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103-460: Iranian Armenians ( Armenian : իրանահայեր , romanized :  iranahayer ; Persian : ایرانی های ارمنی ), also known as Persian Armenians ( Armenian : պարսկահայեր , romanized :  parskahayer ; Persian : ارامنه فارس ), are Iranians of Armenian ethnicity who may speak Armenian as their first language. Estimates of their number in Iran range from 70,000 to 500,000. Areas with

206-564: A Russian-dominated period until 1991. The Armenians played a significant role in the development of 20th-century Iran, regarding both its economical as well as its cultural configuration. They were pioneers in photography, theater, and the film industry, and also played a very pivotal role in Iranian political affairs. The Revolution of 1905 in Russia had a major effect on northern Iran and, in 1906, Iranian liberals and revolutionaries demanded

309-502: A scorched earth policy in the region to protect his north-western frontier against any invading Ottoman forces, a policy which involved a forced resettlement of masses of Armenians outside of their homelands. Shah Abbas relocated an estimated 500,000 Armenians from his Armenian lands during the Ottoman–Safavid War of 1603–1618 to an area of Isfahan called New Julfa , which was created to become an Armenian quarter, and to

412-482: A chapel ( fa ) , a school, Ararat Cultural Club and an Armenian cemetery ( fa ) ( fa ) . List of Armenian villages in central Iran: The settlements of Lenjan, Alenjan and Karvan were abandoned in the 18th century. The other settlements depopulated in the middle of the 20th century due to emigration to New Julfa, Teheran or Soviet Armenia (in 1945 and later in 1967). Currently only 1 village ( Zarneh ) in Peria

515-520: A consistent Proto-Indo-European pattern distinct from Iranian, and that the inflectional morphology was different from that of Iranian languages. The hypothesis that Greek is Armenian's closest living relative originates with Holger Pedersen (1924), who noted that the number of Greek-Armenian lexical cognates is greater than that of agreements between Armenian and any other Indo-European language. Antoine Meillet (1925, 1927) further investigated morphological and phonological agreement and postulated that

618-739: A constitution in Iran. In 1909 the revolutionaries forced the crown to give up some of its powers. Yeprem Khan , an ethnic Armenian, was an important figure of the Persian Constitutional Revolution . Armenian Apostolic theologian Malachia Ormanian , in his 1911 book on the Armenian Church, estimated that some 83,400 Armenians lived in Persia, of whom 81,000 were followers of the Apostolic Church, while 2,400 were Armenian Catholics. The Armenian population

721-517: A few thousand meters high, and can close down airports for short periods of time. These winds can last for a full day at the beginning and end of the season, and for several days during the middle of the season. The shamal is a summer northwesterly wind blowing over Iraq and the Persian Gulf states (including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait), often strong during the day, but decreasing at night. This weather effect occurs anywhere from once to several times

824-858: A flap ⟨ɾ⟩. Many dialects also use a low front vowel as a marginal phoneme ⟨æ⟩, primarily in loanwords from Persian , but also in some native Armenian words such as mæt "one; a bit; for a moment" from մի հատ mi hat . There are also many calques from Persian, particularly in cultural phraseology and in compound verbs (e.g. պատճառ ելնել patčaṙ elnel from باعث شدن bā'es ⁠šodan “to result in; to cause”). Armenian language Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European Armenian

927-546: A high concentration of them include Tabriz , Tehran , Salmas and New Julfa , Isfahan . Armenians have lived for millennia in the territory that forms modern-day Iran. Many of the oldest Armenian churches, monasteries, and chapels are in Iran . Iranian Armenia (1502–1828) , which includes what is now the Armenian Republic , was part of Qajar Iran up to 1828. Iran had one of the largest populations of Armenians in

1030-468: A loan from Armenian (compare to Armenian եւ yev , ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi ). Other loans from Armenian into Urartian includes personal names, toponyms, and names of deities. Loan words from Iranian languages , along with the other ancient accounts such as that of Xenophon above, initially led some linguists to erroneously classify Armenian as an Iranian language. Scholars such as Paul de Lagarde and F. Müller believed that

1133-647: A long history of interaction and settlement with Persia/Iran and within the modern-day borders of the nation, Iran's Armenian community emerged under the Safavids . In the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran divided Armenia. From the early 16th century, both Western Armenia and Eastern Armenia fell under Iranian Safavid rule . Owing to the century-long Turco-Iranian geo-political rivalry that would last in Western Asia , significant parts of

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1236-521: A minority in Eastern Armenia. In the wake of the Russian invasion of Iran and the subsequent loss of territories, Muslims ( Persians , Turkic speakers , and Kurds ) constituted some 80% of the population of Iranian Armenia , whereas Christian Armenians constituted a minority of about 20%. After the Russian administration took hold of Iranian Armenia, the ethnic make-up shifted, and thus for

1339-425: A network of schools where modern Armenian was taught, dramatically increased the rate of literacy (in spite of the obstacles by the colonial administrators), even in remote rural areas. The emergence of literary works entirely written in the modern versions increasingly legitimized the language's existence. By the turn of the 20th century both varieties of the one modern Armenian language prevailed over Grabar and opened

