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6/1/1997
THE ARMENIANS OF THE CRIMEA: AN UNINTERRUPTED PRESENCE
Ukraine
by David Zenian

When a group of Armenian "pilgrims" visits the Crimea in August this year, they will trace the footsteps of their ancestors who first began settling the region more than 1280 years ago.

Their walk through history will give them a taste of one of the oldest Armenian communities in the Diaspora. They will witness not only the ancient Armenian heritage of the Crimea but also the post-communist renaissance of fellow Armenians, including the survivors of the Stalinist era.

The Crimean peninsula, in the extreme southern part of Ukraine, has always held a special place in Armenian history. In three different waves, Armenians settled in the region from as early as the year 711, when an Armenian officer by the name of Vartan not only commanded one of the region's Byzantine Greek garrisons, but also-according to published historical records of an uprising in the Crimean town of Kherson-led a successful revolt against his opponents.

The "Chronicle" of Matevos Urhaetsi, shows that in 1065 Caesar Constantine convened a military conference of his Armenian contingents after which Armenian soldiers and officers were dispatched across the Sea of Azov to the banks of the Don river to defend the outlying regions of the Byzantine Empire.

Research also indicates that an Armenian Nobleman by the name of Galogir entered into negotiations on behalf of the region's Byzantine rulers with Prince Svyadoslav of Kiev.

The Armenian military garrisons scattered across the Crimea attracted not only the families of soldiers and officers, but in the centuries that followed, Armenian traders, artisans and sailors, especially in the coastal regions of the peninsula-which were rapidly developing into a major trading center with Europe, thanks to the Greek and Italian commercial presence.

Large numbers of refugees first settled in the Crimean coastal town of Sudak, which, according to 12th century Slavic historical records, was often referred to as a predominantly Armenian-inhabited city.

A manuscript dated 1305 and written in Kaffa, which is now known as Teodossia or Feodossia, notes that an Armenian priest by the name of Father Avetik was instrumental in the construction of the Holy Trinity Church and part of the Saint Mary Monastery.

The presence of these at least two religious institutions is an indication that a large Armenian community had already taken shape in Kaffa well before the influx of Armenians into the Crimea in late 1330's-the arrival of thousands of survivors from Ani, the 10th century capital of Armenia which was sacked by the Seljuks and finally destroyed by the earthquake of 1319.

A tombstone dated 1027 and brought from Ani to Kaffa by refugees is preserved in the city's museum. It is known as the "Stone of Ani".

The growing number of Armenians and established settlements paved the way for several Armenian historians including Tavit Ghrimetsi (David of Crimea), Martiros Ghrimetsi (Martiros of Crimea) who in 1627 wrote the "History of Crimea" starting with the Armenian immigration from Ani to the 17th century, and Khatchatour Kaffayetsi (Khatchatour of Kaffa) who chronicled the development of the Armenian communities in Crimea. Some of their manuscripts, which are extraordinary primary sources on the history of the Armenian presence in the region, are now at the Manuscript Library (Matenadaran) in Armenia while others are in Moscow and Oxford, England.

Literary works and early research materials based on these and other primary manuscripts, like records kept by the region's Genoese merchants, can also be found in the Holy See of Etchmiadzin in Armenia and the main library of the Armenian Mekhitarist Monastery of San Lazzaro in Venice.

According to these sources, the long history of Armenians in the Crimea has all but been tranquil. There have been ups and downs, but despite the difficulties, Armenians prospered, built dozens of churches, established schools, businesses and other enterprises.

The largest and most active of these Armenian communities was in the city of Kaffa where as early as 1316 there were three Armenian churches-an indication to the size and vitality of the Armenian presence.

According to a rare manuscript under the title of "Djar-endir" which was written in Kaffa (Teodossia) in 1305-and presently found in the library of the Mekhitarist Monastery in Venice-some of the church construction is credited to a local priest by the name of Avetik.

Other sources such as early records of the ruling Genoese merchants of the era, especially those compiled in years 1290, 1313, 1316, 1414 and 1449 indicate the presence of a large Armenian Catholic Diocese in Kaffa which controlled the entire city's water distribution rights.

Like in Kaffa, Armenians-according to Russian archeologists-also settled in Kherson in the Ukrainian mainland northwest of the Crimea, and Azov, along the northeastern coast of the Sea of Azov, where records dated 1341 already show that an Armenian church was in existence.

City after city, and town after town, the Armenians spread across the Crimea for hundreds of years building such a strong population base and trading infrastructure that by the first half of the 15th century some Europeans were already referring to the Crimea as "Armenia maretima", or "Maritime Armenia".

Pope Eugenius IV, in a letter dated 1432 to the Armenian community of Sukhat-today's Staryy Krym-refers to the town as part of Greater Armenia, or, in his own words: "In partibus Armeniae majoris."

His remarks are supported by a September 6, 1455 document written by a group of Genoese merchants in Kaffa stating that "in these lands, the majority of the local population are Armenians".

Similar references are seen in the works of 17th century Armenian writers Tavit Ghrimetsi and Martiros Ghrimetsi who speak of an Armenian renaissance in the Crimea between the 14th and 15th centuries.

How many Armenians lived in the Crimea in that period, and where?

According to Genoese sources, out of Kaffa's 70,000 population, some 46,000 were Armenians. Combined with the other cities and towns of the region, it brought to more than 300,000 the size of the Armenian population in the Crimea, including farmers, peasants, soldiers, traders and noblemen.

