Recently, many Russians and Armenians of Russia call the Armenians the peoples of the Caucasus, but we should know that this is not entirely true. According to Wikipedia, Armenia is geographically located in the Caucasus, and this article will discuss the possible political arguments underlying this classification.
The republics of the North Caucasus are Russian republic-states (Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, Adygea). The Transcaucasia (or the Southern Caucasus) roughly corresponds to Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.
The territory of historical Armenia, one-tenth of which is now occupied by the Republic of Armenia, does not belong to the North Caucasus (associated with Russia) since it is located in the Armenian Highlands (this is a geographical term that has nothing to do with the Caucasus).
Armenians aren’t ethnically related to the people of the North Caucasus. They are much closer to the Greeks, Germans, European Russians, Iranians, and other ethnic groups. So what is the reason behind Armenia and Armenians being named a country and peoples of the Caucasus respectively?
With the coming of Russia to the Caucasus, only a small part of historical Armenia fell into its hands, and it did not make sense to single it out into a separate region. That’s why Armenia was included in a number of countries called the states of Caucasus by Russians for the sake of convenience. And until now by mistake and habit, Armenia is called the country of the Caucasus (again, maybe associated with Russia).
While actually, as we previously stated, Armenia is a part of the Caucasus (namely, the Transcaucasia), it might be more about the political causes behind such false “classification”. It might be done in an effort to associate Armenians and Armenia with Russians and Russia as the latter has significant political interests in Armenia.
The North Caucasus is entirely occupied by Russian republics, and maybe Russians are trying to say that Armenia is a part of their country, which is not true neither politically nor geographically. The Caucasus has been once controlled by the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, and it is possible that they’d like to do that once again. The region of Transcaucasia has always been significant, being a place for collision of international trade and politics.
Foreign names and surnames of people and locations become identical to Russian ones after translation. For example, a pioneering German bodybuilder Eugen Sandow’s name is translated into Russian as Евгений Сандов (Yevgeny Sandov). Although his mother was indeed Russian, that doesn’t mean that names of people and generally everything should be altered as a result of translation. This is not the only case of such changes.
We do not know what the reasoning behind such actions is. It might be to ease the pronunciation of foreign names by making them similar to Russian ones or to “appropriate” the achievements of other nations for propaganda. Nevertheless, such actions might at least lead to confusion and make it more difficult to determine the origin of this or that name. We cannot tell if that is actually a part of Russian politics, but that is strange and suspicious in any case.
25 thoughts on “The Armenians Are Not Caucasians”
Hello,
Your article is inaccurate on many fronts,
Anyone who has been to Yerevan can clearly see that Mount Ararat’s plateau is the connecting area between Anatolia and the Caucasus, these two areas are geographically very close. Armenia was a very large entity in terms of land mass, it spread from the Anatolian highlands deep into the South Caucasus hence Artsakh or Nagorno Karabakh which has been historically Armenian for thousands of years. You have to understand that Armenian genetics are somewhat isolated but this does not mean that Armenians cannot be from both the Caucasus and Anatolia or the Armenian highlands. Being an Armenian does not exclusively mean that you are from Anatolia, you can be from Artsakh, Syunik in the south or Jermuk in the east (northern Iran is also often considered part of the Greater Caucasus and so are parts of Eastern Turkey). This idea that we do not belong in the Caucasus simply plays into Azerbaijani hands when they falsely claim that the modern Armenian state does not belong to the Armenians. I understand your desire to identify with Germans or French people, however, you will find that we are much more closely related to other populations of the Caucasus and Anatolia and yes this includes the people who today inhabit Azerbaijan and Turkey, I am referring to the original inhabitants of these countries before the Mongol conquest of Anatolia and the liquidation of the Caucasian Albanian state whose peoples have now been assimilated into Turks and Azeris. Even Georgians can trace their ancestry to Anatolia, Tao-Klarjeti is what they consider their place of Origin, today it is Kars and Ardahan, are Georgians then not from the Caucasus? My point is that to be Armenian you can be from either Anatolia or the Caucasus both in terms of identity and geography.
Hello, The point of the article isn’t geography. It doesn’t matter if Armenia is or is not in the Caucasus in this context. If you read the article carefully, you will understand that it’s about the pathetic tries of Russian policy to present Armenians as “some Caucasians” as a part of their possible bigger plans in the region.
