Greeks in Armenia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Greeks and Armenians have had a long cultural, religious and political relationship, dating back to Ancient Greece and strengthening during the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. This tie is reinfoced by the significant diaspora population of Greeks in Armenia (and also of Armenians in Greece).

1 Origins
2 Modern
3 Sources
4 See also

[edit] Origins

The Greeks of Armenia are mainly descendants of the Pontic Greeks, who originally lived along the shores of the Black Sea. (The word "Pontic" comes from Pontus a pre-Olympian sea god and also a Greek word for "sea"). Seafaring Ionian Greeks settled around the southern shores of the Black Sea starting around 800 B.C. later expanding to costal regions of modern Romania, Russia, Bulgaria and the Ukraine. The Pontic Greeks lived for thousands of years almost isolated from the Greek peninsula, retaining elements of the Ancient Greek language and making Pontic Greek unintelligible, to some extend, to most modern Greeks.

[edit] Modern

Armenian Greeks form the majority in areas along part Armenia's northern border with Georgia, in the northern part of the Lori district. The Largest communities can be found in Alaverdi and Yerevan ^[1], followed by Vanadzor, Gyumri, Stepanavan, Hankavan and Noyemberian. Greeks in Armenia number around 1,800, with staggered emigration to other former Soviet republics and Greece for economic reasons. Greeks and Armenians often live together in mixed communities north of the Armenian border in Georgia.