From 13 to 14 April 2010 Dr. Arsen Hakobyan, Research Fellow of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences (Armenia) participated in the international symposium “The Balkans and Caucasus: Parallel processes on the opposite sides of the Black Sea. Past, present, and prospects.” The symposium was held in the New Europ College for Advanced studies (http://www.nec.ro/) in Bucharest, Romania. Dr. Hakobyan presented a paper entitled “The Orthodox –Chalcedonian Armenians, From Caucasus to the Balkans: Outlines of their History and Identity”. The abstract of the presentation follows.
Arsen Hakobyan
THE ORTHODOX –CHALCEDONIAN ARMENIANS: FROM CAUCASUS TO BALKANS: OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY AND IDENTITY
The territory from Balkans to Caucasus and the population of this region had the impact of different intercultural, confessional and ethno-cultural influences conditioned by political, cultural, geographical factors caused by historical circumstances. Historically, the religious factor had an important role for the cultural and political developments of the peoples of this region. In the Middle Ages, from Balkans to Caucasus the Christian culture created a common cultural space where the boundaries of political and ethnic identities were defined by confessional factors. (Byzantium and Georgia –chalcedonic, Armenia, Caucasian Albania -anti -chalcedonic) These two tendencies of Christianity – chalcedonism and anti- chalcedonism had the dominant roles for the formation of cultural, religious and ethnic identities of the peoples of Byzantine Empire, Armenia, Georgia, and Caucasian Albania. Also, there were some cultural interpenetrations, borderland and contact territories where as a result of these cultural, confessional, ethnic, political influences and developments different groups developed their complex identities. In historical sources one of such groups is known under the names “Armenian –Romes”, “Tsayt –Armenians” (Half -Armenians) etc. They were the Orthodox -Armenians (chalcedonic) but the language of confession of this group was Armenian. It was an isolated group within wider Armenian society. Their settlements were in Armenian- Georgian- Byzantine borderland and contact territories. The confessional factor had a deep influence on their identity orientations during historical developments. As a result of this, the process of formation ethnic and confessional identities has taken place (Byzantium, Georgia, Greece). Until 1915-1922’s the last part of this group lived in some villages of Turkey. After Genocide part of them migrated to Greece and established new settlements. The new situation and the change in geographical, political, cultural and social conditions had different impacts on transformation and construction of the identity of this group.
English
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