Armenian Diaspora in Modern World Factors of Changes Edited by Wojciech Bejda & Paweł Nieczuja-Ostrowski Title: Armenian Diaspora in Modern World: Factors of Changes Edited by: Wojciech Bejda & Paweł Nieczuja-Ostrowski Reviewers: Zviad Abashidze, Krzysztof Fedorowicz DTP: Patrycja Nieczuja-Ostrowska Cover Illustration: Paweł Nieczuja-Ostrowski Published: © Research Institute for European Policy, Gdańsk 2020 ISBN 978-83-954212-3-5 CONTENTS Introduction 7 Part I The Global Perspective Paweł Nieczuja-Ostrowski & Rafał Raczyński 1. Modern Diasporas from a Political Science Perspective: the Case of Armenian Diaspora 11 Edita Gzoyan 2. The League of Nations and Formation of Armenian Diaspora 35 Hayk Yengibaryan 3. The State Plan for the 1946-1948 Great Repatration of Armenians and the Armenian Apostolic Church 55 Adam Pomieciński 4. Syrian Armenians in Armenia. Adaptation-Reintegration- Diaspora 70 Paweł Nieczuja-Ostrowski 5. Political Factors of Changes of the Armenian Diaspora in Modern-Day World 86 Paweł Nieczuja-Ostrowski 6. Security as a Factor in Transforming the Armenian Diaspora 104 Part II The Case of Armenian Community in Poland Nikol Margaryan 7. Integration through Personal Names: The Experience of Armenian Diaspora in Poland 121 Marek Lichota 8. Armenians in Zamość in the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Centuries and Their Influence on Past and the Present of the City 131 Grzegorz Pełczyński 9. Changes in the Armenian-Catholic Rite in Poland in the 20th Century 149 Paweł Nieczuja-Ostrowski 10. Institutionalization of Armenian Life in Modern Poland 163 Renata Król-Mazur 11. Armenian Diaspora in Poland – an Outline of the Problem 199 Renata Król-Mazur 12. Armenian Education in Poland 234 Appendix 267 References 277 Index of Persons and Places 315 LIST OF TABLES 1. International migrants, 1970-2015 13 2. Personal remittances to Armenia, 2010-2016 32 3. Armenian names are replaced by local /Polish/ derivatives. These are essentially names of Christian origin 125 4. The suffix of the Armenian surnamesyan or yanc is replaced by owicz, ewicz or ski 126 5. The registered secular Armenian institutions in contemporary Poland 195 Armenian Diaspora in Modern World INTRODUCTION International Conference “Diasporas: Past and Present” was held in Słupsk, Poland, June 1-2, 2017. The conference was organized by De- partment of History and Political Sciences at Pomeranian University in Słupsk, in association with Research Institute for European Policy. Diasporas are a phenomenon which has been present already in antiq- uity and concerned i.a. such politically shaped nations as Jews, Greeks, Armenians, or Phoenicians. It is noted that they have had a substan- tial impact on the functioning and history of both their own nation as well as the host societies. Therefore, the recognition of diasporic pro- cesses and phenomena of the past – even those as distant as antiquity – and various aspects of diasporas’ existence, can engender a valuable factor in researching the issue of modern diasporas and diasporaization. Thus, the aim of this conference was an attempt to approach the topic of diaspora from possibly broad, historical, and interdisciplin- ary perspective, and to bring together diaspora scholars from different academic disciplines. The conference addresses issues of theories on dias- poras and diasporaization, history of diasporas (from antiquity to modern times), political aspects of creating and functioning of diasporas, revival of “old diasporas”, diasporic institutions, relationships between members of diasporas and other ethnic groups, processes of diasporas’ declines, and new diasporas in Europe and about the world. At the same time, the conference was dedicated to the 650th anniversa- ry of King Casimir the Great’s conferment of law to settle in the Kingdom of Poland and freedom of worship to the Armenian Bishop, Grzegorz the Great (1367). On this occasion, the conference was attended by JE Edgar Ghazaryan, the Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia in Poland. 7 Introduction This occasion, as well as the increasing interest in research – also in Poland – on the Armenian diaspora in the previous decades, resulted in nearly the half of topics being dedicated to the issues of this diaspora. Various approaches presented in this area, deriving both from its interdis- ciplinary nature (from the perspective of history, anthropology, political science, to economy) as well as the research subject (from the analysis of cases of local communities, through the entirety of society of a given country, to at attempt at analysing the phenomenon of the Armenian dias- pora in a global perspective), were foundations for the decision to present them in the form of a monograph. The notion of this work was based on assumption