Anatolia is peninsula between two seas namely Black and Mediterranean. Yerevan is very far away from Anatolia and is in the Armenian Plateau (Ararat) of the Armenian Highlands.
Yerevan was not an important Armenian city until the 20th century. Gyumri and Shushi were more important. That being said, Armenians are from further west than the modern-Republic of Armenia. Originally we come from the Van area and the center of Armenia was the Van-Ararat-Urmia area.
Anatolia is a cute political concept/word that the Turks made up and have perpetuated since Ataturk. The actual name for eastern Turkey is “Armenia” (or more specifically, “the Armenian Highlands”). Look at old European maps. Eastern Turkey is always called “Armenia.”
Armenia is both a country and a geographic region.
I understand the intention but this is an utter nonsensical article. Obviously geographical toponyms can have a variety of origins and change meaning over time. Just like the Amazon forest has nothing to do with the initial Greek term Amazones. Saying Armenians are not Caucasians is like saying Chinese aren’t Asians. As “Asia” in fact meant the Near East including Armenia in the antiquity. So what if the Caucasus range is not in historic Armenian territory. Today Caucasus means both North and South Caucasus and that’s why Armenians are ALSO Caucasians. We’re not only Caucasians though, we are also Anatolians, we are also Near Easterners, we are also Eurasians, Transcaucasians, Armenian Highlanders and so forth…. Just as the Spanish are both Europeans and Iberians. Are you denying that our traces in the Caucasus including the Northern Caucasus are invalid? We have longer history there than some of the so called “native” Caucasians. To add to that our medieval chroniclers considered the Caucasians their brothers and traced their genealogy from a common ancestor Togarmah. Hayk was the elder son, but he had several brothers including, Kartlos (who established the Georgian nation which in Georgian is called Sakartvelo “land of Kartvelians”) and Caucas who settled in those parts. Either way the region today is known as South Caucasus and it does not even matter what the history of this term is, toponyms often change names. The fact of the matter is that modern Republic of Armenia falls within the geographical borders of the Caucasus. And finally I want to add that this entire debate is silly and divisive to say the least. It divides Armenians and instigates unnecessary conflicts among ourselves. As if some Armenians are better than others like you are so negatively describing “Armenians of Russia”. This is a wrong attitude and to bring into this discussion the supposed Russian sinister conspiracy to dominate the region by propelling a toponym that everyone in the world accepts is an ever bigger absurdity. A poor attempt to scare people off from using this term. I find these discussions highly unproductive. Sorry this is the first article I am really disliking on this otherwise great blog.
The attempt to impose on Armenia not legitim geographical definitions, such as the Caucasus, the Lesser Caucasus, the Transcaucasus or Anatolia, is aimed at the final eradication of the Armenian trace in the Armenian Highlands, including the territory of Historical Armenia.
I do agree with ur points my friend. We have been suffered from Russian treatments towards Armenia through entire history.
It is true the Russians have proven to be ingrates when it comes to the immensely valuable service rendered by the staunchly loyal Armenians, while forgiving the treachery and malevolence of the Tatars,
Azeris, the Chechens and other Caucasian Moslems as well as the Moslem Stans so that they are favouring and rewarding the treasonous and duplicitous
As bad and ungrateful the Russians have been to the Armenians, despite the immensely valuable service we rendered to them starting with Catherine the Great to this day, and have gone beyond forgiving the unpardonable treachery and duplicitousness of the Azeris and their fellow Moslems in the Caucasus and the Stans, to the point of favouring the Azeris over the fiercely loyal Armenians and selling the Azeris the latest high-tech strategic and tactical weapons they know the Azeris are using to inflict great damage to the Armenians; let us never lose sight that they are still nowhere as evil, diabolical and genocidal like the unrepentent. recidivist and satanic Turks and Azeris.
In the current (may be even in the past) grateful, loyal friend means nothing in relations among states. The only reason Russia is selling arms to the Azeries is MONEY and the OIL. For over a hundred years Baku Oil was in Russian hands. they want to maintain it.
All of this makes ‘Interesting reading’… the one good ‘thing’ coming from the ex- USSR, is, (it seems to me) that if they had not assisted Armenia, then surely it would not exist.. Evil Turkey would have ‘swallowed her up’!!!!
