Can the common origin of peoples influence their history and even destiny?
Sometimes we hear about how good it would be if Armenia had completely different neighbors, say, highly civilized and cultural Europeans, instead of you know who. And the usual response is that history does not tolerate the subjunctive mood. But actually, history does not need any subjunctive mood, as it is always possible to find analogues of real events in other epochs and countries. Then the answer to any assumptions becomes clear.
There is a well-known aphorism: “Once is a chance, twice is a coincidence, but three times is a pattern”. In what issues should there be coincidences and how many of them should there be for the pattern to become obvious? Here are the most common ones.
Is there another nation, besides Armenians, whose historical lands have been divided by neighboring large countries for centuries, and today’s territory is no more than 30,000 sq. km? A nation with less than 3 million people living in its state entities. But at the same time, there is a large diaspora outside the historical homeland, numbering more than 10 million. A nation that has suffered from wars and mass destruction for centuries, but did not give up and fought for its independence. Moreover, this struggle sometimes took radical forms. This could continue for a long time, but all this is about the Basques.
Basque lands have an area, like modern Armenia, of less than 30,000 square km, they are divided and are located on the territory of Spain and France. Even in the diaspora in Central and South America, Basques often support Armenians, participate in rallies and other events. They can be seen together with our diaspora at the April 24th marches. Where does this solidarity come from?
Basques are a people living in northern Spain and southwestern France. They say no one knows either their origin or the history of their appearance in Europe. This means that there is no generally accepted theory about the origin of this nation and its language. There is none for others, but they themselves certainly have it. Moreover, quite interesting. It is believed that the Basque language (Euskara) is the only one surviving from the pre-Indo-European era in Europe.
In Spain, Basques populate the provinces of Biscay, Gipuzkoa, Álava, and Navarre, in France – the areas of Labourd, Soule, and Lower Navarre in the Atlantic Pyrenees department. The population of Basques in Spain is up to 2.4 million people, in France up to 250 thousand. Three provinces in Spain – Álava, Biscay, and Gipuzkoa – have the status of an autonomous region, called the Basque Country – Euskadi.
The concept of “Euskadi” appeared in the 19th century. It was invented by the founders of Basque independence, the Arana brothers. They also came up with the Basque flag and most national holidays. The path to even semi-independent current autonomy was very difficult. This story cannot be told in a few words, but to somehow present it, it is enough to remember “Guernica” – the famous painting by Pablo Picasso. Guernica is a city of the Basques. It was almost completely destroyed and burned down on April 26, 1937, as a result of a massive bombing by the Luftwaffe’s Condor Legion aircraft. Thousands of residents were trapped under the rubble. It is said that during the occupation of Paris, German officers once came to Picasso’s workshop. A reproduction of “Guernica” was on the artist’s table. The military were art connoisseurs, they were impressed, and one of the officers respectfully asked the master: “Did you do this, maestro?” “No,” Picasso dryly replied, “you did.”
Ancestors from Armenia
In 2010, a well-known Armenian documentary filmmaker Artak Avdalyan and Armenianologist Vagan Sargsyan went to Spain and filmed the documentary “Basques and Armenians” there.
Sargsyan had been there many times, studying history and, with financial support from the Basque Country, translating books from Basque to Armenian and vice versa. It turned out that these people do not ignore their traditions and monuments, unlike in other countries, where mentions of the origin of ancestors from Armenia even in their most important historical chronicles are dismissed as mythology or incorrect writing. The Basques have a completely different attitude, so the idea that the roots of their ancestors come from Armenia is held not only by the majority of Basque scholars, but also by a large part of the population. Avdalyan was surprised to find that even the most nationally minded of them confidently assert that their ancestors and progenitors came from Armenia 5,000 years ago. Moreover, the first to speak about this were not Armenian researchers, but ethnographers of Euskadi. After that, publications began to appear in the media, which talked about research on the kinship of Armenians with the Basques over the past few centuries.
The 17th-century Spanish historian Gaspar Escolano in his book on the history of the city of Valencia (1610) wrote that after the Great Flood, Patriarch Tubal (according to the Book of Genesis – the fifth son of Japheth, Noah’s grandson) and his people landed on the eastern coast of Spain and that they spoke Armenian. Escolano effectively recorded a tradition that had survived from antiquity to his time.