1442-664: A result, by 1832, the number of ethnic Armenians had matched that of the Muslims. Not until after the Crimean War and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 , which brought another influx of Turkish Armenians, would ethnic Armenians once again establish a solid majority in Eastern Armenia . Nevertheless, Erivan remained a Muslim-majority city up to the twentieth century. According to the traveller H. F. B. Lynch ,

1545-573: A year. West Asia contains large areas of mountainous terrain. The Anatolian Plateau is sandwiched between the Pontus Mountains and Taurus Mountains in Turkey . Mount Ararat in Turkey rises to 5,137 m (16,854 ft). The Zagros Mountains are located in Iran, in areas along its border with Iraq. The Central Plateau of Iran is divided into two drainage basins . The northern basin

1648-532: Is Dasht-e Kavir (Great Salt Desert), and Dasht-e-Lut is the southern basin. In Yemen , elevations exceed 3,700 m (12,100 ft) in many areas, and highland areas extend north along the Red Sea coast and north into Lebanon . A fault zone also exists along the Red Sea, with continental rifting creating trough -like topography with areas located well below sea level . The Dead Sea , located on

1751-645: Is a geographical term with more consistency. It excludes most of Egypt and the northwestern part of Turkey , and includes the southern part of the Caucasus . West Asia covers an area of 5,994,935 km (2,314,657 sq mi), with a population of about 313 million. Of the 20 UN member countries fully or partly within the region, 13 are part of the Arab world . The most populous countries in West Asia are Iran , Turkey , Iraq , Saudi Arabia and Yemen . In

1854-552: Is an independent branch of the Indo-European languages . It is of interest to linguists for its distinctive phonological changes within that family. Armenian exhibits more satemization than centumization , although it is not classified as belonging to either of these subgroups. Some linguists tentatively conclude that Armenian, Greek (and Phrygian ), Albanian and Indo-Iranian were dialectally close to each other; within this hypothetical dialect group, Proto-Armenian

1957-561: Is clearly the dialect to be most closely related to Armenian. Eric P. Hamp (1976, 91) supports the Graeco-Armenian thesis and even anticipates a time "when we should speak of Helleno-Armenian" (meaning the postulate of a Graeco-Armenian proto-language). Armenian shares the augment and a negator derived from the set phrase in the Proto-Indo-European language * ne h₂oyu kʷid ("never anything" or "always nothing"),

2060-474: Is derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂r̥ǵipyós , with cognates in Sanskrit (ऋजिप्य, ṛjipyá ), Avestan ( ərəzifiia ), and Greek (αἰγίπιος, aigípios ). Hrach Martirosyan and Armen Petrosyan propose additional borrowed words of Armenian origin loaned into Urartian and vice versa, including grammatical words and parts of speech, such as Urartian eue ("and"), attested in the earliest Urartian texts and likely

2163-471: Is not considered conclusive evidence of a period of common isolated development. There are words used in Armenian that are generally believed to have been borrowed from Anatolian languages, particularly from Luwian , although some researchers have identified possible Hittite loanwords as well. One notable loanword from Anatolian is Armenian xalam , "skull", cognate to Hittite ḫalanta , "head". In 1985,

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2266-550: Is the working language. Armenian (without reference to a specific variety) is officially recognized as a minority language in Cyprus , Hungary , Iraq , Poland , Romania , and Ukraine . It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . Western Asia West Asia , also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia , is the westernmost region of Asia . As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions,

2369-473: Is totally, and 4 other villages ( Upper Khoygan , Gharghan , Nemagerd and Sangbaran ) in Peria and 1 village ( Upper Chanakhchi ) in Gharaghan are partially settled by Armenians. Other than these settlements there is an Armenian village near Gorgan ( Qoroq ) which is settled by Armenians recently moved from Soviet territory. In addition to having their own churches and clubs, Armenians of Iran are one of

2472-595: Is very close to that used in Armenia , Georgia , and Russia . Iranian Armenians speak this dialect due in part to the fact that in 1604 much of the Armenian population in Nakhchivan, which used the eastern dialect, was displaced and sent to Isfahan by Shah Abbas . This also allowed for an older version to be preserved which uses classical Armenian orthography known as "Mashtotsian orthography" and spelling, whereas almost all other Eastern Armenian users (especially in

2575-523: The Arabian Peninsula numbering more than 3 million. Christian communities have played a vital role in West Asia. Judaism is the predominant religion in Israel , and there are small ancient Jewish communities in West Asia such as in Turkey (14,300), Azerbaijan (9,100), and Iran (8,756). The Druze Faith or Druzism originated in West Asia. It is a monotheistic religion based on

2678-466: The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (11–14th centuries) resulted in the addition of two more characters to the alphabet (" օ " and " ֆ "), bringing the total number to 38. The Book of Lamentations by Gregory of Narek (951–1003) is an example of the development of a literature and writing style of Old Armenian by the 10th century. In addition to elevating the literary style and vocabulary of

