Armenians in Cyprus

Armenian Cypriots (; ; ) are the ethnic Armenian population native to Cyprus. The Armenian-Cypriot community has had a significant impact upon the Armenian people as a whole despite its low numbers. During the Middle Ages, Cyprus had an extensive connection with the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, while the Ganchvor monastery had an important presence in Famagusta. During the Ottoman Era, the Virgin Mary church and the Magaravank were very prominent. Certain Armenian Cypriots were or are very prominent on a Panarmenian or international level and the survivors of the Armenian genocide have co-operated and co-existed peacefully with the Turkish Cypriots.

Currently, Armenian-Cypriots maintain a notable presence of about 4,000 on the island (including about 1,500 non-Cypriot Armenians), mostly centred on the capital Nicosia, but also with communities in Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos. The Armenian Prelature of Cyprus is located in Nicosia. According to the 1960 Constitution of Cyprus, together with the Maronites and the Latins, they are recognised as a "religious group" and have opted to belong to the Greek-Cypriot community and Armenian-Cypriots are represented by an elected Representative in the House of Representatives. Since May 2006, the Representative is Vartkes Mahdessian. The religious leader of the community, since July 2024, is Catholicosal Vicar Archbishop Gomidas Ohanian, accountable to the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia.

History

Byzantine Era (578–1191)

Armenians have had a presence in Cyprus since the 6th century. According to Theophylact Simocatta, an early 7th-century Byzantine writer, the Byzantine General Maurice the Cappadocian captured 10,090 Armenians as prisoners during his campaign against the Persian King Chosroes I; around 3,350 of these prisoners were deported to Cyprus. More Armenians arrived during the reign of Armenian-descended Emperor Heraclius for political reasons and also during the pontificate of Catholicos Hovhannes III Odznetsi for commercial reasons. Flowing on, after the end of Arab raids in Cyprus, more arrived by the patrician Niketas Chalkoutzes for military reasons, when Armenian mercenaries were transferred to Cyprus to protect it. In the middle Byzantine period, Armenian generals and governors served in Cyprus, like Alexios Mousele or Mousere who undertook the construction of Saint Lazarus' basilica in Larnaca. It appears that Saint Lazarus' church had been an Armenian Apostolic church in the 10th century and was used by Armenian-Catholics during the Latin Era as well. The numerous Armenians required an analogous spiritual pastorate, and so in 973 Catholicos Khatchig I established the Armenian Bishopric in Nicosia. Relations between Cyprus and the Armenians became closer when the Kingdom of Cilicia was established. Between 1136 and 1138, Byzantine Emperor John II Comnenus moved the entire population of the Armenian city of Tell Hamdun to Cyprus. After Isaac Comnenus' wedding to the daughter of the Armenian prince Thoros II in 1185, Armenian nobles and warriors came with him to Cyprus, many of whom defended the island against Richard the Lionheart, when he landed in Limassol.

Latin Era (1191–1570)

After the purchase of Cyprus by titular Frankish King of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan in 1192, in his attempt to establish a western-type feudal kingdom, the latter sent emissaries to Europe, Cilicia and the Levant, resulting in a massive immigration of Armenians and other peoples. Because of their proximity, their commercial ties and a series of royal and nobility marriages, the Kingdom of Cyprus and the Kingdom of Cilicia became inextricably linked. In the subsequent centuries, thousands of Cilician Armenians sought refuge in Cyprus fleeing the Muslim attacks such as the Fall of Antioch. Cyprus became now the easternmost bulwark of Christianity; in 1441 the authorities of Famagusta invited Armenians from Cilicia to settle there. The Fall of Sis in April 1375 put an end to the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia; its last King, Levon V, was granted safe passage to Cyprus. Although the Egyptian Mamelukes had taken over Cilicia, they were unable to maintain their hold on it; Turkic tribes eventually made their way to the region and established themselves there, leading to the conquest of Cilicia by Tamerlane. As a result, 30,000 Armenians left Cilicia in 1403 and settled in Cyprus, which continued to be ruled by the Lusignan dynasty until 1489. During the Frankish and the Venetian Eras, there were Armenian churches in Nicosia, Famagusta, Spathariko. Armenians were amongst the seven most important religious groups in Cyprus, in possession of stores and shops in the ports of Famagusta, Limassol and Paphos, as well as in the capital Nicosia, thus controlling a large segment of commerce. Additionally, Armenian was one of the eleven official languages of the Kingdom of Cyprus. According to chroniclers Leontios Makhairas, Georgios Boustronios and Florio Bustron, the Armenians of Nicosia had their own Prelature and used to live in their own quarter, called ''Armenia'' or ''Armenoyitonia''. In Famagusta, a Bishopric was established in the late 12th century and Armenians lived around the Syrian quarter. Historical documents suggest the presence of an important monastic and theological centre there, at which Saint Nerses Lampronatsi is said to have studied.

