Armenians in Post-Socialist Europe

240 Pages·2016·10.035 MB·English

by  Konrad Siekierski, Stefan Troebst (eds.)

Armenier im östlichen Europa
Armenians in Eastern Europe
Edited by
Bálint Kovács and Stefan Troebst
Together with
Marina Dmitrieva and Christian Lübke
Volume 3
Editorial Board:
René Bekius, Amsterdam (NL)
Gérard Dédéyan, Montpellier (FR)
Waldemar Deluga, Warsaw (PL)
Viktor I. Djatlov, Irkutsk (RU)
Armenuhi Drost-Abgarjan, Halle/S. (DE)
Irina Ja. Hajuk, L’viv (UA)
Richard G. Hovannisian, Los Angeles (US)
Andreas Kappeler, Vienna (AT)
Armen Ju. Kazarjan, Moscow (RU)
Kéram Kévonian, Paris (FR)
Dickran Kouymjian, Fresno (US)
Rudi Matthee, Newark (US)
Evgenija Mitseva (†), Sofia (BG)
Claire Mouradian, Paris (FR)
Claude Mutafian, Paris (FR)
Aleksandr L. Osipjan, Kramatorsk (UA)
Judit Pál, Cluj-Napoca (RO)
Irina N. Skvorcova, Minsk (BY)
Anna Sirinian, Bologna (IT)
Krzysztof Stopka, Cracow (PL)
Šušanik Xačikjan, Yerevan (AM)
Armenians in
Post-Socialist Europe
Edited by
Konrad Siekierski and Stefan Troebst
2016
BÖHL AU VER LAG KÖLN WEI MAR WIEN
Gedruckt mit Unterstützung des / This publication was made possible by the generous funding of
Geisteswissenschaftlichen Zentrums Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas e.V.
an der Universität Leipzig.
Das dieser Publikation zugrunde liegende Vorhaben wurde mit Mitteln des Bundesministeriums
für Bildung und Forschung unter dem Förderschwerpunkt „Geisteswissenschaftliche Zentren“
(Förderkennzeichen 01UG1410) gefördert.
Die Verantwortung für den Inhalt dieser Veröffentlichung liegt bei den Autoren.
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Cataloging-in-publication data:
http://portal.dnb.de
Cover illustration:
Front pages of Armenian journals: Aniv, 1 (10), 2007 (Belarus/Russia); Ararat, 17–18
(468–469), 2013 (Romania); Orer, 5–7 (68), 2013 (the Czech Republic).
Used with permission of publishers. Cover design by Konrad Siekierski and Böhlau Verlag.
© 2016 by Böhlau Verlag GmbH & Cie, Köln Weimar Wien
Ursulaplatz 1, D–50668 Köln, www.boehlau-verlag.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Translations: Jakub Ozimek (chapters by David Davtyan and Andrzej Tichomirow)
and Nikolina Panova (chapter by Siranush Papazian-Tanielian)
Copy Editing: Patrick White, Leipzig
Production: WBD Wissenschaftlicher Bücherdienst, Köln
Printed on acid-free and chlorine-free bleached paper
ISBN 978-3-412-50155-6
In memory of Dr. Tomasz Marciniak
(1966–2015)