2781-563: The Armenian genocide , mostly in the diaspora ). The differences between them are considerable but they are mutually intelligible after significant exposure. Some subdialects such as Homshetsi are not mutually intelligible with other varieties. Although Armenians were known to history much earlier (for example, they were mentioned in the 6th-century BC Behistun Inscription and in Xenophon 's 4th century BC history, The Anabasis ),

2884-453: The Baháʼí Faith , Yarsanism , Yazidism , Zoroastrianism , Mandaeism , and Shabakism . The economy of West Asia is diverse and the region experiences high economic growth. Turkey has the largest economy in the region, followed by Saudi Arabia and Iran. Petroleum is the major industry in the regional economy, as more than half of the world's oil reserves and around 40 percent of

2987-860: The Behistun Inscription of 515 BC, Darius the Great indirectly confirmed that Urartu and Armenia are synonymous when describing their conquests. Armenia became a satrapy of the Achaemenid for a long time, and relations between Armenians and Persians were cordial. The cultural links between the Armenians and the Persians can be traced back to Zoroastrian times. Before the 3rd century, no other neighbor had as much influence on Armenian life and culture as Parthia . They shared many religious and cultural characteristics, and intermarriage among

3090-641: The Greek language , the Armenian language, and the Indo-Iranian languages . Graeco-Aryan unity would have become divided into Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian by the mid-3rd millennium BC. Conceivably, Proto-Armenian would have been located between Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian, consistent with the fact that Armenian shares certain features only with Indo-Iranian (the satem change) but others only with Greek ( s > h ). Graeco-Aryan has comparatively wide support among Indo-Europeanists who believe

3193-496: The Gulf of Oman . The population of West Asia was estimated at 272 million as of 2008, projected to reach 370 million by 2030 by Maddison (2007; the estimate excludes the Caucasus and Cyprus). This corresponds to an annual growth rate of 1.4% (or a doubling time of 50 years), well above the world average of 0.9% (doubling time 75 years). The population of West Asia is estimated at 4% of world population , up from about 39 million at

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3296-643: The Indo-European homeland to be located in the Armenian Highlands , the " Armenian hypothesis ". Early and strong evidence was given by Euler's 1979 examination on shared features in Greek and Sanskrit nominal flection. Used in tandem with the Graeco-Armenian hypothesis, the Armenian language would also be included under the label Aryano-Greco-Armenic , splitting into Proto-Greek/Phrygian and "Armeno-Aryan" (ancestor of Armenian and Indo-Iranian ). Classical Armenian (Arm: grabar ), attested from

3399-542: The Mekhitarists . The first Armenian periodical, Azdarar , was published in grabar in 1794. The classical form borrowed numerous words from Middle Iranian languages , primarily Parthian , and contains smaller inventories of loanwords from Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, Arabic, Mongol, Persian, and indigenous languages such as Urartian . An effort to modernize the language in Bagratid Armenia and

3502-672: The Soviet Union , the common border with Armenia, and the Armeno-Iranian diplomatic and economic agreements have opened a new era for the Iranian Armenians. Iran remains one of Armenia's major trade partners, and the Iranian government has helped ease the hardships of Armenia caused by the blockade imposed by Azerbaijan and Turkey . This includes important consumer products, access to air travel, and energy sources (like petroleum and electricity). The Armenians remain

3605-548: The Tigris and Euphrates rivers contribute very well. West Asia is primarily arid and semi-arid , and can be subject to drought , but it also contains vast expanses of forest and fertile valleys. The region consists of grasslands , rangelands , deserts , and mountains . Water shortages are a problem in many parts of West Asia, with rapidly growing populations increasing demands for water, while salinization and pollution threaten water supplies. Major rivers, including

3708-579: The Tigris and Euphrates , provide sources for irrigation water to support agriculture . There are two wind phenomena in West Asia: the sharqi and the shamal . The sharqi (or sharki ) is a wind that comes from the south and southeast. It is seasonal, lasting from April to early June, and comes again between late September and November. The winds are dry and dusty, with occasional gusts up to 80 kilometres per hour (50 miles per hour) and often kick up violent sand and dust storms that can carry sand

3811-674: The World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD), West Asia excludes the Arabian Peninsula and includes Afghanistan . The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) excludes Egypt and includes Afghanistan. The United Nations Environment Programme excludes Cyprus , Israel , Turkey , and Iran from West Asia. The term West Asia is used pragmatically and has no "correct" or generally accepted definition. Its typical definitions overlap substantially, but not entirely, with definitions of

3914-408: The 5th century to the 19th century as the literary standard (up to the 11th century also as a spoken language with different varieties), was partially superseded by Middle Armenian , attested from the 12th century to the 18th century. Specialized literature prefers "Old Armenian" for grabar as a whole, and designates as "Classical" the language used in the 5th century literature, "Post-Classical" from

4017-481: The Armenian language by adding well above a thousand new words, through his other hymns and poems Gregory paved the way for his successors to include secular themes and vernacular language in their writings. The thematic shift from mainly religious texts to writings with secular outlooks further enhanced and enriched the vocabulary. "A Word of Wisdom", a poem by Hovhannes Sargavak devoted to a starling, legitimizes poetry devoted to nature, love, or female beauty. Gradually,

