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| Total population | |
|---|---|
| c. 70,000–500,000[1][2][3][4][5] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Languages | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity (predominantlyArmenian Apostolic withArmenian Catholic andEvangelical minorities) |
Iranian Armenians (Armenian:իրանահայեր,romanized: iranahayer;Persian:ایرانی های ارمنی), also known asPersian Armenians (Armenian:պարսկահայեր,romanized: parskahayer;Persian:ارمنیان ایران), are Armenians living in Iran who invariably speakArmenian as their first language. Estimates of their number in Iran range from 70,000 to 500,000. Areas with a high concentration of them includeTabriz,Tehran,Salmas andNew Julfa,Isfahan.
Armenians have lived for millennia in the territory that forms modern-day Iran. Many of the oldest Armenian churches, monasteries, and chapels are inIran.Iranian Armenia (1502–1828), which includes what is now theArmenian Republic, was part ofQajar Iran up to 1828. Iran had one of the largest populations of Armenians in the world, alongside the neighbouring Ottoman Empire until the beginning of the 20th century.
Armenians were influential and active in modernizing Iran during the 19th and 20th centuries. After theIranian Revolution, many Armenians emigrated toArmenian diasporic communities inNorth America andWestern Europe. A large number, an estimated 80,000, repatriated to Armenia after the breakup of the Soviet Union with repatriation numbers peaking in the early 2000s. Today, the Armenians are Iran's largestChristian religious minority.
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Since Antiquity, there has always been much interaction between ancientArmenia and Persia. The Armenian people are among the native ethnic groups of northwestern Iran, having millennia-long recorded history there. The region (or parts of it) has made up part ofhistorical Armenia numerous times in history. These historical Armenian regions that nowadays include Iranian Azerbaijan areNor Shirakan,Vaspurakan, andPaytakaran. Many of the world's oldestArmenian chapels, monasteries and churches are located within this region of Iran.
On theBehistun Inscription of 515 BC,Darius the Great indirectly confirmed thatUrartu and Armenia are synonymous when describing their conquests. Armenia became asatrapy of the Achaemenid for a long time, and relations betweenArmenians andPersians were cordial.
The cultural links between the Armenians and the Persians can be traced back to Zoroastrian times. Before the 3rd century, no other neighbor had as much influence on Armenian life and culture asParthia. They shared many religious and cultural characteristics, and intermarriage among the Parthian and Armenian nobility was common. For twelve more centuries, Armenia was under the direct or indirect rule of the Persians.[6]
In the 11th century, theSeljuks drove thousands of Armenians into Iran, where some were sold as slaves and others worked as artisans and merchants. After theMongol invasion of Persia and Mesopotamia in the 13th century, many Armenian merchants and artists settled in Iran, in cities that were once part of historic Armenia such asKhoy,Salmas,Maku,Maragheh,Urmia, and especiallyTabriz.[7]
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Although Armenians have a long history of interaction and settlement with Persia/Iran and within the modern-day borders of the nation, Iran's Armenian community emerged under theSafavids. In the 16th century, theOttoman Empire and Safavid Iran divided Armenia. From the early 16th century, bothWestern Armenia andEastern Armenia fell under IranianSafavid rule.[8][9] Owing to the century-long Turco-Iranian geo-political rivalry that would last inWestern Asia, significant parts of the region were frequently fought over between the two rival empires. From the mid-16th century with thePeace of Amasya, and decisively from the first half of the 17th century with theTreaty of Zuhab until thefirst half of the 19th century,[10] Eastern Armenia was ruled by the successiveIranian Safavid,Afsharid andQajar empires, while Western Armenia remained underOttoman rule. From 1604Abbas I of Iran implemented ascorched earth policy in the region to protect his north-western frontier against any invading Ottoman forces, a policy which involved aforced resettlement of masses of Armenians outside of their homelands.[11]
Shah Abbasrelocated an estimated 500,000 Armenians fromhis Armenian lands during theOttoman–Safavid War of 1603–1618[11] to an area ofIsfahan calledNew Julfa, which was created to become an Armenian quarter, and to the villages surrounding Isfahan. Iran quickly recognized the Armenians' dexterity in commerce. The community became active in the cultural and economic development of Iran.[12]
Bourvari (Armenian:Բուրւարի) is a collection of villages in Iran between the city ofKhomeyn (Markazi province) andAligudarz (Lorestan province). It was mainly populated by Armenians who were forcibly deported to the region by Shah Abbas of the Safavid Persian Empire during the same as part of Abbas's massive scorched earth resettlement policies within the empire.[13] The villages populated by the Armenians in Bourvari were Dehno, Khorzend, Farajabad, Bahmanabad and Sangesfid.
