FACTBOX-FACTS ABOUT ARMENIANS IN IRAN

Reuters
Oct 24 2007

(Reuters) – Iran is applying for an ancient Armenian monastery,
St Thaddeus Church, to be declared a U.N. World Heritage site. If
successful, it would be the first such site in the Islamic Republic
to be a Christian monument.

Here are some facts about Armenians in Iran:

* Armenians are Iran’s largest Christian minority, but their numbers
have declined since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Representatives
of the minority say there may be as few as 100,000 Armenians left,
representing less than 0.2 percent of the Islamic Republic’s 70
million population.

* Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, who are members of a creed that
pre-dates Islam and Christianity, are recognised religious minorities
in the Islamic state’s constitution and free to perform their religious
rites "within the limits of the law."

* In ancient times Armenians in the Persian empire shared religious
and other ties with Persians — the largest ethnic group in modern
Iran — but their conversion to Christianity and the 7th century Arab
Muslim conquest of the empire changed that.

* Most Armenians in Iran today live in the capital Tehran and other
cities, including Esfahan, and northwestern areas. They are known for
being skilled in technical professions, for example as electricians
and car mechanics.

* Armenians in Iran have the right to school education in their own
language, which belongs to a separate branch of the Indo-European
family of languages and has a unique 39-character script.