4120-1002: The Armenians ample opportunities for advancement, and Armenians gained important positions in the arts and sciences, economy and services sectors, mainly in Tehran, Tabriz, and Isfahan that became major centers for Armenians. From 1946–1949 about 20,000 Armenians left Iran for the Soviet Union and from 1962–1982 another 25,000 Armenians followed them to Soviet Armenia . By 1979, in the dawn of the Islamic Revolution, an estimated 200,000 – 300,000 Armenians were living in Iran. By 1978, Tehran alone had an Armenian population of 110,000, in part due to migration of Armenian villagers from rural areas of Iran. Armenian churches, schools, cultural centers, sports clubs and associations flourished and Armenians had their own senator and member of parliament, 300 churches and 500 schools and libraries served

4223-467: The Hurro-Urartian and Northeast Caucasian origins for these words and instead suggest native Armenian etymologies, leaving the possibility that these words may have been loaned into Hurro-Urartian and Caucasian languages from Armenian, and not vice versa. A notable example is arciv , meaning "eagle", believed to have been the origin of Urartian Arṣibi and Northeast Caucasian arzu . This word

Iranian Armenians - Misplaced Pages Continue

4326-607: The New Julfa district in Isfahan, Kurdistan, Khorasan, and Khuzestan, some of which have persisted in their respective communities. Iranian Armenian dialects are distinguished phonologically from other Eastern Armenian varieties by the widespread pronunciation of the retroflex approximant ⟨ɻ⟩ for ր, which sounds similar to the American English alveolar approximant ⟨ɹ⟩, while Armenian dialects outside of Iran pronounce it as

4429-735: The Parthian and Armenian nobility was common. For twelve more centuries, Armenia was under the direct or indirect rule of the Persians. In the 11th century, the Seljuks drove thousands of Armenians into Iran, where some were sold as slaves and others worked as artisans and merchants. After the Mongol invasion of Persia and Mesopotamia in the 13th century, many Armenian merchants and artists settled in Iran, in cities that were once part of historic Armenia such as Khoy , Salmas , Maku , Maragheh , Urmia , and especially Tabriz . Although Armenians have

4532-669: The Russian Empire), removed almost all of their Turkish lexical influences in the 20th century, primarily following the Armenian genocide . In addition to Armenia and Turkey, where it is indigenous , Armenian is spoken among the diaspora . According to Ethnologue , globally there are 1.6 million Western Armenian speakers and 3.7 million Eastern Armenian speakers, totalling 5.3 million Armenian speakers. In Georgia, Armenian speakers are concentrated in Ninotsminda and Akhalkalaki districts where they represent over 90% of

4635-663: The Russian Empire. The community experienced a political rejuvenation with the arrival of the exiled Dashnak (ARF) leadership from Russian Armenia in mid-1921; approximately 10,000 Armenian ARF party leaders, intellectuals, fighters, and their families crossed the Aras River and took refuge in Qajar Iran. This large influx of Armenians who were affiliated with the ARF also meant that the ARF would ensure its dominance over

4738-404: The Russian and Ottoman empires led to creation of two separate and different environments under which Armenians lived. Halfway through the 19th century, two important concentrations of Armenian communities were further consolidated. Because of persecutions or the search for better economic opportunities, many Armenians living under Ottoman rule gradually moved to Istanbul , whereas Tbilisi became

4841-833: The Soviet linguist Igor M. Diakonoff noted the presence in Classical Armenian of what he calls a "Caucasian substratum" identified by earlier scholars, consisting of loans from the Kartvelian and Northeast Caucasian languages . Noting that Hurro-Urartian-speaking peoples inhabited the Armenian homeland in the second millennium BC, Diakonoff identifies in Armenian a Hurro-Urartian substratum of social, cultural, and animal and plant terms such as ałaxin "slave girl" ( ← Hurr. al(l)a(e)ḫḫenne ), cov "sea" ( ← Urart. ṣûǝ "(inland) sea"), ułt "camel" ( ← Hurr. uḷtu ), and xnjor "apple (tree)" ( ← Hurr. ḫinzuri ). Some of

4944-661: The Tehran area (where they have been established since at least the Safavid era ), most notably in its suburbs of Narmak, Majidiyeh, Nadershah, etc. A quarter live in Isfahan, and the other quarter is concentrated in Northwestern Iran or Iranian Azerbaijan. In 387 AD when the Sasanian Empire and the Byzantine Empire split Armenia, the historically Armenian areas of Nor Shirakan , Paytakaran , and

5047-471: The beginning of the 20th century, or about 2% of world population at the time. The most populous countries in the region are Turkey and Iran , each with around 79 million people, followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia with around 33 million people each, and Yemen with around 29 million people. Numerically, West Asia is predominantly Arab , Persian , Turkish , and the dominating languages are correspondingly Arabic , Persian and Turkish , each with of

5150-686: The border between the West Bank , Israel , and Jordan , is situated at 418 m (1,371 ft) below sea level, making it the lowest point on the surface of the Earth . Rub' al Khali , one of the world's largest sand deserts, spans the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula in Saudi Arabia, parts of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Jebel al Akhdar is a small range of mountains located in northeastern Oman, bordering