During the Middle Ages, Armenians in Cyprus were actively engaged in commerce, while some of them formed military garrisons in Kyrenia and elsewhere. A number of Armenians defended the Frankish Kingdom of Cyprus against the Genoese at Xeros, against the Saracens at Stylli village and against the Mamelukes in Limassol and Khirokitia. By 1425, the renowned Magaravank – originally the Coptic monastery of Saint Makarios near Halevga came under Armenian possession, as did sometime before 1504 the Benedictine/Carthusian nunnery of Notre Dame de Tyre or Tortosa in walled Nicosia. During the Latin Era, there was also a small number of Armenian Catholics in Nicosia, Famagusta and the Bellapais Abbey, where Lord Hayton of Corycus served as a monk. The prosperity of the inhabitants of Cyprus was brought to a halt by the harsh and corrupt Venetian administration and the iniquitous taxes they imposed. Their tyrannical rule, combined with adverse conditions, caused a noticeable decline in the island's population. According to historian Stephen de Lusignan, by the late Venetian Era, Armenians lived mainly in Famagusta and Nicosia and, in small numbers, at three "Armenian villages", Platani, Kornokipos and Spathariko.

Ottoman Era (1570–1878)

During the Ottoman conquest of the island, about 40,000 Ottoman-Armenian craftsmen were recruited. Many of the Ottoman Armenians who survived the conquest settled mainly in Nicosia, increasing its Armenian population, while the Armenian Prelature of Cyprus was recognised as an Ethnarchy, through the ''millet'' institution. However, the Bishopric in Famagusta was abolished, as the Christian population was slaughtered or expelled and the entire walled city became forbidden for non-Muslims. As a reward for their services during the conquest, the Armenians of Nicosia were granted the right to guard Paphos Gate. However this privilege was used only for a short period. By a ''firman'', they were given back the Notre Dame de Tyre church, which the Ottomans had turned into a salt store. Additionally, the Magaravank monastery had won the favour of the Ottomans and became an important way station for Armenian and other pilgrims en route to the Holy Land, as well as a place of rest for travellers and Catholicoi and other clergymen from Cilicia and Jerusalem. Contrary to the Latins and the Maronites, Armenians – being Oriental Orthodox rather than Catholic – were not persecuted because of their religion by the Ottomans. Even though about 20,000 Armenians lived in Cyprus during the very first years of the Ottoman Era, by 1630 only 2,000 Armenians remained, out of a total of 56,530 inhabitants.

In the Bedesten, there were many Armenian merchants and in the late 18th century/early 19th century Nicosia's leading citizen was an Armenian trader called Sarkis, who was a "''beratli''" and was initially the dragoman for the French Consul, before becoming the dragoman for the English Consul. Gifted with the acumen of industry, Armenians practised lucrative professions and in the beginning of the 17th century Persian Armenians settled in Cyprus as silk traders, as did some affluent Ottoman-Armenians in the 18th and 19th centuries, such as Boghos-Berge Agha Eramian. However, with the new order of things, the number of Armenians and other Christians dramatically declined due to the onerous taxation and the harshness of the Ottoman administration, compelling many Christians to become Linobambaki, Crypto-Christians, which explains why former Armenian villages were inhabited by Turkish-Cypriots at the end of the 19th century. A few Armenian-Cypriots became Catholics through marriage with affluent Roman Catholic families.