that research- ing diasporic phenomena associated with the Armenian diaspora due to the length of its existence, wide territorial dimension of functioning, and various relations and undergoing civilizational and cultural transfor- mations in numerous regions, countries, and societies around the globe, provides valuable comparative material for analogous research on other diasporas or migration phenomena, as well as theoretical research on di- asporas, diasporaization, transnationalism as civilizational, political, etc. phenomena. The work “Armenian Diaspora in Modern World. Factors of Changes” is an attempt at defining the specificity of modern Armenian diaspo- ra and the transformation it was undergoing in the last century, i.e. from the beginning of the 20th century until today. This definition is made by both the analysis of reasons, process, and results of the Armenian dias- pora transformation as a phenomenon of a global, transnational scale, and by the analysis of changes in the Armenian diaspora in Poland, which are interesting due to the centuries-old continuity in the presence and functioning of the Armenian community in Poland’s territories. The first part of this book presents issues on transformation of the Arme- nian diaspora as a global phenomenon, identifying factors and directions of its changes. Political scientists and diaspora scholars, Paweł Nieczu- ja-Ostrowski and Rafał Raczyński, present the phenomena of modern diasporas from the perspective of political sciences, indicating the political nature of this phenomenon by the example of the Armenian diaspora. A his- torian, Edita Gzoyan, offers a closer look at the significance of the impact the League of Nation on shaping the post-genocidal Armenian Diaspora. A historian, Hayk Yengibaryan, presents motives of the Soviet politics in or- ganising the return of Armenian people from the diaspora to the country 8 Armenian Diaspora in Modern World in 1946-1948, the so-called Great Repatriation, and the role of the Ar- menian Apostolic Church in that policy. A cultural anthropologist, Adam Pomieciński, analyses the process of adaptation and integration of the Syr- ian Armenians, tens of thousands of whom emigrated to Armenia after 2011, into the society of this country. Paweł Nieczuja-Ostrowski presents political factors in changes of the Armenian diaspora in the modern world, such as the creation of the bipolar global order of the Cold War period, lo- cal armed conflicts in the Middle East, threat to fatherland, the collapse of the Eastern Block, the emergence of the independent Republic of Arme- nia. In the last chapter Paweł Nieczuja-Ostrowski undertakes to identify the impact of security issue on the transformations in the modern-day Armenian diaspora, distinguishing areas such as existential, cultural, po- litical security, as well as the one of the original fatherland. The second part presents characteristics of the transformation specific- ity of the Armenian community in Poland. A cultural anthropologist, Nicol Margaryan, analyses the phenomenon of Armenians’ integration into Po- land through the example of Armenian names and surnames. A historian, Marek Lichota, presents characteristics in the functioning and transfor- mations of the Armenians community in Zamość, from the time of its foundation to modern times. Grzegorz Pełczyński, an ethnologist, pres- ents specificity and factors of changes in the Armenian-Catholic Church in Poland in the 20th century. Paweł Nieczuja-Ostrowski presents the process of and factors in shaping the Armenian institution in mod- ern day Poland, indicating the major features in their diversification. Renata Król-Mazur, a historian and political scientist, examines the in- ternal diversity of modern Armenian community in Poland, its division into the so-called old emigration and new emigration, and relationships between the two groups. In the last article, Renata Król-Mazur analyses legal conditionings and peculiarities of the Armenian education in con- temporary Poland from the perspective of one of the recognised national minorities as well as the part of the global Armenian diaspora. 9 PART I The Global Perspective 10 Armenian Diaspora in Modern World 1. Modern Diasporas from a Political Science Perspective: the Case of Armenian Diaspora Paweł Nieczuja-Ostrowski & Rafał Raczyński Introduction Analysing the contemporary migration processes at the general level, there are discernible two important tendencies which have clearly inten- sified in the last few decades. The first one, of a quantitative nature, is associated with a steady increase in the number of international migrants on a global scale. According to the estimates of the International Organi- zation for Migration, the number of persons residing in a country other than