From the late 18th century, an expandingImperial Russia switched to a more aggressive geo-political stance towards its two neighbors and rivals to the south, namely Iran and the Ottoman Empire. As a result of theTreaty of Gulistan (1813), Qajar Iran was forced to irrevocably cede swaths of its territories in the Caucasus, comprising modern-day EasternGeorgia,Dagestan, and most of theRepublic of Azerbaijan. By theTreaty of Turkmenchay (1828), Qajar Iran had to cede the remainder of its Caucasian territories, comprising modern-day Armenia and the remaining part of the contemporary Azerbaijan Republic.[14] The ceding of what is modern-day Armenia (Eastern Armenia in general) in 1828 resulted in a large number of Armenians falling now under the rule of the Russians.Iranian Armenia was thus supplanted byRussian Armenia.
The Treaty of Turkmenchay further stipulated that theTsar had the right to encourage the resettling of Armenians from Iran into the newly established Russian Armenia.[15][16] This resulted in a large demographic shift; many of Iran's Armenians followed the call, while many Caucasian Muslims migrated to Iran proper.
Until the mid-fourteenth century, Armenians had constituted a majority inEastern Armenia.[17] At the close of the fourteenth century, afterTimur's campaigns, Islam had become the dominant faith, and Armenians became a minority in Eastern Armenia.[17] In the wake of the Russian invasion of Iran and the subsequent loss of territories, Muslims (Persians,Turkic speakers, andKurds) constituted some 80% of the population ofIranian Armenia, whereas ChristianArmenians constituted a minority of about 20%.[18]
After the Russian administration took hold of Iranian Armenia, the ethnic make-up shifted, and thus for the first time in more than four centuries, ethnic Armenians started to form a majority once again in one part of historic Armenia.[19] The new Russian administration encouraged the settling of ethnic Armenians from Iran proper andOttoman Turkey. Some 35,000 Muslims out of more than 100,000 emigrated from the region, while some 57,000 Armenians from Iran proper and Turkey arrived after 1828[20] (see alsoRusso-Turkish War of 1828–1829). As a result, by 1832, the number of ethnic Armenians had matched that of the Muslims.[18] Not until after theCrimean War and theRusso-Turkish War of 1877–1878, which brought another influx of Turkish Armenians, would ethnic Armenians once again establish a solid majority inEastern Armenia.[21] Nevertheless, Erivan remained a Muslim-majority city up to the twentieth century.[21] According to the travellerH. F. B. Lynch, the city of Erivan was about 50% Armenian and 50% Muslim (Tatars[a] i.e. Azeris and Persians) in the early 1890s.[24]
With these events of the first half of the 19th century, and the end of centuries of Iranian rule overEastern Armenia, a new era had started for the Armenians within the newly established borders of Iran. The Armenians in the recently lost territories north of theAras river would go through aRussian-dominated period until 1991.
The Armenians played a significant role in the development of 20th-century Iran, regarding both its economical as well as its cultural configuration.[26] They were pioneers in photography, theater, and the film industry, and also played a very pivotal role in Iranian political affairs.[26][27]
The Revolution of 1905 in Russia had a major effect on northern Iran and, in 1906, Iranian liberals and revolutionaries demanded a constitution in Iran. In 1909 the revolutionaries forced the crown to give up some of its powers.Yeprem Khan, an ethnic Armenian, was an important figure of thePersian Constitutional Revolution.[28]
Armenian Apostolic theologianMalachia Ormanian, in his 1911 book on the Armenian Church, estimated that some 83,400 Armenians lived in Persia, of whom 81,000 were followers of the Apostolic Church, while 2,400 were Armenian Catholics. The Armenian population was distributed in the following regions: 40,400 inAzerbaijan, 31,000 in and aroundIsfahan, 7,000 inKurdistan andLorestan, and 5,000 in Tehran.[29]
During theArmenian genocide, about 50,000 Armenians fled theOttoman Empire and took refuge in Persia. As a result of thePersian Campaign innorthern Iran duringWorld War I, the Ottomans massacred 80,000 Armenians and 30,000 fled to the Russian Empire. The community experienced a political rejuvenation with the arrival of the exiledDashnak (ARF) leadership fromRussian Armenia in mid-1921; approximately 10,000 Armenian ARF party leaders, intellectuals, fighters, and their families crossed theAras River and took refuge in Qajar Iran.[27] This large influx of Armenians who were affiliated with the ARF also meant that the ARF would ensure its dominance over the other traditional Armenian parties of Persia, and by extension over the entire Iranian Armenian community, which was centered around the Armenian church.[27] Further immigrants and refugees from the Soviet Union numbering nearly 30,000 continued to increase the Armenian community until 1933. Thus by 1930 there were approximately 200,000 Armenians in Iran.[30][31]
The modernization efforts of Reza Shah (1924–1941) and Mohammad Reza Shah (1941–1979) gave the Armenians ample opportunities for advancement,[32] and Armenians gained important positions in the arts and sciences, economy and services sectors, mainly in Tehran, Tabriz, and Isfahan that became major centers for Armenians. From 1946–1949 about 20,000 Armenians left Iran for the Soviet Union and from 1962–1982 another 25,000 Armenians followed them toSoviet Armenia.[33] By 1979, in the dawn of the Islamic Revolution, an estimated 200,000 – 300,000 Armenians were living in Iran.[34][35][36][37] By 1978, Tehran alone had an Armenian population of 110,000, in part due to migration of Armenian villagers from rural areas of Iran.[38]
Armenian churches, schools, cultural centers, sports clubs and associations flourished and Armenians had their own senator and member of parliament, 300 churches and 500 schools and libraries served the needs of the community.