Gradually, after the bloody 1821 events, the Ottomans destroyed the Armenian and Greek mansions, prohibited Greeks, Franks, Armenians and Maronites from carrying guns and hanged or massacred 470 notables, amongst them the Armenian parish priest of Nicosia, der Bedros, some improvements were observed during the Tanzimat period. In the spirit of the Hatt-ı Şerif of Gülhane, the Armenian Bishop, the Greek Archbishop and the Maronite Suffragan Bishop participated in the Administrative Council, which was formed in 1840. After 1850, some Armenians were employed in the civil service, while in 1860 the Notre Dame de Tyre became amongst the first in Cyprus to have a belfry. Additionally, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 benefited the Armenian and other merchants of the island, while in 1870 the first Armenian school was established in Nicosia by newly arrived Archimandrite Vartan Mamigonian. Furthermore, as a result of the Hatt-ı Hümayun in 1856, the administrative autonomy of the Armenian Prelature of Cyprus was officially recognised. Based on various estimates, the Armenian-Cypriot community of the 19th century numbered between 150 and 250 persons, the majority of whom lived in Nicosia, with smaller numbers living in Famagusta, Larnaca, the north and south of the capital and, naturally, around the Magaravank.

British Era (1878–1960)

With the arrival of the British in July 1878 and their progressive administration, the already small Armenian community of the island was particularly strengthened. Known for their linguistic skills, several Armenians were contracted to Cyprus to work as interpreters and public servants at the consulates and the British administration, such as Apisoghom Utidjian. The number of Armenians in Cyprus significantly increased following the massive deportations, the massacres and the genocide perpetrated by the Ottomans and the Young Turks. Cyprus welcomed over 10,000 refugees from Cilicia, Smyrna and Constantinople, who arrived in Larnaca and all its other harbours, about 1,500 of them made the island their new home. Industrious, cultivated and progressive, they brought new life into the old community and establish themselves as people of the arts, letters and sciences, entrepreneurs and merchants, craftsmen and photographers, as well as professionals who introduced new crafts, dishes and sweets to the island, thus contributing to Cyprus' socioeconomic and cultural development. The newcomers established associations, choirs, sports groups, Scout groups, bands, churches, schools and cemeteries throughout Cyprus. Armenians were the first locksmiths, mechanics, seat, comb and stamp makers, upholsterers, watchmakers and zincographers in Cyprus. They were the first to introduce the cinema, they significantly improved the craft of shoemaking and it was Armenians who first introduced Armenian bastourma, baklava, dried apricots, gassosa, gyros, halva, ice cubes, koubes, lahmadjoun, lokmadhes and pompes into the Cypriot cuisine. Armenians also introduced two techniques of embroidery needlework: the Aintab work and the Marash work.

Law-abiding by nature, Armenian-Cypriots always had a high-profile with the British administration and many became conscientious civil servants and disciplined policemen or were employed at the Cyprus Government Railway and at Cable and Wireless. Throughout the 1920s–1950s, many worked at the asbestos mines at Amiandos and the copper mines at Mavrovouni and Skouriotissa, some of whom had been trade unionists. Some Armenian-Cypriots participated in the 1897 Greco-Turkish War, the two World Wars and the EOKA struggle. Also, the Eastern Legion was formed and trained between December 1916 and May 1918 in Monarga village, near Boghazi, consisting of over 4,000 Diasporan Armenian volunteers who fought against the Ottoman Empire. Some Armenian refugees arrived from Palestine and Egypt. The Armenian-Cypriot community prospered throughout the British Era, by establishing associations. In many ways unique across the whole Armenian Diaspora, it was built just outside Nicosia between 1924 and 1926, after the generous and benevolent donation of the Egyptian-Armenian tobacco trading brothers Krikor and Garabed Melkonian, initially in order to shelter and educate 500 orphans of the Genocide, who planted the trees in front of the school in memory of their slaughtered relatives. From an orphanage (1926–1940), it gradually became a world-renowned secondary school with a boarding section.

