Armenian Identity and Ethnogenesis: The Origins of Armenian People

As early as 1889 I was interested in Armenian history, and I made a brief incursion into this interesting subject in a volume entitled Mission Scientifique au Caucase, fitudes archeologlques et historiques. Tome II. Recherches sur les origines des peuples du Caucase, But, as the title shows, this research was not restricted to the Armenians and the history of Armenia was only included in its main aspects, my attention being more particularly directed to the questions as to the origins of the Kartvelian peoples.

Evidence of a long history is present throughout Armenia today, in monuments, artifacts, and books, as well as in people's minds. It is not surprising to find a village miller, who, while sharing a midday meal with a visitor, might describe the nation's boundaries under Tigran the Great in the 1st century BC. Or he might recount the events that took place on the morning of May 26, 451, at Avarair, when his ancestors fought a losing battle with the Persians - which was considered a victory, nonetheless, since the weakened Persians withdrew, allowing the Armenians to keep their new Christian faith. The Armenian reading of history often incorporates its own sense of justice and injustice in addition to facts, a dynamic that one needs to comprehend to understand modern Armenia.

In the last 100 years, there have been hierarchies of identity and canonical approaches to definitions of "Armenian," especially as articulated, rationalized and promoted by elites, institutions and political parties in the Diaspora and in Armenia. This essay is not a study of identity per se, but about one of the aspects of identity – the “Armenian” bit of it.

Erciyes Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü dergisi, 2010

Nation is the most common definition: which means the unity of tradition, custom, language and culture that a group of human formed with a common background. Until the broke out of French Revolution in 1789, imperial managements seen all around the world changed into national governments because of the developments happened in those days. Ottoman Government was one of the most affected states in this respect. Ottoman Government went into a rapid recession period and had quarrels with its public because it could not produce right policies in order to stop this wicked goings. Armenians were one of the communities that multinational Ottoman Government had quarrel with, and in this quarrel, between the state and its depended Armenian community, the main reason seems as Armenians' idea of establishing their own state in the frame of nationalism feelings come out as a result of French Revolution. But, in fact, it was the policy of Western Governments which aimed to use this community as a cat's paw to protect their own profits in this country. Western Governments were in effort of using national feelings in Armenian community to make them revolt against the state. They used lots of instruments in order to enliven Armenian nationalism with this effort. Armenian committees were one of these instruments. Committees' works to gather Armenian community both in Ottoman country and, in Europe and America especially by using newspapers are another point of our topic. In order to discuss this topic in that frame, we will mention about Western Governments' points of view about the Armenian committees in our rescript.

Scripta Neophilologica Posnaniensia

The role of Armenian language in the preservation of Armenian identity

The article proves that Armenian national identity and main cultural patterns were formed through the permanent processes of cross-linguistic exchange, inter-ethnic interaction and inter-cultural communication. The Armenian branch of early Eastern Christianity is one of very few surviving and still functioning communities. A permanent interaction with different cultures and religions is the key characteristic of the historical experience of the Armenian people. The author stresses the importance of inter-civilizational mediation and adoption of various cultural values in the process of national identity formation.

The aim of this research note is to describe how Turkey's Armenians, who are the largest non-Muslim minority group in the country, define their identity, and to understand which factors contribute to the perpetuation of a dominant Armenian identity. This discussion is based on a field survey of Turkey's Armenian community, conducted in Istanbul between November 2004 and May 2005. Evaluation of these surveys based on both quantitative and qualitative methods brings us to the conclusion that it is possible to argue about the degree of dominance of Armenian identity over Turkish national identity amongst Turkey's Armenians, more than 95 per cent of whom live in Istanbul, and that the strong community ties play a significant role in maintaining Armenian culture and, therefore, strengthening Armenian identity.