Armenians in Ukraine are ethnic

Armenians Armenians ( hy, հայեր, '' hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diasp ...

who live in

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. They number 99,894 according to the 2001 Ukrainian census.2001 Ukrainian census
However, the country is also host to a number of Armenian

guest workers Foreign workers or guest workers are people who work in a country other than one of which they are a citizen. Some foreign workers use a guest worker program in a country with more preferred job prospects than in their home country. Guest worke ...

which has yet to be ascertained. The Armenian population in Ukraine has nearly doubled since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989, largely due to instability in the Caucasus. Ukraine is currently home to the 5th largest Armenian community in the world.

Early history

Surb-Khach monastery, Staryi Krym, Ukraine

Armenians first appeared in Ukraine during the times of

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...

. During the 10th century individual Armenian merchants, mercenaries and craftsmen served at the courts of various Ruthenian rulers. A larger wave of Armenians settled in southeastern Ukraine after the fall of the Armenian capital of

Ani Ani ( hy, Անի; grc-gre, Ἄνιον, ''Ánion''; la, Abnicum; tr, Ani) is a ruined medieval Armenian city now situated in Turkey's province of Kars, next to the closed border with Armenia. Between 961 and 1045, it was the capital of the ...

Seljuks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turk ...

in the 11th century. They arrived mainly at the Crimean peninsula and established colonies in Kaffa (

Feodosiya uk, Феодосія, Теодосія crh, Kefe , official_name = () , settlement_type= , image_skyline = THEODOSIA 01.jpg , imagesize = 250px , image_caption = Genoese fortress of Caffa , image_shield = Fe ...

Sudak Sudak (Ukrainian & Russian: Судак; crh, Sudaq; gr, Σουγδαία; sometimes spelled Sudac or Sudagh) is a town, multiple former Eastern Orthodox bishopric and double Latin Catholic titular see. It is of regional significance in Crimea, ...

and Solcati ( Staryi Krym). Their numbers were further strengthened throughout the 12th–15th century by Armenians fleeing from a Mongol invasion. This gave the peninsula the name Armenia Maritima in medieval chronicles. Smaller Armenian communities were established in central Ukraine, including

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

, and the western regions of

Podolia Podolia or Podilia ( uk, Поділля, Podillia, ; russian: Подолье, Podolye; ro, Podolia; pl, Podole; german: Podolien; be, Падолле, Padollie; lt, Podolė), is a historic region in Eastern Europe, located in the west-central ...

and Halychyna, concentrating around

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

which in 1267 became the center of an Armenian eparchy. At the end of the thirteenth century, when members of the

Armenian diaspora The Armenian diaspora refers to the communities of Armenians outside Armenia and other locations where Armenians are considered an indigenous population. Since antiquity, Armenians have established communities in many regions throughout the world. ...

moved from the Crimean peninsula to the Polish-Ukrainian borderland, they brought

Armeno-Kipchak Armeno-Kipchak (''Xıpçaχ tili'', ''bizim til'', ''Tatarça'') was a Turkic language belonging to Kipchak branch of the family that was spoken in Crimea during the 14–15th centuries. The language has been documented from the literary monume ...

, a

Turkic language The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic languag ...

with them. Armeno-Kipchak of the

Kipchak people The Kipchaks or Qipchaks, also known as Kipchak Turks or Polovtsians, were a Turkic nomadic people and confederation that existed in the Middle Ages, inhabiting parts of the Eurasian Steppe. First mentioned in the 8th century as part of the Sec ...

was still current in the 16th and 17th centuries among the

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

n communities settling in the

and

Kamianets-Podilskyi Kamianets-Podilskyi ( uk, Ка́м'яне́ць-Поді́льський, russian: Каменец-Подольский, Kamenets-Podolskiy, pl, Kamieniec Podolski, ro, Camenița, yi, קאַמענעץ־פּאָדאָלסק / קאַמעניץ, ...

area of what is now Ukraine. After Crimea fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1475 many Crimean Armenians moved further to the north-west to the already flourishing Armenian communities which gradually integrated into the local Polish population while maintaining their distinct identity through the

Armenian Catholic Church , native_name_lang = hy , image = St Elie - St Gregory Armenian Catholic Cathedral.jpg , imagewidth = 260px , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Saint Elias and Saint Gregory the Illuminat ...

. In the 18th century Crimea fell under influence of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, which encouraged Crimean Armenians to settle in Russia and a large group of them came to the town of

Rostov on Don Rostov-on-Don ( rus, Ростов-на-Дону, r=Rostov-na-Donu, p=rɐˈstof nə dɐˈnu) is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East Eu ...

in 1778, twenty years later Russia having conquered the peninsula called to colonize it and many Armenians arrived from Turkey, establishing new Armenian colonies. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

in 1944 Armenians were deported en masse along with Greeks, Bulgarians and Tatars as a "antisoviet element" and allowed to return only in the 1960s. During Soviet rule Armenians came together with people from other Soviet ruled nations to Ukraine to work in the heavy industry located in the eastern parts of the country.

