Assyrians in Armenia

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Subject: Assyrians in Armenia

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Assyrians in Armenia


RFE/RL Armenian Service
Armenia Report
 
Thursday
13 August 1998
NEWS BRIEFS
 
Assyrians In Armenia Highlight Problems But Deny Discrimination
 
Leaders of Armenia's ethnic Assyrian community said on Wednesday that
while there has been no consistent government effort to discriminate
against them, the ancient nation dispersed around the world, faces
problems preserving its identity. "The Armenian state does everything
for us not to leave the country but there are still some problems,"
said Irina Gasparian, a leading figure in the community. She told
reporters that getting proper education in their native Aramaic
language is the chief concern of some 4,000 Assyrians living in
Armenia.
 
Assyrians were subjected to systematic assimilation and deportation
after the destruction more than two millennia ago of their powerful
empire. The first Assyrian settlers came to the territory of
present-day Armenia from Persia in the early 19th century after it was
incorporated into the Russian Empire. Assyrians in Armenia, a
Christian people, numbered 9,000 in the late 1980s but many emigrated
in the following years in the face of worsening economic conditions.
 
The community leaders urged the authorities to intervene in a language
dispute in one of the three predominantly Assyrian villages near
Yerevan. They said the ethnic Armenian principal of the secondary
school in Verin Dvin impedes classes in Aramaic language and has fired
a teacher, one of the few specialists in the field. Vladimir Khosroev,
another Assyrian-Armenian leader, at the same time hailed the upcoming
opening in Yerevan of the first Assyrian class. "This means that in
the year 2000 our children will be able to recite poems in the
colloquial language of Jesus Christ," he said.
 
(Anna Saghabalian)
 
Copyright (c) 1998. RFE/RL, Inc. This excerpt from the "Armenia
Report" is used with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty. 
http://www.rferl.org

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