A Concise History of the Armenian People A CONCISE HISTORY OF THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE Other Books by George Boumoutian Eastern Armenia in the Last Decades of Persian Rule: 1807-1828 (out of print) The Khanate o f Erevan under Qajar Rule, 1795-1828 A History of Qarabagh (out of print) A History o f the Armenian People, I: From Prehistory to 1500 AD (out of print) A History o f the Armenian People II: From 1500 to the Present (out of print) Armenians and Russia, 1626-1796 Russia and the Armenians o f Transcaucasia, 1797-1889 The Chronicle o f Abraham o f Crete Abraham of Erevan: History of the Wars, 1721-1738 The Journal o f Zak'aria o f Agulis The Chronicle of Zak'aria ofK ‘anak‘er Two Chronicles on the History o f Karabagh The History o f Arak'el o f Tabriz (2 vols.) The Travel Notes o f Simeon o f Poland (forthcoming) A Concise History of the Armenian People (From Ancient Times to the Present) Fifth Edition Completely Revised George A. Boumoutian Mazda Publishers, Inc. Costa Mesa California 2006 The publication of this volume was made possible by a generous grant from Harry and Suzanne Toufayan in memory of their parents Haroutiun and Siranoush Toufayan Mazda Publishers, Inc. Academic Publishers since 1980 P. O. Box 2603 Costa Mesa, California 92628 U.S.A. www. mazdapub .com Copyright© 2006 George A. Boumoutian All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Boumoutian, George A. A Concise History of the Armenian People/ George A. Boumoutian. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN: 1-56859-141-1 (Hardcover/softcover, alk. paper) 1. Armenian—History. 2. Armenians—History. I. Title. DS 175.B65 2003 909’.0491992—dc21 2002021898 109 8 7 CONTENTS Preface Explanatory Notes Part I: From Independence to Foreign Rule Introduction 1. Highlands and Crossroads: The Land of Armenia 2. Ara and Semiramis: Urartu, the First Kingdom in Armenia 3. From the Ark to Archeology: The Origins of the Armenian People 4. From Satraps to Kings: The Yervandunis, the First Armenian Autonomous Rulers 5. Between Roman Legions and Parthian Cavalry: The Artashesians and the Foundation of the Armenian Kingdom 6. The Arsacid/Arshakuni Dynasty I: Parthian Body, Roman Crown: The Arsacids in Armenia II: The Cross and the Quill: The Arshakuni Dynasty 7. Fire Temples and Icons: Armenia under Persian and Byzantine Rule 8. A People of the Book: Armenia under Arab Domination 9. A Land of Many Crowns: The Bagratuni Dynasty and the Armenian Medieval Kingdoms 10. East Meets West: The Cilician Kingdom of Armenia 11. From Majority to Minority: Armenia under Seljuk, Mongol, and Turkmen Domination Time-Lines Maps Plates Part II: From Foreign Rule to Independence Introduction 185 12. Amiras and Sultans: Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 187 13. Khojas, Meliks and Shahs: Armenians in Iran 207 14. From the Mughals to the Raj: Armenians in South Asia 219 15. Protected Minorities: Armenian Communities in the Arab W orld and Ethiopia 227 16. Promises of Deliverance: Armenians in the Russian Empire 235 17. Between Orthodoxy and Catholicism: The Armenian Dispersion in Eastern and Western Europe 245 18. The Armenian Question and Its Final Solution: Armenians in Ottoman Turkey 259 19. Subj ects of the Tsar: Armenians in Transcaucasia and Russia 281 20. A Thousand Days: The First Armenian Republic 299 21. From NEP to Perestroika: Soviet Armenia or the Second Armenian Republic 317 22. The New Diaspora: The Armenian Global Community in the Twentieth Century 337 23. From Ideological Conflicts to Partisan Politics: Diasporan Politics and Organizations 363 24. Growing Pains of Independence: The Third Armenian Republic 371 Time-Lines 389 Maps 400 Plates 426 Selected Bibliography and Suggested Readings 459 Index 485 Preface to the Fifth Edition Between 1992 and 1994, at the suggestion of Louise Manoogian Simone, the former President of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, I wrote a two-volume study, A History o f the Armenian Peo­ ple. The purpose of the work was to enable the Armenians of the United States to view their past objectively, as well as to familiarize non-Armenians with the history of an ancient people who had lost most of their historic territory and were scattered around the globe. Lecture tours sponsored by the AGBU, as well as the assistance of Armenian leaders such as Raffy and Vicki Hovanessian and Hrant Bardakjian brought the book to the attention of the Armenian communities in the US, Canada and Australia and the first printing was soon sold out. Additional printings appeared between 1995 and 1997 and eventually some 10,000 copies were printed. A revised one volume edition was published in 2001 and new editions were printed in 2002, 2003, and 2005. This study, the first comprehensive survey of