Armenian presses published numerous books, journals, periodicals, and newspapers, the prominent one being the daily "Alik".
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Many Armenians served in theIranian Armed Forces, with 89 killed in action during theIran–Iraq War.[40][41][42] AyatollahAli Khamenei has praised the role of Armenians in the war, saying to theArmenian Prime Minister that "Armenian martyrs of the imposed war are like Muslims martyrs and we consider them as honors of Iran".[43]
The fall of theSoviet Union, the common border with Armenia, and the Armeno-Iranian diplomatic and economic agreements have opened a new era for the Iranian Armenians. Iran remains one of Armenia's major trade partners, and the Iranian government has helped ease the hardships of Armenia caused by the blockade imposed byAzerbaijan andTurkey. This includes important consumer products, access to air travel, and energy sources (like petroleum and electricity).
The Armenians remain the largestreligious minority in Iran, and are still the largest Christian community in the country, far ahead ofAssyrians.[44] They are appointed two out of the five seats in theIranian Parliament reserved for religious minorities (more than any other religious minority) and are the only minority with official observing status in theGuardian andExpediency Discernment Councils. Half of Iran's Armenians live in the Tehran area (where they have been established since at least theSafavid era[45]), most notably in its suburbs of Narmak, Majidiyeh, Nadershah, etc. A quarter live in Isfahan, and the other quarter is concentrated in Northwestern Iran or Iranian Azerbaijan.[46][47][48][49]
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In 387 AD when theSasanian Empire and theByzantine Empire split Armenia, the historically Armenian areas ofNor Shirakan,Paytakaran, and the eastern half ofVaspurakan were ceded to the Persians, these territories comprise the western and northern regions of Azerbaijan. Following theRusso-Persian War (1826–28) about 40,000 Armenians left Azerbaijan and resettled in newly establishedRussian Armenia.
The area retained a large Armenian population until 1914 when World War I began and Azerbaijan was invaded by the Ottomans who slaughtered much of the local Armenian population. Prior to the Ottoman invasion there were about 150,000 Armenians in Azerbaijan, and 30,000 of them were in Tabriz. About 80,000 were massacred, 30,000 fled to Russian Armenia, and the other 10,000 fled the area of the modernWest Azerbaijan Province and took refuge among the Armenians of Tabriz. After the war ended in 1918 the 10,000 refugees in Tabriz returned to their villages, but many resettled in Soviet Armenia from 1947 up until the early 80s. Currently, about 4,000 Armenians remain in the countryside of East Azerbaijan and about 2,000 remain in Tabriz living in the districts of Nowbar, Bazar, and Ahrab owning 4 churches, a school and a cemetery.
This is a list of previously or currently Armenian inhabited settlements:
Traditionally, Tabriz where Armenian political life vibrated from the early modern (Safavid) era and on.[50] After the ceding of swaths of territories to Russia in the first quarter of the 19th century, the independent position of the Tabrizi Armenians was strengthened, as they gained immunities and concessions byAbbas Mirza.[51] The particular importance of the Tabrizi Armenians also grew with the transfer of the bishop's seat from St.Taddeus (orQara Kelissa) nearSalmas to Tabriz in 1845.[51] Tabriz has anArajnordaran, three Armenian Churches (St. Sargis,Shoghakat, andSt. Mary), a chapel(fa), a school, Ararat Cultural Club and an Armenian cemetery(fa)(fa).