5253-849: The boundary between the Aegean and Anatolian plate in eastern Turkey is also seismically active. Several major aquifers provide water to large portions of West Asia. In Saudi Arabia, two large aquifers of Palaeozoic and Triassic origins are located beneath the Jabal Tuwayq mountains and areas west to the Red Sea. Cretaceous and Eocene -origin aquifers are located beneath large portions of central and eastern Saudi Arabia, including Wasia and Biyadh which contain amounts of both fresh water and saline water . Flood or furrow irrigation, as well as sprinkler methods, are extensively used for irrigation , covering nearly 90,000 km (35,000 sq mi) across West Asia for agriculture. Also,

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5356-551: The ceding of swaths of territories to Russia in the first quarter of the 19th century, the independent position of the Tabrizi Armenians was strengthened, as they gained immunities and concessions by Abbas Mirza . The particular importance of the Tabrizi Armenians also grew with the transfer of the bishop's seat from St.Taddeus (or Qara Kelissa ) near Salmas to Tabriz in 1845. Tabriz has an Arajnordaran , three Armenian Churches ( St. Sargis , Shoghakat , and St. Mary ),

5459-434: The center of Armenians living under Russian rule. These two cosmopolitan cities very soon became the primary poles of Armenian intellectual and cultural life. The introduction of new literary forms and styles, as well as many new ideas sweeping Europe, reached Armenians living in both regions. This created an ever-growing need to elevate the vernacular, Ashkharhabar, to the dignity of a modern literary language, in contrast to

5562-460: The city of Erivan was about 50% Armenian and 50% Muslim (Tatars i.e. Azeris and Persians) in the early 1890s. With these events of the first half of the 19th century, and the end of centuries of Iranian rule over Eastern Armenia , a new era had started for the Armenians within the newly established borders of Iran. The Armenians in the recently lost territories north of the Aras river would go through

5665-488: The dominant language in Israel in the second half of the 20th century, and Neo-Aramaic (spoken by modern Arameans , Assyrians , and Chaldeans ) and Greek both remain present in their respective territories as minority languages. Significant native minorities include, in alphabetical order: Arameans , Assyrians , Chaldeans , Druze , Jews , Lurs , Mandeans , Maronites , Shabaks and Yezidis . Religion in West Asia (2020) Four major religious groups (i.e.

5768-463: The early 80s. Currently, about 4,000 Armenians remain in the countryside of East Azerbaijan and about 2,000 remain in Tabriz living in the districts of Nowbar, Bazar, and Ahrab owning 4 churches, a school and a cemetery. This is a list of previously or currently Armenian inhabited settlements: Traditionally, Tabriz where Armenian political life vibrated from the early modern (Safavid) era and on. After

5871-544: The eastern half of Vaspurakan were ceded to the Persians, these territories comprise the western and northern regions of Azerbaijan. Following the Russo-Persian War (1826–28) about 40,000 Armenians left Azerbaijan and resettled in newly established Russian Armenia . The area retained a large Armenian population until 1914 when World War I began and Azerbaijan was invaded by the Ottomans who slaughtered much of

5974-580: The existence of the two modern versions of the same language was sanctioned even more clearly. The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (1920–1990) used Eastern Armenian as its official language, whereas the diaspora created after the Armenian genocide preserved the Western Armenian dialect. The two modern literary dialects, Western (originally associated with writers in the Ottoman Empire) and Eastern (originally associated with writers in

6077-518: The few linguistic minorities in Iran with their own schools. Armenians are exempt from national laws barring alcohol consumption and public gender relations in Armenian 'public' spaces, where Muslim citizens are not permitted to enter. The Armenian language used in Iran holds a unique position in the usage of Armenian in the world, as most Armenians in the Diaspora use Western Armenian . However, Iranian Armenians speak an Eastern Armenian dialect that

6180-441: The first time in more than four centuries, ethnic Armenians started to form a majority once again in one part of historic Armenia. The new Russian administration encouraged the settling of ethnic Armenians from Iran proper and Ottoman Turkey . Some 35,000 Muslims out of more than 100,000 emigrated from the region, while some 57,000 Armenians from Iran proper and Turkey arrived after 1828 (see also Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829 ). As

6283-411: The former Soviet Union) have adopted the reformed Armenian orthography which was applied in Soviet Armenia in the 1920s and continues in the present Republic of Armenia. This makes the Armenian language used in Iran and in the Armenian-Iranian media and publications unique, applying elements of both major Armenian language branches (pronunciation, grammar and language structure of Eastern Armenian and

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6386-425: The hypothetical Mushki language may have been a (now extinct) Armenic language. W. M. Austin (1942) concluded that there was early contact between Armenian and Anatolian languages , based on what he considered common archaisms, such as the lack of a feminine gender and the absence of inherited long vowels. Unlike shared innovations (or synapomorphies ), the common retention of archaisms (or symplesiomorphy )

6489-410: The interests of the population at large were reflected in other literary works as well. Konsdantin Yerzinkatsi and several others took the unusual step of criticizing the ecclesiastic establishment and addressing the social issues of the Armenian homeland. These changes represented the nature of the literary style and syntax, but they did not constitute immense changes to the fundamentals of the grammar or

