Lably
Skip to content

Repatriation of Armenians

  • 15 min read
  • 6 chapters

Related on Lably

Through Armenians and Homogeneity and heterogeneity

Lab · Class 6–12Ancient Indian Ocean TradeLab · Class 12Differential EquationsLab · Class 8–10Periodic ClassificationLab · Class 11–12Introduction to Calculus

Background

Origins of the Armenian people

Armenians are an ethnic group who originate from the eponymous Armenian Highlands, located in Western Asia, between Anatolia, the Caucasus, the Iranian Plateau, and the Fertile Crescent. Most of the region is currently divided between Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Turkey.

Urartu, the predecessor of the Satrapy of Armenia, united the tribes of the highlands sometime in the 9th century BC, which eventually led to the emergence of the Armenian people. As the Armenian language spread, the highlands became homogenized.

The Armenian kingdoms that followed enjoyed sovereignty over the Armenian Highlands, but also often fell to the rule of foreign empires. However, when under foreign rule, Armenia often remained a self-ruling geopolitical entity, as a tributary or vassal state, and rarely under direct control of the ruling empire of the time. This allowed a distinguishable Armenian culture to develop and flourish, leading to the creation of its own unique alphabet and its own branch of Christianity.

Foreign rule

It was in the 11th century, with the arrival of the Seljuk Turks, followed by waves of Turko-Mongol invasions around the time of the Mongol Empire, when Armenian self-rule in Armenia began to dramatically decline. By the time of the Timurid Empire in the 14th century, only pockets of Armenian autonomy remained, such as in Artsakh.

After centuries of instability, the political landscape in the Armenian Highlands finally settled, divided between the Ottoman Empire ruling the western portion, and Iran ruling the eastern portion. The two empires' rivalry was often settled with battles in the heart of the Armenian Highlands.

Displacements and deportations

Armenians were persecuted, forcefully displaced, and deported multiple times in their history during foreign rule. In 578 AD, the Byzantine Emperor Maurice deported some 30,000 Armenians from territories under his control. He told his Persian counterpart to do the same.

The Armenians are a knavish and indolent nation. They are situated between us, and are a source of trouble. I am going to gather mine and send them to Thrace; you send yours to the east. If they die there, it will be so many enemies that will die; if, on the contrary, they kill, it will be so many enemies that they kill. As for us, we shall live in peace. But if they remain in their own country, there will never be any quiet for us.

— Byzantine Emperor Maurice, 578 AD

Muslim rule in Armenia in the following centuries also accelerated the gradual emigration of Armenians. Several centuries later, conflicts between the Ottomans and Iranians caused the voluntary and forceful emigration of Armenians from the Armenian Highlands. One of the first major forced displacements of Armenians in the modern era was at the turn of 17th century when the Iranian king Abbas I moved Armenians from Iranian Armenia to the inner regions of his empire. The Ottomans were regularly making incursions into Abbas I's realm through Armenia, one of the Safavid Iran's primary frontiers. In order to remove the means of maintaining large armies on his frontiers, Abbas I adopted a scorched earth strategy and depopulated them as much as he could. He also used this as a way to enrich his realm by moving Armenians into Isfahan, the capital, as Armenians were esteemed merchants. Roughly 300,000 Armenians were moved from Chokhur-e Sa'd (roughly modern-day Yerevan and its surroundings), Beyazit, Van, and Nakhichevan, to Iranian Azerbaijan and Isfahan.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, Armenians continued to form the largest ethnic group (but not religious majority) in most of Ottoman Armenia. The demographics of the region changed considerably due to the Ottoman Empire's policy of settling Muslim refugees from the Balkans during the Balkan wars into the region, and the emigration of Ottoman Armenians to Russian Armenia, the latter of which had been ongoing since the mid-19th century, when most of Iranian Armenia had been annexed by the Russian Empire.

After the Armenian genocide during World War I, the Armenian population of Ottoman Armenia ceased to exist, being reduced to negligible numbers. Many who remained hid their identities or were assimilated. The survivors who did not remain formed the Armenian Diaspora, a community of Armenians who have spread around the world.

Contemporary situation

The attachment of the Armenian people to their homeland was preserved within the Diaspora, through the establishment of Armenian communities and Armenian schools where their history was taught. Repatriation to Armenia became one of the goals of the Diaspora, but the incorporation of Armenia within the Soviet Union in 1920, the political and economic instability following Armenia's independence in 1991, its ongoing territorial conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan since 1988, and its location between two hostile countries (Turkey and Azerbaijan), have all been reasons for the disinclination of generations of Armenians in the Diaspora to leave the comfort of their host countries for Armenia, leading to assimilation and loss of interest in their ethnic origins among the younger generations (a circumstance sometimes called White Genocide among Armenians).

Sign in to keep reading

5 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Sociology

African AmericansEthnic and cultural group in the United StatesCensusCompilation of information about a given populationIndustrialisationPeriod of social and economic change from agrarian to industrial societyPew Research CenterThink tank based in Washington, D.C., USPatriarchySocial system with male ruleSocial exclusionForm of social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society