GLOBAL TALES OF ARMENIANS
By Abbas Al Lawati, Staff Reporter
Gulf News
Dec 14 2007
United Arab Emirates
Out of the eleven million Armenians in the world, only three million
live in the Republic of Armenia. The rest constitute a multicultural
diaspora in all corners of the world.
Despite having assimilated well into most of their adopted countries
as a result of migration and displacement, the Armenian diaspora
has remained distinct in maintaining its identity while celebrating
its diversity.
The UAE is one of the few places where Armenians from around the
world meet. There is said to have been an Armenian presence in the
country since the 1960s.
One of the earliest civilisations
As people who ruled kingdoms and occupied a land many times the size
of their current independent Republic of Armenia, the Armenians are
believed to have formed one of the earliest civilisations.
But the strategic location of Armenia between two continents
subjected it to intervention and invasion by many people, including
the Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Mongols, Persians,
Turks and Russians, effects of which can be felt in the people’s
language, food and traditions.
Although Armenia has faced emigration throughout its history – it
has a diaspora that is more than three times its population – a major
wave of emigration started after independence from the Soviet Union
in 1991, which saw almost a quarter of its population leave to look
for a better life elsewhere.
But there are some indications that the situation is improving. The
country is promoting itself as a tourist destination and trying to
lure back the vast diaspora to its ancestral homeland. An increasing
number of wealthy Armenians from around the world invest in and travel
to Armenia.
The Armenian diaspora maintains its coherence through the church,
political groupings, charitable organisations and a network of
newspapers published in Armenian and other languages.
A major unifying factor for Armenians in Arab countries and their
counterparts in the West is the mass killing of Armenians during the
First World War.
Although Armenians have launched major campaigns to have the killings
internationally recognised as genocide, Turkey fiercely opposes this,
saying they were casualties of war.