NEW REALITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST IN WAKE OF REVOLTS, REFORMS AND RELIGION
AZG DAILY
26-05-2011
Political events of the past three decades have uprooted or altered
the lives of many Armenians living in Middle Eastern countries. From
Iran to Lebanon, and now Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq, communities
that seemed well-established – and well-heeled – now seem to have
either shrunk dramatically or shifted as equally dramatically because
of past, present or anticipated revolutions.
Two scholars studying Armenian Diasporas shed some light on the
changing nature of the Middle Eastern communities, once home to the
largest Armenian Diaspora.
Prof. Ara Sanjian, director of the University of Michigan at Dearborn’s
Armenian Research Center, suggested that in the past three decades,
there has been a shift out of the Arab world for Armenians.
“If we take a very broad view since 1920, we see that there was an
influx of Armenians in the Arab world and some migration of Armenians
within the Arab world,” he said.
The revolution in Iran, he said, changed the dynamics. When Armenians
left that country, he said, none went to Arab countries; instead,
they all headed West.
Regarding Iran, Khachig Tololyan, a professor of English and letters
at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, as well as the editor of
Diaspora magazine there, cited an interesting change. About half
of Iranian-Armenians left when the revolution happened. Yet, the
remaining Armenians are still able to carve a strong presence for
themselves, albeit within the government-proscribed and sanctioned
church organizations. For Muslim fundamentalists, he said, it is easier
to recognize religion, therefore church organizations can play a more
prominent role.
Sanjian said that Armenian populations within the Arab world are
decreasing, but that decrease is not only a result of emigration;
it is that there is normal attrition and new people are not coming
in to take the places of those who have died.
“Arab countries are not attractive for new migration among Armenians,”
he stressed. The major group on the move among Armenians, he said,
is those from Armenia proper, and they don’t go to any countries in
the Middle East, except Israel.
The decrease of Armenians in the Arab world, he said, should also be
seen in the context of the Christian exodus out of the region. The
total number of Christians in the Middle East is decreasing, he said.
As for Lebanon, Sanjian said, the number of Armenians just prior
to the 1975 civil war was appropriately 180,000. Now that number is
about 80,000, thought about 145,000-150,000 Armenians hold Lebanese
citizenship.
There are three kinds of Diasporas, explained Tololyan. The first
is residual, in which the community gradually and steadily weakens,
such as the Armenian community in Ethiopia, which was “very strong”
from the 1920s through the 1970s and now, has practically disappeared.
Next, there are the emergent communities, which are the result of new
migration, thus they have higher numbers and great commitment to their
culture. Third, he said, are the dominant communities, for example,
Lebanon before 1975 and Iran before 1979.
Tololyan said that “just the passage of time changes the nature of any
country.” He ascribed many changes in the Armenian community there
to those of the greater host community, including the introduction
of widespread media, including Al Jazeera and Western program, as
well as wealth from oil and greater Islamization.
Tololyan said that perhaps one should consider that a smaller community
is not necessarily a weakened community. “The core group becomes even
more committed. I don’t feel that everything is in decline,” he said,
though in some communities the numbers are halved.
Western Armenian Culture in Jeopardy
One result of the move out of the Middle East, Sanjian said, is the
erosion of Western Armenian culture and language. In fact, he said,
last year the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) declared Western Armenian an endangered language.
“Western Armenian culture is under serious threat. This is a delayed
consequence of the Armenian Genocide,” he added.
The Middle East, including Istanbul, traditionally has
Armenian-speakers for about three generations, Sanjian said. However,
in Iran, he said, Armenians have been able to keep their language
for generations.
In France, the US and Canada, where newer waves of immigration have
led, there is more pressure to conform and speak the host country’s
language. Tololyan agreed that the attitude in Lebanon, unlike Iran,
has been much more inclusive. “The attitude is, ‘Let’s all be Lebanese
together.’ It is much more receptive. Intermarriage has tripled and
quadrupled. They say we can’t keep separate,” Tololyan said.
Sanjian agreed that assimilation is happening rapidly. In countries,
like Egypt and Lebanon, he said, with large Christian Arab populations,
Armenians regularly intermarry with them.
The region is “overwhelmingly Muslim” and thus, Armenians are
marrying within their group, though increasing the definition to
mean Christians.
“They think it’s much easier to be with fellow Christians,” Sanjian
said.
At the same time, Tololyan said, what is going on in Turkey, namely “a
debate among themselves to figure out if there is a pluralist way” to
define their identity and to find out what makes a pluralist society,
makes it unique.
>From about 1900-1940s, the Middle East experienced a pan-Arab movement,
with the movement peaking in the 1960s. However, since the 1970s,
instead of pan-Arab nationalism, it is pan-Islamism that has risen.
“Since the 1970s, there has been a shifting identity” in the Middle
East, so that any person does not define themselves as Arab, but
rather as Libyan, Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese, etc., Tololyan noted.
The number of students in Armenian schools in Lebanon has gone down
accordingly – if not alarmingly. In 1975, he said, there were 21,000
Armenian students in grades K-12, but now it is about 7,000. There
are many more ethnic Armenian school children, but now, he said, most
parents opt for private Arabic-language schools in hopes of creating a
better future for their children by making them more fluent in Arabic.
In Syria, he said, the number of students has been holding,
approximately around 15,000. In Egypt, Sanjian said that the number of
Armenians, once so numerous, is down to a few thousand. The creation
of the new Egyptian government, he said, once the dust settles,
will resonate throughout the Arab world. “It will affect policy and
discourse in other Arab countries,” he said, including Lebanon and
East Jerusalem. “The changes are not going to stop at the Egyptian
border,” he said.
One bright light, paradoxically, is Istanbul, he said. “It still has a
thriving community,” though many are Turkish or Kurdish speakers. “It
has recovered the feel of a community.”
From: A. Papazian