Independence Era (1960–present)

The end of the EOKA struggle found Armenian-Cypriots having forged strong bonds with the rest of the Cypriots. The 1960 Independence brought a new era for the Armenians of Cyprus, who – together with the Maronite and Roman Catholics – were recognised as a "''religious group''" by the Cypriot Constitution and were now represented by an elected Representative. The size of the community, however, had been reduced because of the emigration of about 900 Armenian-Cypriots to the United Kingdom, due to the emergency situation caused by the EOKA struggle and the poor state of the local economy. A second factor that contributed to the reduction of the community's size was the emigration of about 600 Armenian-Cypriots to Soviet Armenia, as part of the pan-Armenian movement for repatriation.

During the intercommunal Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, the Armenian-Cypriot community suffered major losses, as the Armenian quarter of Nicosia fell into the Turkish Cypriot-controlled area: taken were the Prelature building, the mediaeval Notre Dame de Tyre, the Melikian-Ouzounian school, the Genocide Monument, the club houses of the Armenian Club, AYMA and Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), as well as the Armenian Evangelical church; also taken was the mediaeval Ganchvor church in Famagusta. In total, 231 Armenian-Cypriot families became victims and/or lost their shops and enterprises. As a result, hundreds of Armenian-Cypriots left for Great Britain, Canada, Australia and the United States. After the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the Armenian-Cypriot community suffered additional losses, several families became refugees, the renowned Magaravank monastery in Pentadhaktylos was taken by the Turkish troops, the Melkonian boys dormitory was bombed by the Turkish Air Force, while the Ayios Dhometios Armenian cemetery was hit by mortars and fell within the buffer zone. As a result, dozens of Armenian-Cypriots emigrated, mainly to Great Britain. In total, about 1,300 Armenian-Cypriots left Cyprus in the 1960s and 1970s, in addition to those who emigrated to Soviet Armenia.

With the unfailing support of the government, the small yet industrious Armenian community of Cyprus gradually managed to recover from its losses and continued to prosper in the remaining urban areas, contributing culturally and socioeconomically to the development. On 24 April 1975, Cyprus became the first European country to recognise the Armenian genocide with Resolution 36/1975; two more resolutions followed, Resolution 74/1982 and Resolution 103/1990, with the latter declaring 24 April as a National Remembrance Day of the Armenian genocide in Cyprus. Over the past decades, the dynamics of the Armenian-Cypriot community have changed with the increased number of marriages with Greek-Cypriots and other non-Armenians, and the arrival over the last 30–35 years of thousands of Armenian political and economic immigrants because of the civil war in Lebanon, the insurgencies in Syria, the Islamic revolution in Iran and the Iran–Iraq War, as well as after the Spitak earthquake and the dissolution of the Soviet Union; some of them have settled permanently in Cyprus. According to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of the Council of Europe, the Armenian language – the mother tongue of the vast majority of Armenian-Cypriots – was recognised as a minority language of Cyprus on 1 December 2002. Today, it is estimated that the Armenians living in Cyprus number about 3,500. In Cyprus there is also a small number of Armenians coming from Ethiopia, Greece, Kuwait, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Demography

There is no accurate information as to the number of Armenians living in Cyprus during the Byzantine Era. Although during the early Kingdom of Cyprus there were tens of thousands of Armenians living in Cyprus (mainly in Nicosia and Famagusta – where in the latter they numbered around 1,500 souls in 1360), by the late Frankish Era and certainly during the Venetian Era, the number of Armenians in Cyprus dwindled – for a number of reasons: this was due to the tyrannical rule of the Venetian administration, combined with the adverse natural conditions (which affected all Cypriots), as well as the Hellenisation of the various minorities of the island. In fact, the 1572 survey of population and property of Nicosia after the Ottoman conquest, under beylerbey Sinan Pasha, recorded 90–95 local Armenians in Nicosia, out of about 1,100 inhabitants – all with completely Hellenised names.

