Language Research

Armenia was one of the 15 successor republics to the USSR in December of 1991. Its leaders remain preoccupied by the long conflict with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. Although a cease-fire has been in effect since May of 1994, the sides have not made substantial progress toward a peaceful resolution. In January 1998, differences between President Ter-Petrossian and members of his cabinet over the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process came to a head. With the Prime Minister, Defense Minister, and Security Minister arrayed against him, an isolated Ter-Petrossian resigned the presidency on February 3, 1998. Prime Minister Robert Kocharian was elected President in March 1998. Concerns about Armenia's economic performance have continued since 1997 with such factors as a slowdown in growth and the serious impact of the 1998 financial crisis in Russia.

Independence: May 28, 1918 to December 2, 1920 (First Armenian Republic); September 23, 1991 (from Soviet Union)

Armenia supports ethnic Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan in a longstanding, separatist conflict against the Azerbaijani Government. Historical claims on former Armenian lands in Turkey have subsided.

Updated (September 2004)

ETHNIC GROUPS

According to the definition in Article 1 par. a) of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, there are no regional or non-territorial languages in the Republic of Armenia. Instead there are minority languages, which are mainly the languages of immigrants.

Assyrian, Yezidi, Greek, Russian and Kurdish are in fact languages spoken by the representatives of the relevant national minorities who have brought them to Armenia. None of these minorities is autochthonous, and traditionally and historically they are not connected with this area.

The only language spoken by several minorities in Armenia is Russian. It cannot be regarded as a non-territorial language, since it has not been traditionally used on the territory of Armenia. On one hand, the dissemination of Russian is a result of the Russian Empire and the national, language, cultural and economic policy of the USSR, carried out mostly through schooling and higher education and on the other hand, it is a consequence of exile and economic immigration, deportations or returns of the Armenians from the CIS countries and peoples' integration policy of the Soviet Union.

THE ASSYRIANS

The first group of Assyrians (descendants of old Assyrians) settled in Armenia in 1830s. Some groups immigrated during World War I. At present 3,500 Assyrians live in Armenia mainly in the villages of Verin Dvin, Nor Artagers, Arzni, Dimitrov and in the cities of Yerevan, Artashat and Abovyan. They speak Assyrian, Russian and Armenian.

THE YEZIDIS

In 1830, the number of Yezidis in Armenia stood at 324. At present it is 40,500 people whose ancestors immigrated from Iran and Mesopotamia. They live mainly in the villages of Shamiram, Tlik, Sorik, Hakko, Giatlo, Barozh, Baisez, Avtona, Dian, Ghabaghtapa, Ria-Taza, Amre-Taza, Mirak, Sangiar, Shenkani, Alagiaz, Jamshlu, Ortachia, Derek, Avshen, Sipan and Zovuni.

THE GREEKS

The present Greek community emigrated from Turkey in 1763. Some groups immigrated during World War I. At present there are around 1,300 Greeks, who live mainly in the villages of Yaghdan, Koghes, Madan, Hankavan, as well as in Stepanavan, Alaverdi, Akhtala, Shamlough and other towns. They speak Greek, Russian and Armenian.

THE RUSSIANS

The first Russians who settled in Armenia between 1830 and 1850 were exiled sectarians from Russia (Molokans, Priguns, etc.). They still live in the villages of Lermontovo, Fioletovo, Privolnoye, Medovka, Kruglaya, Shishka, Novoseltsovo, Saratovka, Mikhailovka, Petrovka, Blagodarnoye, Pushkino, Semyonovka, Chkalovka, Bovadzor, Urasar, as well as in Dilijan, Tchambarak, and Stepanavan towns. Some groups were moved from Russia to Armenia, especially to Gyumri and Yerevan, during the Soviet times.

THE KURDS

The Kurds, who settled in Armenia during the Turkish and Persian power, emigrated partly from Mesopotamia and partly from Iran. They are Moslems or Zoroastrians and they speak Kurdish and Armenian. At present 1,600 Kurds live in the country, mainly in the villages of Ria-Taza, Amre-Taza, Mirak, Sangiar, Shenkan, Alagiaz, Jamshlu, Ortachia, Derek and Avshen.

Source: the Council of Europe, Periodical reports, the Initial Periodical Report by Armenia presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in accordance with Article 15 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, September 3, 2003, http://www.coe.int/T/E/Legal_Affairs/Local_and_regional_Democracy/Regional_or_Minority_languages/Documentation/1_Periodical_reports/2003_7e_MIN-LANG_PR_Armenia.asp

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Updated (October 2007)

KURDS IN ARMENIA

Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Armenia: in the Soviet times, over 80,000 Kurds lived there; now they make a number of about 40,000. Kurdish people are represented in Armenia by two ethnic groups: the Kurds and the Yezidis.