At the end of the 19th century, the English scholar Edward Spencer Dodgson (1857-1922), one of the well-known specialists in the history of the Basques, decided to study the Armenian language. After only two months of study, Dodgson found that many Armenian words are almost identical to Basque. In 1884, Dodgson wrote an article “Basque words in the Armenian language” for the magazine “Basque Language”. The list of parallels he noticed consisted of more than fifty words: Basque. char “bad, evil” – arm. char “bad, evil”, Basque. zati “to separate” – arm. zat “separate” etc. By the way, the etymology and deep meaning of the words “char” and “bari” are quite interesting. The root of both is “Ar”, which means Ararich, Creator, “ch” – negative particle (“che” – no), and “b” (“բերող” – bearing) – affirmative. Therefore, it turns out that “char”, that is, evil – is what does not lead to the Creator, and “bari”, that is, good – is what leads to Him. A whole philosophical idea in two short words of several letters. And it turns out that it is also in the Basques.
Half a century after Dodgson, the then young Basque philologist Bernardo Estornés Lasa (1907-1999), who later became a leading scholar and academic, recorded in his hometown of Isaba in the province of Navarra a local tradition that this settlement was founded by Armenians who were the first inhabitants of Navarre and ancestors of the Basque people. The tradition states that the leader of the Basque people was called Aitor, he came from Armenia with his seven sons and in their honor founded seven settlements in Navarre. It is also said that in those distant times Armenians already knew the secret of metalworking, which quite corresponds to the data of historians: in the Armenian Highlands, the smelting of metals began several thousand years earlier than in most other regions. Subsequently, in the archives, they found an ancient manuscript with a historical chronicle, which confirmed the veracity of the preserved oral traditions about Aitor. In addition, in Isaba, there is still a road called Erminia, and a river called Arax or Araxes flows through the city.
In addition to Arax, scientists found similarities in other Armenian and Basque toponyms: imagine that they have their own Ashtarak (the name of a city in Armenia) – in Basque it is called Astarac (a settlement in the south of France), and their own Goris (a city in the southeast of Armenia) – Basque. Goris (a settlement in Basque Country), arm. Debet (a river in the north of Armenia) – Basque. Deba (the name of a river in Basque Country). They also have Euphrates and Urmia. There is even a mountain Araler, they say, named so in honor of Mount Ararat, and right at the foot of Araler flows the river Arax.
Descendants of Aitor
Vagan Sargsyan also translated the work of Joseph Augustine Chaho entitled “Aitor. Cantabrian Legend”, which was published in 1845 and had a huge influence on the development of Basque studies and Basque national self-awareness. The main character of the book is Aitor, whom the author presents as the progenitor of their people. Researchers believe that this name came from the Basque phrase aitoren seme, which translates as “aristocrat, thoroughbred”. At the same time, the name Aitor literally corresponds to the expression Hayi tor, which translated from Armenian means “grandson of Aya”, that is, “grandson of the Armenian”. This correspondence was written about, in particular, by the German Armenist Joseph Karst.
Artak Avdalyan noticed that today the name Aitor is one of the most popular and widespread in Basque Country. He mentioned that among other peoples he always intuitively felt who among those around him was Armenian. And in the Basque Country, when he thought that an Armenian was in front of him, they told him that no – it was a Basque. They really look a lot like Armenians – in appearance, expression of the eyes, manners, movements, gait, etc. As Artak said, the similarity is so great that even their fate is Armenian.
The 40-minute film “Basques and Armenians”, which Avdalyan shot in 2010 together with Vagan Sargsyan, although 12 years have passed, is still not available online. Therefore, it is still not available to a wide audience. Vagan Sargsyan died a few years after this trip. His work is being continued by other scientists. It can be hoped that in the new year the film shot with him will finally be widely available, and there will also be versions with translations into other languages.
With today’s development of connections between people and countries, it is obvious that further joint research awaits us with a lot of interesting and surprising things about the past of both our people and others, related to it, and especially the Basques.
by Armen Petrosyan
Translated by Vigen Avetisyan