The Armenian presence was so strong that a so-called "Northern Diocese" was established to look after the spiritual needs of a region which had dozens of Armenian churches. In Kaffa alone, there were more than 40 Armenian churches.

But life for the large Armenian population was not always easy. They were often caught in the ongoing conflict between Kaffa's powerful merchants from the Italian city state of Genoa and their rivals from Venice who controlled the nearby town of Soughta-much to the advantage of the ruling Mongols and the Golden Horde which heavily taxed the region it had invaded and occupied in 1239.

During this era, the powerful Armenian traders and craftsmen lived mainly in the coastal towns of the Crimea, engaging in business with Genoese partners who had entered into special arrangements with the Mongols under which they in effect "rented" the Black Sea to Genoese naval traffic.

The Crimea was on the crossroads of east-west trade, and the Armenians were very much part of this, importing goods from points as far east as India and China and exporting them to markets in Europe.

Meanwhile, Armenian peasants and farmers-a majority of the Armenian population-established themselves in communities further inland where they tended their vineyards and exported wine.

Early writings, including one dated 1431, about the daily life of Armenians in the era indicate the presence of several benefactors, including one who placed a large sum of gold in a Genoese bank with instructions that interest gained from the amount would be paid yearly to the Saint Anton Monastery in Kaffa.

Another 14th century literary manuscript, which is presently in Etchmiadzin, indicates the involvement of a long list of benefactors in the funding of the work. The list includes "Garabed the weaver, Melikset the goldsmith, Baronshah the shoemaker, Tateos the painter, " and others.

Relations between the region's effective Armenian majority and the influential Genoese had its difficulties. There were hardships caused by heavy taxation on every type of work the Armenians were involved in-from fishing to industry, from salt production to private ownership of land and property.

The Armenians were in control of their community life and enjoyed a great deal of religious, cultural and ethnic freedom, producing a large number of scientists, historians, poets, and writers, including Hacob Ghrimetsi (who died in 1416), Stepanos Tokhatetsi (1558-1623), and the poet Khasbig (1610-1686).

But life for the Armenians in the Crimea also involved dealing with the region's various upheavals, the worst of which started with the Turkish Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453 and the closing of the only exit to the Mediterranean from the Black Sea , thus diminishing the strategic trade importance of the peninsula.

In 1475, the Ottomans attacked and captured the Crimea, crushing the once well established power of the Genoese merchant class-and the Armenians who often depended on them for their livelihood-thus gradually enhancing the role of the ethnic Tatars who were subordinate to the Ottoman Sultan.

Popular Armenian poet and Kaffa resident Gharib Nerces, describing the invasion, laments the burning of Armenian churches and the massive destruction of the city at the hands of the invading Ottoman army.

"They had heavy guns," he wrote. "The city was terrorized, shaken by the thunderous roar of their artillery. Homes and churches were destroyed, children died from fear, and mothers screamed in terror."

According to his account of events, 400 Ottoman ships were involved in the massive invasion as thousands of ground troops came ashore. The battle was lost after five days of resistance only because the city's Tatar population sided with the invading army.

"The invaders rounded up and disarmed Kaffa's defenders. Some were massacred, others forced to convert (into the Islamic faith) while many more were exiled to Constantinople to serve in the Ottoman army," he wrote in one of his works describing the prevailing crisis of the time. According to his writings, an estimated 10,000 Armenian men were forced to serve in the Ottoman army.

During the years that followed the Ottoman invasion and occupation of the Crimea, many Armenians were executed and 16 of Kaffa's 45 Armenian churches and monasteries were converted to mosques, triggering the first serious exodus of Armenians from the region where they had lived for centuries.

Compounding the situation was the famine of 1560 in the Crimea which was caused by a long drought. According to Vertanes, another Armenian historian of the era, "people were forced to sell their personal belongings. They killed and ate domestic animals, even cats and dogs."

Occupation, famine, persecution and the loss of the Crimea's economic luster had its toll on the Armenian communities and the lives they had built for themselves over the centuries.

In the years that followed, the Armenians barely survived the shock. Their numbers were diminished and so too was their strength, but others stayed on and a new revival was witnessed in the second part of the 16th century as the Crimea regained part of its maritime status with increased trade through the region between east and west.

First hand documents, especially by Armenian historian Martiros Ghrimetsi, describe the arrival of a new wave of Armenian immigrants from Armenia, Turkey and Persia to enhance the beleaguered communities in the Crimea.

But even that was short-lived, and another-and crippling-exodus was to follow after the Crimea fell under effective Russian hegemony in 1774 as a result of the Kuchuk Kainarja Treaty which forced the Ottomans to accept the independence of the ethnic Tatar Khanate of the Crimea.

In an apparent attempt to further crush the economy before the total annexation of the region by Russia in 1784, the Armenians were encouraged by Catherine the Great to leave and establish their own community in New Nakhichevan, on the outskirts of Rostov-na-Donu, only a few miles from the northeastern shores of the Sea of Azov where Armenian soldiers had first gone in 1065 to defend the outer fringes of the Byzantine Kingdom.

On July 18, August 20 and September 28, 1778, an estimated 12,000 Crimean Armenians left their homes and began new lives in what is today known as Nor Nakhichevan on the outskirts of Rostov-na-Donu in the northern Caucasus.

The loss of one community led to the birth of another, and in August this year Armenian "pilgrims" from many parts of the world will get a glimpse of not only the Crimea's ancient Armenian heritage, but the re-birth of new communities in a part of the world which was once called "Maritime Armenia."

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