Up to the end of the 1980s, the Yezidis were identified with the Kurds. Since the Yezidi movement, which started in the late 1980s in order to attain the official acknowledgement of their separate identity, they have been considered a separate minority group. Still, many people in Armenia think that the Kurds and the Yezidis are the same minority group. In fact, the Yezidis are the Kurds who have preserved their own religion – Yezidism.

In Armenia, only Muslim Kurds are officially considered Kurds and there are about a thousand of them living in the country. On the other hand, the number of those who practice Yezidism and consider themselves Yezidis by nationality counts to about 40,000 people.

One of the regions with the densest Kurdish–Yezidi population (those who consider themselves Kurds by nationality, but Yezidis by religion) is the Marz of Aragatsotn. 11 out of the 20 villages here are Kurdish. The central village is Alagyaz.

In general, Kurdish residents emphasize the fact that they have always lived well in Armenia, unlike anywhere else. The President of the Council of the Kurdish Community in Armenia, Hasanov sees the reason for it that the Kurds in Armenia may freely practice their own culture, language and traditions. In other Muslim countries, where most of the Kurds have lived, the Kurdish language, culture, and religion were forbidden.

In Armenia, for instance, the first newspaper in the Kurdish dialect Kurmanji – The New Way (The Ria Taza) was published in 1930. Furthermore, there was an hour–and–a–half–long Kurdish program on the Armenian Public Radio (now half an hour is allocated to the Kurds, and half an hour to the Yezidis). People say that it has significantly contributed to the rise of national self–consciousness among the Kurds, especially in Iraq and Turkey.

In the Soviet times, there was a Kurdish Studies chair at the Oriental Studies Department. The first documentaries devoted to the life of Kurds were made in Armenia, too. In the 1920's, the first Kurdish schools were opened.

The cultural center of the Kurds living in Armenia has always been Alagyaz, which gave the country more than 20 scientists, artists and even two academicians in the course of 70 years. There was also a national theatre but it does not work today due to lack of funding.

The school in Alagyaz with its 80 schoolchildren is one of the three schools in the marz¹ where the vast majority of the students are Kurds. All the three schools are, in fact, Armenian: the Kurdish children study their mother tongue twice a week, but not at regular hours allocated for compulsory studies. Kurdish is usually taught at the expense of other lessons.

The Alagyaz School has been the only one in the region from which students have regularly entered higher educational institutions since the late 1980's (at present about 10 Kurdish children are studying at higher educational institutions). The tendency of letting the girls study only a couple of grades (according to their traditions, further education is not necessary for girl's main role as a wife and a mother) is gradually disappearing in Alagyaz.

Just recently, the Council of the Kurdish community in Armenia has been created. Before, the Kurds were represented in the public life of the country through a number of organizations such as the editorial staff of the Ria Taza newspaper, the Union of Kurdish writers, the Kurdish Studies Division at the Institute of Oriental Studies, and The Kurdistan Committee.

Since all these organizations have worked separately, the new Council is designed to unite them and coordinate their work. The organization is going to deal with both the preservation and the strengthening of the Kurdish–Armenian friendship, and with other issues within the community that include the problem of Kurdish schools.

The schools in the Kurdish villages need repairs and new furniture. The problem of students is very acute: the schoolchildren study using books from abroad. A couple of years ago, the Yezidi schools were offered textbooks in “the Yezidi language” (In fact, the “Yezidi language” is the same as Kurmanji). Simply, the textbooks were written in Cyrillic, which the Kurds stopped using after the collapse of the Soviet Union, going back to the Latin alphabet. The Armenian government approved the textbooks, but the Kurds refused to take them. Now the Council of the Kurdish Community is preparing textbooks to be published in Kurmanji.

Count Hasanov noted that the Council was going to raise the issue of teaching the Kurdish language at schools and that they wanted to have more class–hours allocated to the Kurds for studying their mother tongue.

The Council of the Kurdish Community has an official monthly newspaper – The Zagros. Both the Zagros (which used to be called the Mesopotamia) and the Ria Taza are financially supported by the community and through state subsidies.

Besides all this, the Kurds think that the Parliament should allocate some money to the ethnic minorities, and in particular to them since they are the country's largest minority group.

Source: Investigative journalists of Armenia, October 15, 2007 by Hasmik Hovhannisyan http://www.hetq.am/eng/society/7186/ Hetq Online

1. Marz – an administrative division in Armenia is subdivided into eleven administrative divisions. Of these, ten are provinces, called marzes in Armenian. Yerevan, the capital, is treated separately and granted special administrative status.

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