6592-423: The largest religious minority in Iran , and is still the largest Christian community in the country, far ahead of Assyrians . They are appointed two out of the five seats in the Iranian Parliament reserved for religious minorities (more than any other religious minority) and are the only minority with official observing status in the Guardian and Expediency Discernment Councils . Half of Iran's Armenians live in

6695-434: The late 5th to 8th centuries, and "Late Grabar" that of the period covering the 8th to 11th centuries. Later, it was used mainly in religious and specialized literature, with the exception of a revival during the early modern period, when attempts were made to establish it as the language of a literary renaissance, with neoclassical inclinations, through the creation and dissemination of literature in varied genres, especially by

6798-412: The latter), Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, UAE, and Yemen as West Asian countries. By contrast, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in its 2015 yearbook includes Armenia and Azerbaijan, and excludes Israel (as Other) and Turkey (as Europe). Unlike the UNIDO, the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) excludes Iran from West Asia and includes Turkey, Georgia, and Cyprus in

6901-471: The local Armenian population. Prior to the Ottoman invasion there were about 150,000 Armenians in Azerbaijan, and 30,000 of them were in Tabriz. About 80,000 were massacred, 30,000 fled to Russian Armenia, and the other 10,000 fled the area of the modern West Azerbaijan Province and took refuge among the Armenians of Tabriz. After the war ended in 1918 the 10,000 refugees in Tabriz returned to their villages, but many resettled in Soviet Armenia from 1947 up until

7004-504: The morphology of the language. Often, when writers codify a spoken dialect, other language users are then encouraged to imitate that structure through the literary device known as parallelism . In the 19th century, the traditional Armenian homeland was once again divided. This time Eastern Armenia was conquered from Qajar Iran by the Russian Empire , while Western Armenia , containing two thirds of historical Armenia, remained under Ottoman control. The antagonistic relationship between

7107-432: The native ethnic groups of northwestern Iran, having millennia-long recorded history there. The region (or parts of it) has made up part of historical Armenia numerous times in history. These historical Armenian regions that nowadays include Iranian Azerbaijan are Nor Shirakan , Vaspurakan , and Paytakaran . Many of the world's oldest Armenian chapels, monasteries and churches are located within this region of Iran. On

7210-494: The needs of the community. Armenian presses published numerous books, journals, periodicals, and newspapers, the prominent one being the daily "Alik". Many Armenians served in the Iranian Armed Forces , with 89 killed in action during the Iran–Iraq War . Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has praised the role of Armenians in the war, saying to the Armenian Prime Minister that "Armenian martyrs of the imposed war are like Muslims martyrs and we consider them as honors of Iran". The fall of

7313-401: The newly established Russian Armenia. This resulted in a large demographic shift; many of Iran's Armenians followed the call, while many Caucasian Muslims migrated to Iran proper. Until the mid-fourteenth century, Armenians had constituted a majority in Eastern Armenia . At the close of the fourteenth century, after Timur 's campaigns, Islam had become the dominant faith, and Armenians became

7416-640: The northwest and north, the region is delimited from Europe by the Turkish Straits and drainage divide of the Greater Caucasus , to the southwest, it is delimited from Africa by the Isthmus of Suez , while to the northeast and east, the region adjoins Central Asia and South Asia . The region is located east of Southern Europe and south of Eastern Europe . The Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut deserts in eastern Iran naturally delimit

7519-403: The now-anachronistic Grabar. Numerous dialects existed in the traditional Armenian regions, which, different as they were, had certain morphological and phonetic features in common. On the basis of these features two major standards emerged: Both centers vigorously pursued the promotion of Ashkharhabar. The proliferation of newspapers in both versions (Eastern & Western) and the development of

7622-541: The official status of the Armenian language. Eastern Armenian is the official variant used, making it the prestige variety while other variants have been excluded from national institutions. Indeed, Western Armenian is perceived by some as a mere dialect. Armenian was also official in the Republic of Artsakh . It is recognized as an official language of the Eurasian Economic Union although Russian

7725-639: The oldest surviving Armenian-language writing is etched in stone on Armenian temples and is called Mehenagir . The Armenian alphabet was created by Mesrop Mashtots in 405, at which time it had 36 letters. He is also credited by some with the creation of the Georgian alphabet and the Caucasian Albanian alphabet . While Armenian constitutes the sole member of the Armenian branch of the Indo-European family, Aram Kossian has suggested that

7828-525: The order of 70 million speakers, followed by smaller communities of Kurdish , Azerbaijani , Hebrew , Armenian and Neo-Aramaic . The dominance of Arabic and Turkish is the result of the medieval Arab and Turkic invasions beginning with the Islamic conquests of the 7th century AD, which displaced the formerly dominant Aramaic in the region of Syria , and Greek in Anatolia, although Hebrew became

7931-450: The other traditional Armenian parties of Persia, and by extension over the entire Iranian Armenian community, which was centered around the Armenian church. Further immigrants and refugees from the Soviet Union numbering nearly 30,000 continued to increase the Armenian community until 1933. Thus by 1930 there were approximately 200,000 Armenians in Iran. The modernization efforts of Reza Shah (1924–1941) and Mohammad Reza Shah (1941–1979) gave