List of Armenian villages in central Iran:
The settlements of Lenjan, Alenjan and Karvan were abandoned in the 18th century.
The other settlements depopulated in the middle of the 20th century due to emigration to New Julfa, Teheran or Soviet Armenia (in 1945 and later in 1967). Currently only 1 village (Zarneh) in Peria is totally, and 4 other villages (Upper Khoygan,Gharghan,Nemagerd andSangbaran) in Peria and 1 village (Upper Chanakhchi) in Gharaghan are partially settled by Armenians.
Other than these settlements there is an Armenian village near Gorgan (Qoroq) which is settled by Armenians recently moved from Soviet territory.
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In addition to having their own churches and clubs, Armenians of Iran are one of the few linguistic minorities in Iran with their own schools.[52][53] Armenians are exempt from national laws barring alcohol consumption and public gender relations in Armenian 'public' spaces, where Muslim citizens are not permitted to enter.[53]
| New Jugha | |
|---|---|
| Iranian Armenian, New Julfa, Persian Armenian | |
| Նոր Ջուղայի բարբառ | |
| Native to | Iran |
| Region | New Julfa |
| Ethnicity | Armenians |
| Armenian alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | (included inWestern Armenian [hyw]) |
| Glottolog | jolf1238 |
The Armenian language used in Iran holds a unique position in the usage of Armenian in the world, as most Armenians in the Diaspora useWestern Armenian. However, Iranian Armenians speak anEastern Armenian dialect that is very close to that used inArmenia,Georgia, andRussia. Iranian Armenians speak this dialect due in part to the fact that in 1604 much of the Armenian population in Nakhchivan, which used the eastern dialect, was displaced and sent toIsfahan byShah Abbas.[54] This also allowed for an older version to be preserved which usesclassical Armenian orthography known as "Mashtotsian orthography" and spelling, whereas almost all other Eastern Armenian users (especially in the former Soviet Union) have adopted thereformed Armenian orthography which was applied inSoviet Armenia in the 1920s and continues in the present Republic of Armenia.[53] This makes the Armenian language used in Iran and in the Armenian-Iranian media and publications unique, applying elements of both major Armenian language branches (pronunciation, grammar and language structure ofEastern Armenian and the spelling system ofWestern Armenian).[54]
The Armenian dialects of Iran are referred to collectively in Armenian asPersian Armenian orParskahayeren (պարսկահայերէն, պարսկահայերեն), or less commonly asIranian Armenian orIranahayeren (իրանահայերէն, իրանահայերեն).[53][54] The modern koine spoken in Tehran serves as the prestige dialect, although many historic varieties existed in Iranian Azerbaijan, Central Iran, Isfahan province, the New Julfa district in Isfahan, Kurdistan, Khorasan, and Khuzestan, some of which have persisted in their respective communities.[54] Iranian Armenian dialects are distinguished phonologically from other Eastern Armenian varieties by the widespread pronunciation of the retroflex approximant ⟨ɻ⟩ for ր, which sounds similar to the American English alveolar approximant ⟨ɹ⟩, while Armenian dialects outside of Iran pronounce it as a flap ⟨ɾ⟩.[54] Many dialects also use a low front vowel as a marginal phoneme ⟨æ⟩, primarily in loanwords fromPersian, but also in some native Armenian words such asmæt "one; a bit; for a moment" from մի հատmi hat.[53][54] There are also many calques from Persian, particularly in cultural phraseology and in compound verbs (e.g. պատճառ ելնելpatčaṙ elnel from باعث شدنbā'es šodan “to result in; to cause”).[53]
Iran, which borders Armenia to the south, is home to an estimated 70,000–90,000 ethnic Armenians...
Հայերի թիվը հասնում է մոտ 120.000-ի։
...the presence of a substantial Armenian community in Iran numbering 150,000.
Today, the Armenian community in Iran numbers around 200,000...
Armenia has a population of 3 million with a 0.06 percent growth rate. The urbanization level is 64 percent. Yerevan, the capital, is the largest city at 1.1 million inhabitants, Gyumri has 160,000 and Vanadzor has 100,000. The population is 98 percent Armenian, with small percentages of Kurds and Russians. There is a great Armenian diaspora numbering 1 million in Russia, 500,000 in Iran, 500,000 in the USA, 400,000 in France and 300,000 in Georgia.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Yet, Archbishop Artak Manookian, the leader of Iran's 200,000 Armenians...
There were an estimated 300,000 Armenians in the country at the time of the Revolution in 1979.
Armenians numbered an estimated 250,000 in 1979 (...)
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| Former Soviet Union | ||
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