian community has existed for over a millennium in the Holy Land, and one of the four quarters of the walled old city of Jerusalem is the Armenian Quarter.

Since the arrival of "Martin the Armenian" to the Jamestown Colony around 1618 ^*, Armenians have dispersed all throughout the United States. Watertown, Massachusetts, Fresno, California, Detroit, Michigan and Glendale, California are four centers of Armenian population in the United States; there is also a significant concentration in New York City. In Canada, large numbers of Armenians can be found in Toronto, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec. Armenians are also present in every country in Latin America, with the largest concentrations being found in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Mexico.

Glendale, California, in particular, is famous for its high concentration of Armenians; there are approximately 78,000 Armenians, according to the 2000 U.S. census. Armenian residents of the city are active members in the municipal government and chamber of commerce. In Hollywood, California, a small portion is known as "Little Armenia" - it covers Wilton Place to Vermont Avenue from the east to west, and Hollywood Blvd. down to Melrose avenue from north to south.

Culture

Language

It is estimated that there are at least 10 million Armenian speakers in the world. 6 million of the Armenian speakers live in the Caucasus and Russia, and perhaps another 1-2 million people in the Armenian diaspora are also Armenian speakers.

According to US Census figures, there are 300,000 Americans who speak Armenian at home. It is the 20th most commonly spoken language in the United States, having slightly fewer speakers than Haitian Creole, and slightly more than Navaho.

Religion

The Armenians have, at times, constituted a Christian "island" in a mostly Muslim region. The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, had close ties to European Crusader States. The religiously based sympathies that some Armenians presumably held for Imperial Russia provided the pretext for the genocide of 1915–1916 by the Ottoman Turks.

While the Armenian Apostolic Church remains the most prominent church in the Armenian community throughout the world, Armenians (especially) in the diaspora subscribe to any number of other Christian denominations. These include the Armenian Catholic Church (which follows its own liturgy but recognizes the Roman Catholic Pope), the Armenian Evangelical Church, which started as a reformation in the Mother church but later broke away, and the Armenian Brotherhood Church, which was born in the Armenian Evangelical Church, but later broke apart from it. There are other numerous Armenian churches belonging to Protestant denominations of all kinds.

Institutions

• The Armenian Apostolic Church
• The Armenian Catholic Church
• The Armenian Evangelical Church The community was formally recognized in 1846 by the Ottoman Empire.
• The Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) founded in 1906 and the largest Armenian non-profit organization in the world with educational, cultural and humanitarian projects on six continents.
• The Armenian Relief Society, founded in 1910.
• Hamazkayin an Armenian cultural and educational society founded in Cairo in 1928, and responsible for the founding of Armenian secondary schools and institutions of higher education in several countries.
• The Armenian Revolutionary Federation was founded in 1890. It is generally referred to as the Dashnaktsutyun, which means Federation in Armenian. The ARF is the strongest worldwide Armenian political organization and the only diasporan Armenian organization with a significant political presence in the Republic of Armenia.

Classification

The Armenians have long been viewed as a nation; however, in diaspora, especially since the era of World War I, they have typically been viewed as an ethnic group.

See also

• List of Armenians

Notes

References

Literature

• George A. Bournoutian, A History of the Armenian People, 2 vol. (1994)
• George A. Bournoutian, A Concise History of the Armenian People (Mazda, 2003, 2004).
• I. M. Diakonoff, The Pre-History of the Armenian People (revised, trans. Lori Jennings), Caravan Books, New York (1984), ISBN 0-882067-039-2.
• Russell D. Gray and Quentin D. Atkinson, "Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin", Nature, 426, 435-439 (2003)

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