Armenian community in modern Ukraine

Today, the Donetsk Oblast holds the greatest number of Armenians in Ukraine (~16 000, 0.33% of the population). Armenian communities can also be found in Dnipro,

Luhansk Luhansk (, ; uk, Луганськ, ), also known as Lugansk (, ; russian: Луганск, ), is a city in what is internationally recognised as Ukraine, although it is administered by Russia as capital of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). A ...

Mykolaiv Mykolaiv ( uk, Миколаїв, ) is a city and municipality in Southern Ukraine, the administrative center of the Mykolaiv Oblast. Mykolaiv city, which provides Ukraine with access to the Black Sea, is the location of the most downriver brid ...

Zaporizhzhia Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запоріжжя) or Zaporozhye (russian: Запорожье) is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a populat ...

, and Odessa where the late Ukrainian-Armenian artist Sarkis Ordyan spent most of his life. The city of

is a "spiritual capital" of Armenians in Ukraine serving as an eparchial see for both Catholic and Apostolic churches, under which Ukraine as a single eparchy is split between both of them. Alas, the

Armenian Catholic Archeparchy of Lviv The Armenian Catholic Archeparchy of Lviv is a former, non-Metropolitan archeparchy ( Eastern Catholic archdiocese) of the Armenian Catholic Church ''sui iuris'' (Armenian Rite). It existed in 1630 to 1944. It is immediately dependent on the Armen ...

is not occupied ever since the end of

and the Armenian Apostolic Church is predominant. The Armenians continue to have a historic presence in Crimea, which remains under Russian control since the

2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine The Russo-Ukrainian War; uk, російсько-українська війна, rosiisko-ukrainska viina. has been ongoing between Russia (alongside Russian separatists in Ukraine) and Ukraine since February 2014. Following Ukraine's Re ...

. The 9,000 Armenians make up 0.43% of the population in the area and are numerous in major urban centers such as

Sevastopol Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...

where they comprise 0.3% of the city's population. Hovhannes Aivazovsky, the world-renowned

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

painter lived and worked his entire life in the Crimean city of Feodosiya. Many Armenians living in Ukraine have been

Russified Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...

with about half speaking

as their mother tongue but over 43% speaking Russian and only 6% Ukrainian.

Distribution

Armenians in Ukraine by oblasts according to

2001 Ukrainian Census The Ukrainian Census of 2001 is to date the only census of the population of independent Ukraine. It was conducted by the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine on 5 December 2001, twelve years after the last Soviet Union census in 1989.

. Armenians in Ukraine by cities, according to the 2001 census: Armenians2001ua

Cultural heritage

Armenian cultural heritage in Ukraine: File:Вірменська церква Успіння Пресвятої Богородиці (2).JPG, Armenian Dormition Church in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi (14th century) File:Armenian Bell Tower.jpg, Armenian Belltower in

(16th century) File:Gorodenka Kosciol Ormianski DSC 9777 26-216-0002.JPG, Armenian church in Horodenka (18th century) File:ZwaniecKosciol.JPG, Armenian church in Zhvanets (18th century) File:Вірменська церква, Івано-Франківськ.jpg, Armenian church in Ivano-Frankivsk (18th century) File:Kuty kosciol ormianski DSC 5435 26-236-0014.JPG, Armenian church in

Kuty Kuty ( ua, Кути translit. ''Kuty'', german: Kutten, pl, Kuty, yi, קיטעוו translit. ''Kitev'', ro, Cuturi) is an urban-type settlement in Ukraine, on the Cheremosh river, in the Kosiv Raion of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. It is one of the ...

(18th century) File:Armenian church in Sniatyn, Ukraine 1.JPG, Armenian church in Sniatyn (18th century) File:Вірменська католицька церква Святих апостолів Петра та Павла.Jpg, Armenian church in Chernivtsi (19th century) File:Odessa St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Church.jpg, Armenian Surb Grigor Lusavorych church in Odessa (1995) File:Армянская церковь в Харькове.JPG, Armenian St. Resurrection church in

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Mykolaiv Mykolaiv ( uk, Миколаїв, ) is a city and municipality in Southern Ukraine, the administrative center of the Mykolaiv Oblast. Mykolaiv city, which provides Ukraine with access to the Black Sea, is the location of the most downriver brid ...

File:Luhanske Armenian church.jpg, Armenian church in

File:St. Nicholas Armenian Church in Ukraine, Kamenets-Podolsk.jpg, A 19th century postcard of St. Nicholas Armenian Church in Kamenets-Podolsk (destroyed during the 1930s)

References

External links

Вірмени в Україні

Kyiv Armenian community
{{Armenian diaspora