Assyrians in Armenia

Assyrians in Armenia (Ասորիներ, Āsōrīnēr) make up the country's third largest ethnic minority, after Yazidis and Russians. According to the 2011 census, there are 2,769 Assyrians living in Armenia, and Armenia is home to some of the last surviving Assyrian communities in the Caucasus. There were 6,000 Assyrians in Armenia before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but because of Armenia's struggling economy during the 1990s, the population has been cut by half, as many have emigrated. Today's Assyrian population in Armenia are mostly descendants of settlers who came starting in the early nineteenth century during the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828), when thousands of refugees fled their homeland in the areas around Urmia in Persia. In the beginning of the 20th century, many came from what is today Southeastern Turkey, specifically the Hakkari region, where it was common to have Assyrians and Armenians living in the same villages. Assyrians, like their Armenian neighbors, suffered during a genocide by the Ottoman Turks, in which an estimated over 750000 Assyrians perished. As many Armenians fled Anatolia for what is today Armenia, many Assyrians followed as well, citing it as the only "Christian haven" in the region, although many also fled to Georgia (see Assyrians in Georgia). Throughout history, relations between the Assyrians and Armenian majority have tended to be very friendly, as both groups have practiced Christianity since ancient times and have suffered through persecution under Muslim rulers. The mixed Assyro-Armenian marriages are quite high on the percentage scale, this situation being also noted in Iraq and Iran, and in the Diaspora with adjacent Armenian and Assyrian communities. Historically, the Assyrians have always been described as men of gallantry, nearly always siding with the Armenians in rebellious situations. Along with other Christian populations they have been the subject of genocide within the Ottoman Empire and the Arab and Islamic world.