Russians “assisted” Armenians yes but not entirely true , When bolsheviks ( throw Lenin ) assumed total power control inside Russia they began to get in touch with the new Turkish National Asembly of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Even more, the new Bolshevik government led by Lenin backed up the new National Turkish government by giving them military arms in order to fight against the Allies (Britain , France , italy , Australia )
During those times ( and still now ) the Turkish diplomacy was and still is very sucessfull.
Kemal Ataturk policies were outstanding , taking benefits from all sides We have to remember that Turkey was either to become a communist or a capitalist country .
Armenians are the only race containing R1b gene, besides Western Europe. Thus, Armenians could be the first white people to exist, so we are caucasians. Lots of research show that Armenians were the ones that domesticated horses, and brought agriculture, and farming to europe, and that Europeans originated from the Caucasus. Other research shows that ancient Egyptians were closer to people that were from the Levant/Near East such as the Armenians, so when people say humans originated from Africa, my theory is that Africans were multi-etnic people (not just black).
We are Caucasian in the sense of being “white.” However, Armenian culture originated around the Lake Van region. The cradle of Armenian civilization was the region from Lake Van to Lake Urmia (Vaspurakan). The Caucasus region was the periphery of Armenia. Additionally, Armenian genes originated in what is now Eastern Turkey. Neither culturally, linguistically, nor geographically are Armenians a true people of the Caucasus, certainly not culturally. You might as well say that Russians are a Caucasus people too because part of Russia stretches down to the Caucasus Mountains. Many of the most important cities in Armenian history were not in the Caucasus region.
We also aren’t closely related to the peoples of the Caucasus. We are more closely related to Assyrians, Anatolian/Pontic Greeks, Kurds, Jews, and Turks. If we were a true people of the Caucasus we’d be closer to Georgians, Chechens, Circassians, Avars, etc.
What remains of ArmeniaThe modern-Republic of
M erci for all this insight…
I agree with Georges. It is inaccurate, you are writing in armenian way: that Armenians are number 1 in the world.
I’m Armenian and Armenians are most like the people they are around, Iran, Iraq, and Georgia. They are not European. I think Armenians desperately want to be associated with the Europe and not the middle east for obvious reasons, as small and growing smaller population they want to associate with the dominant culture. They also see themselves as related to Russians, which is also untrue. The Armenian genocide was perpetrated by the Turks but it was created by the Europeans and Russians, especially Germany who wanted to remove the indigenous people- Armenians and others. This was the continued genocide of indigenous people through colonialism. And if you look at a phylogenetic tree you will see they are a sister branch of the Pathans, who are a sub population of Persia.
I am an Armenian living in Armenia. The only thing I want is for the Armenian Highlands not to be renamed into the Caucasus or Anatolia, as is done now. Europe, whether we like it or not, turns to the Urals through the Armenian Highlands, which means that part of the Armenians are Europeans. Everything else is not clear to me. Especially our resemblance to Georgians (not at all alike), and family ties with the Russians. See the genetic map of the world.
Whether you like it or not, Armenia is part of the Oriental Orthodox family, according to Hrachya Adjarian, we have 40% Iranian loan words in our lexicon, Armenia is an Iranian eponymous of Urartu, translated in the Behustion inscription, we have origins with Mesopotamia; adoption of cuneiform, Khaldi God of Musasir, helmets and military weapons, and according to MyTrueAncestry, Peter Ara Hrechtakian of the Armenian DNA Project and Gedmatch, Armenians are genetically closest to the Assyrians, Kurdish Jews, Iranian Jews, and Georgian Jews. Most of us have Iranian, Hebrew, Arabic last names as origins; Sahakyan, from Zahhak, adopted into Sahak the Parthian, Asatryan is Assad, Israelyan, Abrahamyan, etc. Of course we are Asia, which originated from the city of Assuwa in Anatolia. Learn history, genetics and culture please!
Fuck Russia, Caucasus, and Europe. They used us for the similarity of our faith, which they sent protestant Baptist missionaries, knowing we are fkn Oriental Orthodox Monophsyites! Armenia is both a region and a country (Herodotus map of the world, Darius the Great translation of Urartu into Armenia, Babylonian map of the world). We , a long with Assyria and Anatolia are the real Middle East, formally called Romes Orient, aka Near East.
Armenians are not Monophysites and have never were of them. Study of question thoroughly please, otherwise you shouldn’t write about it. Anything else in your comments can be taken as your point of view. Thanks!
fuck jews and arabs