It appears that during the very first years of the Ottoman Era (1570–1878), about 20,000 of the 40,000 recruited Ottoman Armenians had remained in Cyprus. Their number, however, rapidly declined, due to the harshness and the oppression of the regime, the onerous taxation and the natural disasters: according to the Latin Bishop of Paphos, Pietro Vespa, in 1630 there were only 2,000 Armenians in Cyprus (out of a total population of 56,350 – mostly living in rural areas), as a great number emigrated elsewhere and many others embraced Islam or they became Linobambaki. Franciscan missionary Giovanni Battista da Todi recorded only 200 Armenians in Nicosia in 1647, while in 1660 he recorded over 300 Armenians on the island. Cardinal Bernardino Spada, representative of Propaganda Fide, also mentioned 200 Armenians in Nicosia in 1648, out of 3,000 inhabitants, also mentioning that their church was the largest in the capital, with 3 priests. Up until the mid-18th century, despite the limited arrival of Ottoman Armenians and Persian Armenians, their number was rather small. Russian monk Basil Barsky, who visited the island in 1727 and 1735, mentions "some Armenians" living in Nicosia. Visiting Cyprus in 1738, British traveller Richard Pococke mentions "very few Armenians, yet they have possession of an ancient church n Nicosia, while for the island as a whole he makes mention to "a small number of Armenians, who are very poor, though they have an Archbishop and a convent in the country". However, by the time Italian Abbot Giovanni Mariti visited Cyprus in 1760 and 1767, they had apparently become "the richest section of the inhabitants f Nicosia, which is why thought "there are many Armenians n the island. By the mid–19th century, following various waves of Hellenisation and Turkification, the number of Armenian-Cypriots ranged between 150 and 200.

When the Scot John MacDonald Kinneir visited Cyprus in 1814, he estimated about 40 Armenian families in Nicosia (around 200 persons) – out of a total of 2,000 families (about 10,000 persons), as did British Consul Niven Kerr and Greek Vice-Consul Demetrios Margarites in 1844 and 1847, respectively. The first large-scale Ottoman census in 1831, under the supervision of Muhassil (governor) Halil Effendi, counted 114 non-Muslim males in the Armenian quarter of Nicosia and 13 at the Armenian Monastery (with a total male population of 45,365). Therefore, the number of Armenians in Cyprus would have been around 200 (out of a total of about 88,500). Visiting Cyprus in 1835, American missionary Rev. Lorenzo Warriner Pease writes "the number of Armenians n Nicosiais between 30 and 40 families". In 1841, about 200 Armenians lived on the island (out of a total of 108,600), of whom about 150-160 resided in Nicosia (with a population of 12,000) – according to the record of population by Muhassil Talât Effendi and the writings of French historians and travellers Louis Lacroix and Count Louis de Mas Latrie. The Latin Vicar General Paolo Brunoni also mentioned 200 Armenians in Nicosia in 1848, as well as some others at the Magaravank. In 1874 Belgian traveller Edmond Paridant-van der Cammen estimated 190 Armenians in Nicosia (out of a total of 13,530). Although unreliable for the Armenian population of Nicosia (mentioning only 20 families in 1875), researcher Philippos Georgiou recorded 6-8 Armenian families around the Magaravank and 5 Armenian families in Larnaca. In 1877, newly arrived priest Hovhannes Shahinian recorded 152 Armenians living in Cyprus, while the first modern population census of Nicosia, carried out in 1879 by the District Commissioner, Major-General Sir Robert Biddulph, counted 166 Armenians – out of a total of 11,197 inhabitants.