the history of the Armenians from ancient times to the present in English, was soon adopted as a textbook for high school seniors and college freshmen. Some historians and geographers assigned it to their students, and made use of the maps and the timelines. I am grateful to the students and their professors for their comments and suggestions, which have been incorporated in this revised edition. Dwindling supplies, errors pointed out by friends and reviewers, the absence of relevant material in some chapters, and the need for a more comprehensive bibliography and index encouraged me to pre­ pare a revised edition. I have added new material on literature and have included additional details absent from the previous editions. The book, once again, examines the history of Armenia and its people in relation to that of the rest of the world. The timelines and the maps will help the reader to correlate Armenian history with that of other nations. The present work contains some fresh interpreta­ tions of traditional views of Armenian history. Its main purpose is to familiarize Armenians and non-Armenians with a people and cul­ ture that is absent from most history courses and texts. George Boumoutian Explanatory Notes Dating System In an effort to provide a global perspective and eliminate a seeming Christian or Western bias, some college texts have decided to sub­ stitute BCE (Before the Common Era) for BC (Before Christ) and CE (Common Era) for AD (Anno Domini). I have retained the BC and AD designations in the text, but have used BCE and CE in the timelines. It is important to note, however, that various cultures have different calendars. The Armenian Church calendar, for exam­ ple, differs by 551 years from the calendar used in the Western world today. Chinese, Hebrew, Arab, Iranian, and pre- Revolutionary Russian calendars, among others, also differ from our calendar. To simplify matters, all dates have been converted to the dating system used in the West. It should be noted that there are no exact dates for some histori­ cal occurrences or reigns of some rulers in ancient times. In such cases an approximate date is used. Dates following the names of kings or catholicoi refer to their reigns; in all other cases they refer to life spans. Geographical Terms Another attempt to correct any Eurocentric bias has been to alter some, but not all, commonly used geographical terms. Thus instead of Middle East, Near East, or the Levant, some historians now use the more accurate term, Western Asia; Far East or the Orient has sometimes been replaced by East Asia; the Indian subcontinent is referred to as South Asia; Transcaucasia is occasionally called the eastern Caucasus. The concept has not been universally accepted and I shall, therefore, retain traditional geographical terms or, in some instances, as they are currently used in the news media. The term Middle East or the Arab World, therefore, includes the present day territories of Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Pal­ estine, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the various Gulf States. Asia Minor or Anatolia refers to the territory of present-day Turkey. Western Armenia refers to the eastern part of present-day Turkey, while eastern Armenia refers to present-day Armenia plus parts of Azerbaijan and Georgia. Transcaucasia refers to the present-day re­ publics of Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. Mesopotamia refers to the territory of present-day Iraq. The Balkans refers to the pre­ sent-day states of Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Yugoslavia. The Levant encompasses mainly Lebanon and parts of the coastal lands of Syria. The term Azerbaijan, used prior to the twentieth century, refers to Persian Azerbaijan, or the territory in northwestern Iran south of the Arax River. The term Persia will be replaced with Iran in the second part of the book. Transliteration Armenian terms, with the exception of some noted authors who used western Armenian, have been transliterated according to east­ ern Armenian. The Persian words are transliterated according to the sounds of modem Persian. A simplified transliteration system with no diacritical marks or ligatures has been utilized in both instances. Some of the foreign names and terms, particularly those included in the Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, have been Anglicized, while others have retained their original form. Finally, the Romanized ver­ sion, if any, of Armenian names or variations of common names will appear in parentheses. Part I From Independence to Foreign Rule (Ancient Times to AD 1500) Introduction In their 3000-year history, the Armenians have rarely played the role of aggressor; rather, they have excelled in agriculture, arts and crafts, and trade.