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ARMENIANS IN UKRAINE - MORE THAN 100 THOUSAND ARMENIANS LIVE IN UKRAINE
March 3, 2014
Armenians in Ukraine are ethnic Armenians who live in Ukraine. They
number 99,894 according to the 2001 Ukrainian census. However, the
country is also host to a number of Armenian 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. Today, Ukraine is home
to the 11th largest Armenian community in the world.
EARLY HISTORY
Armenians first appeared in Ukraine during the times of Kievan Rus'.
During the 10th century individual Armenian merchants, mercenaries and
craftsmen served at the courts of various Ruthenian rulers. A larger
wave of Armenians settled in southeastern Ukraine after the fall of the
Armenian capital of Ani to Seljuks in the 11th century. They arrived
mainly at the Crimean peninsula and established colonies in Kaffa
(Feodosiya), Sudak and Solcati (Staryi Krym). Their numbers were
further strengthened throughout the 12th-15th century by Armenians
fleeing from a Mongol invasion. This gave the peninsula the name
Armenia Maritima in medieval chronicles. Smaller Armenian communities
were established in central Ukraine, including Kiev, and the western
regions of Podolia and 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 Armenian
diaspora moved from the Crimean peninsula to the Polish-Ukrainian
borderland, they brought Armeno-Kipchak, a Turkic language with them.
Armeno-Kipchak 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.
After Crimea fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1475 many Crimean Armenians
moved further to the north west to the already flourishing Armenian
communities which gradually integrated into the local Polish population
while maintaining their distinct identity through the Armenian Catholic
Church. In the 18th century Crimea fell under influence of the Russian
Empire, which encouraged Crimean Armenians to settle in Russia and a
large group of them came to the town of 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.
THE ARMENIAN COMMUNITY TODAY
Today, the Donetsk Oblast holds the greatest number of Armenians
in Ukraine (~16 000, 0.33% of the population). Armenian communities
can also be found in Dnipropetrovsk,Kharkiv, Kherson, Kiev, Luhansk,
Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia, and Odessa where the late Ukrainian-Armenian
artist Sarkis Ordyan spent most of his life.
The Armenians continue to have a historic presence in Crimea, which is
today an autonomous republic of Ukraine. The 9 000 Armenians make up
0.43% of the population in the area and are numerous in major urban
centers such as Sevastopol where they comprise 0.3% of the city's
population. Hovhannes Aivazovsky, the world-renowned Armenian painter
lived and worked his entire life in the Crimean city of Feodosiya.
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.
photo: The Armenian church in Lviv
Armenians in Ukraine by oblasts according to 2001 Ukrainian Census
RankRegionNumber of Armenians 1 Donetsk 15,700 2 Kharkiv 11,100 3
Dnipropetrovsk 10,600 4 Autonomous Republic of Crimea8,700 5 Odessa
7,400 6 Luhansk 6,600 7 Zaporizhia 6,400 8 City of Kiev4,900 9 Kherson
4,500 10 Mykolaiv 4,300 11 Poltava 2,600 12 Kiev 2,300 13 Cherkasy
Oblast1,700 14 Sevastopol (city council)1,300 15 Sumy Oblast1,200
16 Vinnytsia Oblast1,100 17 Zhytomyr Oblast800 18 Ivano-Frankivsk
Oblast300 19 Rivne 300
http://www.horizonweekly.ca/news/details/33172
March 3, 2014
Armenians in Ukraine are ethnic Armenians who live in Ukraine. They
number 99,894 according to the 2001 Ukrainian census. However, the
country is also host to a number of Armenian 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. Today, Ukraine is home
to the 11th largest Armenian community in the world.
EARLY HISTORY
Armenians first appeared in Ukraine during the times of Kievan Rus'.
During the 10th century individual Armenian merchants, mercenaries and
craftsmen served at the courts of various Ruthenian rulers. A larger
wave of Armenians settled in southeastern Ukraine after the fall of the
Armenian capital of Ani to Seljuks in the 11th century. They arrived
mainly at the Crimean peninsula and established colonies in Kaffa
(Feodosiya), Sudak and Solcati (Staryi Krym). Their numbers were
further strengthened throughout the 12th-15th century by Armenians
fleeing from a Mongol invasion. This gave the peninsula the name
Armenia Maritima in medieval chronicles. Smaller Armenian communities
were established in central Ukraine, including Kiev, and the western
regions of Podolia and 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 Armenian
diaspora moved from the Crimean peninsula to the Polish-Ukrainian
borderland, they brought Armeno-Kipchak, a Turkic language with them.
Armeno-Kipchak 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.
After Crimea fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1475 many Crimean Armenians
moved further to the north west to the already flourishing Armenian
communities which gradually integrated into the local Polish population
while maintaining their distinct identity through the Armenian Catholic
Church. In the 18th century Crimea fell under influence of the Russian
Empire, which encouraged Crimean Armenians to settle in Russia and a
large group of them came to the town of 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.
THE ARMENIAN COMMUNITY TODAY
Today, the Donetsk Oblast holds the greatest number of Armenians
in Ukraine (~16 000, 0.33% of the population). Armenian communities
can also be found in Dnipropetrovsk,Kharkiv, Kherson, Kiev, Luhansk,
Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia, and Odessa where the late Ukrainian-Armenian
artist Sarkis Ordyan spent most of his life.
The Armenians continue to have a historic presence in Crimea, which is
today an autonomous republic of Ukraine. The 9 000 Armenians make up
0.43% of the population in the area and are numerous in major urban
centers such as Sevastopol where they comprise 0.3% of the city's
population. Hovhannes Aivazovsky, the world-renowned Armenian painter
lived and worked his entire life in the Crimean city of Feodosiya.
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.
photo: The Armenian church in Lviv
Armenians in Ukraine by oblasts according to 2001 Ukrainian Census
RankRegionNumber of Armenians 1 Donetsk 15,700 2 Kharkiv 11,100 3
Dnipropetrovsk 10,600 4 Autonomous Republic of Crimea8,700 5 Odessa
7,400 6 Luhansk 6,600 7 Zaporizhia 6,400 8 City of Kiev4,900 9 Kherson
4,500 10 Mykolaiv 4,300 11 Poltava 2,600 12 Kiev 2,300 13 Cherkasy
Oblast1,700 14 Sevastopol (city council)1,300 15 Sumy Oblast1,200
16 Vinnytsia Oblast1,100 17 Zhytomyr Oblast800 18 Ivano-Frankivsk
Oblast300 19 Rivne 300
http://www.horizonweekly.ca/news/details/33172