TheArmenian diaspora refers to the communities ofArmenians outsideArmenia and other locations where Armenians are considered an indigenous population. Since antiquity, Armenians have established communities in many regions throughout the world. However, the modern Armenian diaspora was largely formed as a result ofWorld War I, when thegenocide which was committed by theOttoman Empire forcedArmenians who were living in their homeland to flee from it or risk being killed.[1][2] Another wave of emigration started duringthe energy crisis and thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.[3][4][5]
TheHigh Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs established in 2019 is in charge of coordinating and developing Armenia's relations with the diaspora.
In Armenian, the diaspora is referred to asspyurk (pronounced[spʰʏrkʰ]), spelled սփիւռք inclassical orthography and սփյուռք inreformed orthography.[6][7] In the past, the wordgaghut (գաղութpronounced[ɡɑˈʁutʰ]) was used mostly to refer to the Armenian communities outside theArmenian homeland. It is borrowed from the Aramaic (Classical Syriac) cognate[8] of Hebrewgalut (גלות).[9][10]
The Armenian diaspora has been present for over 1,700 years.[11] The Armenian diaspora is divided into two communities – those communities fromAnatolia (orWestern Armenia) and those communities which are from the Caucasus orEastern Armenia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and other communities from the formerSoviet Union).
The modern Armenian diaspora was largely formed afterWorld War I as a result of theArmenian genocide. According toRandall Hansen, "Both in the past and today, the Armenian communities around the world have developed in significantly different ways within the constraints and opportunities found in varied host cultures and countries."[1]
In the fourth century, Armenian communities already existed outsideGreater Armenia.Diasporic Armenian communities emerged in theAchaemenid andSassanid empires, and they also defended the eastern and northern borders of theByzantine Empire.[12] In order to populate the less populated areas of Byzantium, Armenians were relocated to those regions. Some Armenians converted to Greek Orthodoxy while retainingArmenian as their primary language, whereas others remained in theArmenian Apostolic Church despite pressure from official authorities. A growing number of Armenians migrated toCilicia during the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries as a result of the Seljuk Turk invasions. After the fall of the kingdom to theMamelukes and loss of Armenian statehood in 1375, up to 150,000 went toCyprus,the Balkans, andItaly.[12] The Armenian diaspora is also notable for its historicalmercantile communities throughout Asia in theMiddle Ages and in the Early Modern Period, in countries such as China, India, and Iran, many of whom rose to high positions within the various Asian royal courts.[13][14] Although an Armenian diaspora existed duringAntiquity and the Middle Ages, it grew in size due to emigration from theOttoman Empire,Iran,Russia, and theCaucasus.
Armenians in Turkey, such asHrant Dink, do not consider themselves a part of the Armenian Diaspora, since they have been living in their historical homeland for more than four thousand years.[15][16] They are not considered part of the diaspora either by theMinistry of DiasporaHranush Hakobyan: "Diaspora represents all the Armenians who live beyond theArmenian Highland. In this context, we have singled out the Armenians of Istanbul and those living on the territory ofWestern Armenia. Those people have inhabited the lands for thousands of years, and they are not considered Diaspora."[17]
Before 1870, 60 Armenian immigrants settled in New England.[18] Armenian immigration rose to 1,500 by the end of the 1880s, and rose to 2,500 in the mid-1890s due to massacres caused by the Ottoman Empire. Armenians who immigrated to the United States before WWI were primarily from Asia Minor and settled on the East Coast.[18]
The Armenian diaspora grew considerably both during and after theFirst World War due to thedissolution of theOttoman Empire.[19] In the year 1910, over 5,500 Armenians immigrated to the United States, and by 1913, 9,355 more Armenians entered the North American borders.[18] As World War I approached, the rate of Armenian immigration rose to about 60,000. In 1920 and until theImmigration Act of 1924, 30,771 Armenians came to the United States; the immigrants were predominantly widowed women, children, and orphans.[18] Although many Armenians perished during theArmenian genocide, some of the Armenians who managed to escape, established themselves in various parts of the world.
By 1966, around 40 years after the start of the Armenian genocide, 2 million Armenians still lived in Armenia, while 330,000 Armenians lived in Russia, and 450,000 Armenians lived in theUnited States andCanada.[20]
In the United States, the rate of immigration increased after theImmigration Act was passed in 1965.[18] The outbreak of thecivil War in Lebanon in 1975 and the outbreak of theIslamic Revolution in Iran during 1978 were factors which pushed Armenians to immigrate. The 1980 U.S. Census reported that 90 percent of the immigration to the United States was undertaken by Iranian-Armenians during the years from 1975 and 1980.[18]
Theenergy crisis in Armenia in the early 1990s also resulted in the emigration of 676,000-800,000 Armenians from the Caucasus.[3][21][22]
Less than one third of the world's Armenian population lives in Armenia. Their pre-World War I population area was six times larger than that of present-day Armenia, including theeastern regions of Turkey, northern part ofIran, and thesouthern part of Georgia.[23]
By 2000, there were 7,580,000 Armenians living abroad in total.[20]
According to the U.N. Development Program, 676,000 people—or about one fifth of the population—left during this period, mainly settling in Russia, the United States, or Israel.
Roughly calculated, this wave can be determined from 1991 until 1995. According to CRRC (the Caucasus Research Resource Centres)...more than 17% of Armenia's population migrated between the years of 1991-1995...
The destabilizing exodus of some 800,000 educated and resourceful Armenians, mostly young people, occurred at a time when they were needed the most for nation-building.
The destabilizing exodus of some 800,000 educated and resourceful Armenians, mostly young people, occurred at a time when they were needed the most for nation-building.
A blockade imposed by Azerbaijan in 1989 had devastated the Armenian economy; the resulting severe decline in living conditions led hundreds of thousands of Armenians to emigrate.
Currently, only one-sixth of that land [ancestral territory] is inhabited by Armenians, due first to variously coerced emigrations and finally to the genocide of the Armenian inhabitants of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in 1915.
 | ||
| Historic areas of Armenian settlement | ||
| Caucasus | ||
| Former Soviet Union | ||
| Americas | ||
| Europe | ||
| Middle East | ||
| Asia | ||
| Africa | ||
| Oceania | ||
Africa |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Asia |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Europe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oceania | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Americas.svg) |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other diasporas |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Related articles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
OverseasAsians andAsian diasporas | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| By origin in Asia |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| By residence |
| ||||||||||||||||||