Contents

Stefan Troebst
Editorial to the Book Series Armenier im östlichen Europa –
Armenians in Eastern Europe ....................................................... 9
Note on Transliteration ........................................................... 11
Konrad Siekierski
Studying Armenians in Post-Socialist Europe: Problems and Perspectives .......... 13
Viktor Dyatlov
Armenians of Contemporary Russia: Diasporic Strategies of Integration ........... 26
Ulrike Ziemer
Unsettled Identity Negotiations: The Armenian Diaspora in Krasnodar Krai ...... 39
Annett Fleischer
Armenian Returnees from Russia:
Struggles between Reintegration and Re-Emigration .............................. 54
Timothy K. Blauvelt & Christofer Berglund
Armenians in the Making of Modern Georgia ..................................... 69
David Davtyan
The Armenian Diaspora in Post-Socialist Ukraine ................................. 86
Lidia Prisac & Ion Xenofontov
The Armenians in the Republic of Moldova:
Demographic, Cultural, and Religious Aspects .................................... 98
Andrzej Tichomirow
Armenians in Belarus Today and in the Past ....................................... 107
Aghasi Tadevosyan & Alina Poghosyan
Transculturation as a Fragmented Dialogue:
Everyday Practices of an Armenian Migrant Family in Latvia ...................... 121
8 Contents
Brigitta Davidjants
Identity Construction in Narratives:
Activists of the Armenian Diaspora in Estonia ..................................... 129
Łukasz Łotocki
The Post-Soviet Armenian Immigration to Poland ................................. 143
Hakob Asatryan
The Armenians in the Czech Republic: A Community in the Making ............. 159
Hakob A. Matevosyan
Incompatible Identities: The Armenian Diasporic Communities in Hungary ...... 170
István Horváth & Ilka Veress
The Armenians in Romania: Cultural Strategies and State Policies ................. 179
Siranush Papazian-Tanielian
The Community Life of Armenians in Post-Socialist Bulgaria ..................... 193
Konrad Siekierski
Completing the Story: Armenians in Other Countries of Post-Socialist Europe .... 205
List of Contributors ............................................................... 221
Index ............................................................................. 224
Stefan Troebst
Editorial to the Book Series
Armenier im östlichen Europa –
Armenians in Eastern Europe
While the formative presence of Jews and German in the medieval and the modern history
of Eastern Europe is for a long time in the focus of research in the humanities and social
sciences, the Armenian dimension is much less so. “I pass over the Armenians, whom I
regard only as travelers in our continent”, wrote in 1791 Johann Gottfried Herder in his
famous Ideas of a Philosophy of the History of Mankind 1 – a perception which more than
two hundred years later still seems to prevail. Of course, in numbers the Armenians have
here always been much less than Jews and Germans, and in the 19th century they have
assimilated to a high degree to their respective host societies. But then there were the
waves of flight and expulsion from the Ottoman Empire and ultimately from post-Soviet
South Caucasus to the Balkans, to East-Central Europe and to Russia. Accordingly, in
historical terms the Armenian presence here is a multi-layered one, and the segments of
Armenian communities from today’s Bulgaria to Estonia and from the Czech Republic
to the Russian Federation differ considerably in terms of culture, denomination, identity
and even language.
The book series Armenier im östlichen Europa – Armenians in Eastern Europe with Böhlau
Publishers, inaugurated in 20142, is the offspring of a research project on “Armenians in
the Economy and Culture of Eastern Europe (14th to 19th Centuries)” conducted by the
Leipzig Centre for the History and Culture of East-Central Europe (GWZO) and financed
by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) during the years
2008 – 2013. In the book series monographs, collective volumes and source editions as well
as translations of recent and older texts from lesser accessible languages like Armenian,
1 Herder, Johann Gottfried: Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man. Translated by
T. O. Churchill. London: Printed for J. Johnson by L. Hansard 1800 (Reprint New York: Bergman,
1966), p. 703. The German original reads: “Ich übergehe die Armenier, die ich in unserm Weltteil
nur als Reisende betrachte“. See Herder, Johann Gottfried: Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der
Menschheit. Vierter Teil. Sechzehntes Buch: V. Fremde Völker in Europa. In Idem: Werke. Ed. by
Wolfgang Pross. Vol. III/1. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 2002, p. 647.
2 The volume first published in the series is Die Kunst der Armenier im östlichen Europa edited by
Marina Dmitrieva and Bálint Kovács (Köln, Weimar, Wien: Böhlau, 2014). This volume deals
with architecture, art, and museum collections of Armenians in East-Central Europe. See also:
http://www.boehlau-verlag.com/978-3-412-21107-3.html.
10 Stefan Troebst
Hungarian or Ukrainian will be published. The idea behind is to bring into a productive
dialogue not only specialists in Armenian Studies with those in East European Studies, but
also historians and art historians with anthropologists, sociologist and experts in migration
and diaspora studies. As a result, this series will help to highlight the Armenian impact on
the history and present of Eastern Europe and simultaneously to put Southeastern Europe,
East-Central Europe and Eurasia on the global map of Armenian diasporas.
Leipzig, October 2015