The British colonial censuses that took place between 1881 and 1956 provide us with fairly accurate data on the Armenian population of Cyprus. The following numbers are the combined figures of those recorded as Armenians (by religion) and those recorded as speakers of Armenian: in 1881 there were 201 Armenians in Cyprus (of whom 174 belonged to the " Armenian Church"), who increased to 291 in 1891 (of whom 269 were " Gregorians" and 11 " Armenian Catholics") and to 553 in 1901 (of whom 491 were "Gregorians" and 26 "Armenian Catholics"); the numerical increase was due to the influx of Armenian refugees from the Hamidian massacres. In 1911 there were 611 Armenians in Cyprus (of whom 549 were "Gregorians" and 9 "Armenian Catholics"), while in 1921 their number rose to 1,573 (of whom 1,197 belonged to the "Armenian Church") and to 3,617 in 1931 (of whom 3,377 were "Armenian Gregorians"), as a result of the huge wave of refugees from the Armenian genocide.

In 1935 the Armenian Prelature recorded 3,819 Armenians in Cyprus: 102 were "native Cypriots" (mainly residing in Nicosia), 399 resided at the Melkonian Educational Institute, while 3,318 were "refugees", i.e. genocide survivors and their descendants; of those, 2,139 lived in Nicosia, 678 in Larnaca, 205 in Limassol, 105 in Famagusta, 58 in Amiandos, 25 in Lefka, 20 in Kalo Khorio (Lefka), 18 in Pano Lefkara, 17 around the Magaravank, 5 in Kyrenia, 4 in Paphos and 44 in various villages. In 1946 there were 3,962 Armenians in Cyprus (of whom 3,686 were "Armenian Gregorians"), while in 1956 they numbered 4,549.

The last accurate census of the population of Cyprus with regard to its ethnic breakdown was carried out in 1960; it recorded 3,628 Armenians in Cyprus (of whom 3,378 were " Armenian Gregorians"). In 1978 and 1987 the Armenian Prelature recorded the Armenian population of Cyprus, which was 1,787 and 2,742, respectively (however, without extra information regarding their geographical distribution).

Since then, their number has increased; currently, about 3,500 Armenians live in Cyprus: 65% live in the capital, Nicosia, 20% in Larnaca, 10% in Limassol and 5% in Paphos and some villages. Over 95% of the Armenian population of Cyprus speak Armenian and are Armenian Orthodox (also known as Armenian Apostolic or Gregorian); some 5% belong either to the Armenian Evangelical Church, Armenian Catholic Church, Latin Church, Greek Orthodox Church, Anglican Church Plymouth Brethren Church, Seventh-day Adventist Church or they are Jehovah's Witnesses. About 1,000 out of the 3,500 Armenians who live in Cyprus hail from Armenia, Lebanon, Syria, Russia, Georgia, Persia, Greece, Iraq, Ethiopia, Turkey and Kuwait. Most of the first wave of Armenians from Armenia who arrived in Cyprus from 1988 onwards were in fact the Armenian-Cypriots and their descendants who emigrated to Armenia between 1962 and 1964, as part of the nerkaght (''ներգամթ – repatriation'') Panarmenian movement.

According to available information, the about 1,000 refugees from the Hamidian massacres (1894–1896) mainly originated from Diyarbakir (Dikranagerd), Aintab and Kilis; only about 100 of them stayed. The next wave of Armenian refugees were the about 2,000 who fled the Adana massacre in 1909, most of whom returned to their ancestral homes in Adana within the same year. However, the largest wave of Armenian refugees – some of whom had come before and returned – were the nearly 9,000 who escaped the massive deportations, the horrific massacres and the genocide perpetrated by the Ottomans and the Young Turks; about 1,300 of them decided to stay, while the others eventually made arrangements to settle in other countries. Those refugees came mainly from Adana and Seleucia (Silifke), while there a significant number of them came from Sis, Marash, Tarsus, Caesarea, Hadjin and Aintab; smaller numbers came from other places, alphabetically: Adapazar, Adrianople (Edirne), Afion-Karahisar, Alexandretta (Iskenderoun), Arapgir, Armash, Baghche, Bardizag, Balian Dagh, Biredjik, Bitlis

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