8034-483: The parent languages of Greek and Armenian were dialects in immediate geographical proximity during the Proto-Indo-European period. Meillet's hypothesis became popular in the wake of his book Esquisse d'une histoire de la langue latine (1936). Georg Renatus Solta (1960) does not go as far as postulating a Proto-Graeco-Armenian stage, but he concludes that considering both the lexicon and morphology, Greek

8137-519: The part of Asia known in classical antiquity, as opposed to the reaches of "interior Asia", i.e. Scythia , and "Eastern Asia" the easternmost reaches of geographical knowledge in classical authors, i.e. Transoxania and India . In the 20th century, "Western Asia" was used to denote a rough geographical era in the fields of archaeology and ancient history , especially as a shorthand for "the Fertile Crescent excluding Ancient Egypt " for

8240-407: The path to a new and simplified grammatical structure of the language in the two different cultural spheres. Apart from several morphological, phonetic, and grammatical differences, the largely common vocabulary and generally analogous rules of grammatical fundamentals allows users of one variant to understand the other as long as they are fluent in one of the literary standards. After World War I ,

8343-570: The population. The short-lived First Republic of Armenia declared Armenian its official language. Eastern Armenian was then dominating in institutions and among the population. When Armenia was incorporated into the USSR, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic made Eastern Armenian the language of the courts, government institutions and schools. Armenia was also russified . The current Republic of Armenia upholds

8446-772: The purposes of comparing the early civilizations of Egypt and the former. Use of the term in the context of contemporary geopolitics or world economy appears to date from at least the mid-1960s. The region is surrounded by eight major seas; the Aegean Sea , the Black Sea , the Caspian Sea , the Persian Gulf , the Arabian Sea , the Gulf of Aden , the Red Sea , and the Mediterranean Sea . To

8549-509: The region (clockwise): the Aegean Sea , the Sea of Marmara , the Black Sea , the Caspian Sea , the Persian Gulf , the Gulf of Oman , the Arabian Sea , the Gulf of Aden , the Red Sea , the Gulf of Aqaba , the Gulf of Suez , and the Mediterranean Sea . West Asia contains the majority of the similarly defined Middle East . The Middle East is a political term that has changed many times depending on political and historical context while West Asia

8652-535: The region by Shah Abbas of the Safavid Persian Empire during the same as part of Abbas's massive scorched earth resettlement policies within the empire. The villages populated by the Armenians in Bourvari were Dehno, Khorzend, Farajabad, Bahmanabad and Sangesfid. From the late 18th century, Imperial Russia switched to a more aggressive geo-political stance towards its two neighbors and rivals to

8755-670: The region from Balochistan and South Asia. Three major tectonic plates converge on West Asia, including the African , Eurasian , and Arabian plates. The boundaries between the tectonic plates make up the Azores-Gibraltar Ridge , extending across North Africa , the Red Sea , and into Iran. The Arabian Plate is moving northward into the Anatolian plate (Turkey) at the East Anatolian Fault , and

8858-540: The region were frequently fought over between the two rival empires. From the mid-16th century with the Peace of Amasya , and decisively from the first half of the 17th century with the Treaty of Zuhab until the first half of the 19th century , Eastern Armenia was ruled by the successive Iranian Safavid, Afsharid and Qajar empires, while Western Armenia remained under Ottoman rule. From 1604 Abbas I of Iran implemented

8961-591: The region's sports organisations are the West Asia Basketball Association , West Asian Billiards and Snooker Federation , West Asian Football Federation , and the West Asian Tennis Federation . "Western Asia" was in use as a geographical term in the early 19th century, before " Near East " became current as a geopolitical concept. In the context of the history of classical antiquity , "Western Asia" could mean

9064-991: The region. In the United Nations geopolitical Eastern European Group , Armenia and Georgia are included in Eastern Europe, whereas Cyprus and East Thracian Turkey are in Southern Europe. These three nations are listed in the European category of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). National members of West Asian sports governing bodies are limited to Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The Olympic Council of Asia 's multi-sport event West Asian Games are contested by athletes representing these 13 countries. Among

9167-520: The remaining part of the contemporary Azerbaijan Republic. The ceding of what is modern-day Armenia (Eastern Armenia in general) in 1828 resulted in a large number of Armenians falling now under the rule of the Russians. Iranian Armenia was thus supplanted by Russian Armenia . The Treaty of Turkmenchay further stipulated that the Tsar had the right to encourage the resettling of Armenians from Iran into

9270-436: The representation of word-initial laryngeals by prothetic vowels, and other phonological and morphological peculiarities with Greek. Nevertheless, as Fortson (2004) comments, "by the time we reach our earliest Armenian records in the 5th century AD, the evidence of any such early kinship has been reduced to a few tantalizing pieces". Graeco-(Armeno)-Aryan is a hypothetical clade within the Indo-European family , ancestral to

9373-468: The similarities between the two languages meant that Armenian belonged to the Iranian language family . The distinctness of Armenian was recognized when philologist Heinrich Hübschmann (1875) used the comparative method to distinguish two layers of Iranian words from the older Armenian vocabulary . He showed that Armenian often had two morphemes for one concept, that the non-Iranian components yielded

