GENETIC RESEARCH EXCLUDED TURKISH ORIGIN OF HAMSHEN ARMENIANS

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.12.2006 13:20 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The initial results of the genetic research of
Hamshen Armenians launched in 2003 have been received. As reported
by Yerkramas, the newspaper of Armenians of Russia, quoting project
director Levon Yepiskoposyan, the genetic DNA analysis taken from
Hamshen Armenians of Krasnodar and Rostov regions was carried out on
the London university college jointly with British colleagues. The
genetic investigation showed the following:

-Hamshen Armenians represent rather isolated territorial group,
Armenian origin of which make no doubt.

-The hypothesis advanced by Turkish scientists on the so-called
Turkish origin of Armenian-speaking.

Hamshens was completely refuted.

Some clarity was introduced in the problem of Hamshens’ homeland. To
receive a final answer to this question the genetic history of Hamshens
is being investigated.

Hamshen Armenians make the majority of the Armenian population of the
Krasnodar region and some regions of Kuban and Adygea. They originate
from the region of Hamshen of Western Armenia, who settled in Kuban
after the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. According to the
experts, some 250 thousand Armenians live in Adygea and Abkhazia. The
number of islamized Hamshen Armenians living in Turkey varies from
700 thousand to 1.5.2 million.