9476-478: The south, namely Iran and the Ottoman Empire. As a result of the Treaty of Gulistan (1813), Qajar Iran was forced to irrevocably cede swaths of its territories in the Caucasus, comprising modern-day Eastern Georgia , Dagestan , and most of the Republic of Azerbaijan . By the Treaty of Turkmenchay (1828), Qajar Iran had to cede the remainder of its Caucasian territories, comprising modern-day Armenia and

9579-507: The spelling system of Western Armenian ). The Armenian dialects of Iran are referred to collectively in Armenian as Persian Armenian or Parskahayeren (պարսկահայերէն, պարսկահայերեն), or less commonly as Iranian Armenian or Iranahayeren (իրանահայերէն, իրանահայերեն). The modern koine spoken in Tehran serves as the prestige dialect, although many historic varieties existed in Iranian Azerbaijan, Central Iran, Isfahan province,

9682-716: The subregion consists of Anatolia , the Arabian Peninsula , Iran , Mesopotamia , the Armenian highlands , the Levant , the island of Cyprus , the Sinai Peninsula and the South Caucasus . The region is separated from Africa by the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt , and separated from Europe by the waterways of the Turkish Straits and the watershed of the Greater Caucasus . Central Asia lies to its northeast, while South Asia lies to its east. Twelve seas surround

9785-522: The teachings of figures like Hamza ibn-'Ali ibn-Ahmad and Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah and Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle . The number of Druze people worldwide is around one million, with about 45% to 50% living in Syria , 35% to 40% living in Lebanon , and less than 10% living in Israel ; recently there has been a growing Druze diaspora. There are also important minority religions like

9888-496: The terms Middle East , Eastern Mediterranean , and Near East (which is historically familiar but widely deprecated today). The National Geographic Style Manual as well as Maddison 's The World Economy: Historical Statistics (2003) by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) include only Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Palestine (called West Bank and Gaza in

9991-519: The terms he gives admittedly have an Akkadian or Sumerian provenance, but he suggests they were borrowed through Hurrian or Urartian. Given that these borrowings do not undergo sound changes characteristic of the development of Armenian from Proto-Indo-European , he dates their borrowing to a time before the written record but after the Proto-Armenian language stage. Contemporary linguists, such as Hrach Martirosyan , have rejected many of

10094-934: The two largest religions in the world: Christianity and Islam , plus Judaism and Druze faith ) originated in West Asia. Islam is the largest religion in West Asia, but other faiths that originated there, such as Judaism and Christianity , are also well represented. In Armenia and Georgia , Oriental Orthodoxy and Eastern Orthodoxy respectively are the predominant religions, and there are still different ancient communities of Eastern Christians in Azerbaijan . There are still large ancient communities of Eastern Christians (such as Assyrians , Middle Eastern Christians and Arab Christians ) in Lebanon , Iraq , Iran , Turkey , Syria , Jordan , Israel and Palestine numbering more than 3 million in West Asia. There are also large populations of expatriate workers which include sizeable Christian communities living in

10197-404: The villages surrounding Isfahan. Iran quickly recognized the Armenians' dexterity in commerce. The community became active in the cultural and economic development of Iran. Bourvari ( Armenian : Բուրւարի ) is a collection of villages in Iran between the city of Khomeyn ( Markazi province ) and Aligudarz ( Lorestan province ). It was mainly populated by Armenians who were forcibly deported to

10300-651: The world, alongside the neighbouring Ottoman Empire until the beginning of the 20th century. Armenians were influential and active in modernizing Iran during the 19th and 20th centuries. After the Iranian Revolution , many Armenians emigrated to Armenian diasporic communities in North America and Western Europe . Today, the Armenians are Iran's largest Christian religious minority . Since Antiquity, there has always been much interaction between ancient Armenia and Persia. The Armenian people are among

10403-525: Was distributed in the following regions: 40,400 in Azerbaijan , 31,000 in and around Isfahan , 7,000 in Kurdistan and Lorestan , and 5,000 in Tehran. During the Armenian genocide , about 50,000 Armenians fled the Ottoman Empire and took refuge in Persia. As a result of the Persian Campaign in northern Iran during World War I , the Ottomans massacred 80,000 Armenians and 30,000 fled to

10506-405: Was situated between Proto-Greek ( centum subgroup) and Proto-Indo-Iranian ( satem subgroup). Ronald I. Kim has noted unique morphological developments connecting Armenian to Balto-Slavic languages . The Armenian language has a long literary history, with a 5th-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Another text translated into Armenian early on, and also in the 5th-century,

10609-682: Was the Armenian Alexander Romance . The vocabulary of the language has historically been influenced by Western Middle Iranian languages , particularly Parthian ; its derivational morphology and syntax were also affected by language contact with Parthian, but to a lesser extent. Contact with Greek, Persian , and Syriac also resulted in a number of loanwords. There are two standardized modern literary forms, Eastern Armenian (spoken mainly in Armenia) and Western Armenian (spoken originally mainly in modern-day Turkey and, since

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