A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
TO DIASPORAS IN EUROPE
A Europe of Diasporas is founded on a shared belief
that diasporas need Europe and that Europe needs
its diasporas. The project aims to establish a network of
European diasporas to raise awareness about them and
to promote cooperation and exchange between them.
This booklet provides a brief introduction to diasporas in
general, and to four diasporas in particular: those of the
Roma, the Jews, the Assyrians and the Armenians. The
Roma, the Jews and the Armenian are among Europe’s
old diasporas. The Assyrians (also often called Arameans
or Syriacs) are an ancient diaspora too, and they arrived
in Europe more recently. Their stories are those of civilizations that crossed all borders and prospered from exchange with the many peoples with whom they lived.
These briefings are necessarily selective of course, and
we recognize that there are many ways to tell a story.
The editors welcome all comments, corrections and
suggestions. The project web site also welcomes all contributions at www.europeofdiasporas.be – as does its
facebook group. The web site also provides a selective
bibliography on the different diasporas as well as further
information.
EUROPE
A BRIEF
INTRODUCTION
TO DI ASPORAS
IN EUROPE
Europe has inherited a wide variety of identities, with
more than 90 historical cultural groups on the continent,
to which many more have been added over the past century. Some of these groups are European diasporas: they
span several countries – or indeed the entire continent –
and their members’ identities are sustained primarily by
non-state institutions.
Which way are these cultures, identities, origins and religions headed? Are they destined to disappear? Are they
a handicap for Europe, a threat, an anachronism, a hindrance? Or are they an asset for our societies? This information sheet aims to provide a short introduction to the
nature of diasporas.
What is a diaspora?
An identity without a state
Everyone has identities: people are social creatures and
a sense of identity is fundamental to building lasting
relations between them. Most people share an identity
with those who live close to them, but many also share
identities with people far away. A religion or a political
ideology, for example, may provide a shared identity to
people on opposite sides of the planet. Diaspora identities, too, connect people living in many different places.
Indeed, although they are dispersed and diverse, diasporas
are also networked: their members interact and circulate
across borders, thereby creating channels for exchange
and migration and maintaining a degree of cohesion.
Customs and formal institutions help structure these diasporas and transmit a culture. Institutions have played
an important role historically. Religious institutions such
as the church or the synagogue have served that purpose for many centuries. A common language facilitates
communications between members of diasporas across
borders and conveys shared ideas, narratives and values.
Customs and institutions evolve over the centuries, but
they remain in being.
The Jews, the Roma and the Armenians are three typical diasporas. They have been widely dispersed for many
centuries, but their identity as Jews, Armenians and
Roma has persisted over time. These three diasporas are
not alone, even in Europe. There are also Greek, Assyrian,
Parsee, Hindustani, Copt and many other diasporas.
Diasporas often represent a challenge to policy-makers
because they are transnational and are not associated
with any particular territory. By contrast, all levels of government are based on a territory: it is therefore tempting
to assume that people’s identities must also follow the
political map of Europe and to view those that do not as
anomalies or as problems.
© Andreea Tanase
A diaspora is a group of people with the following characteristics: they are dispersed over several countries, but
they share a common durable identity.
Although they play an important role, diaspora institutions are not centralized. The strength and reliability
of diasporas depend on their communities’ local roots.
Their resilience, furthermore, stems from, among other
things, their ability to survive history’s upheavals by
prospering in one location, even as their numbers may
dwindle in others.
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© Anush Babajanyan
The different communities of a diaspora are strongly influenced by the policies of the governments that rule over
them, by the ideas prevailing in society around them and
by the society in which they live more generally. Diasporas
are therefore not unified or monolithic across the European
continent. Distinctions within a diaspora may be marked
by language, for instance: the Roma in different countries
often speak different versions of the Romanes language.
Must each diaspora have
a ‘country of origin’?
There has been a tendency among scholars and policy-makers to focus their definitions of diasporas on a
supposed ‘country of origin’. One influential definition
of diasporas emphasizes the Jewish narrative of exile,
persecution and centuries of longing to return to their
homeland. Diasporas, in this particular definition, are defined through their exile from a distant homeland.
A contrasting, modern use of the term would designate
any group of migrants as a diaspora. It is often used irrespective of the degree of dispersion, the amount of
time passed since the original exile, the sense of identity
or indeed the cause of the exile of the putative diaspora.
Many of those using the term in this way – particularly international development institutions – furthermore view
diasporas as an extension in the service of their country of
origin – as in ‘the diaspora of Algeria’, for instance.
This is not the sense in which the word ‘diaspora’ is used
here. Both the strict, traditional, and the loose, post-modern definitions imply that any group derives its identity
and legitimacy from a state or territory, as if there could
not be identity without a corresponding state.
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The word diaspora is often thought to be synonymous
with expatriate or immigrant community. The large immigrant populations that started to arrive in Europe in the
1960s may be diasporas in the making, but only time will
tell whether they grow local roots and preserve a distinct
identity over time. In fact, diasporas need not be defined
through their supposed territorial origin. Reinventing
diasporic identities as foreign serves no discernible purpose other than to delegitimize their decentralized, nonstate institutions and their diasporic identities.
Are diasporas a threat or challenge
to the state?
They are neither. Diaspora identities do not compete with
national identities. On the contrary, diasporas have often
developed traditions to help individuals combine and reconcile different identities and the role that each can play
in their lives. The values promoted may include adaptability, learning, language skills, mobility and professional
skills, for instance. Those are the skills that have allowed
them to preserve their identities over the centuries.
The idea that a diaspora may be in conflict with a state is
based largely on a misunderstanding of their nature. In
fact, they are not in competition with nation states and
they operate at an entirely different level. This misunderstanding, regularly exploited by authoritarian leaders,
has led to extreme forms of persecution. The Jews and
Roma in Nazi Germany and the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were targeted not because they had too
much power to challenge the state, but because they
had none. Discourse harping on the alleged excessive
power of diasporas is usually aimed at mobilizing popular anger against a helpless victim.
What is the difference between
a diaspora community and an ethnic
or national minority?
In some countries, local diaspora communities benefit
from the same legal status as territorial minorities. However, unlike other minorities, diasporas are not usually
associated with a particular territory. At the level of the
continent, it is characteristic of diasporas that they are
dispersed over many countries.
Access to their heritage
Because they are dispersed, diasporas face a particular
challenge connecting with and sustaining their heritage. Although this is usually little known, their buildings,
schools, places of worship, memories, libraries and culture are present everywhere in Europe.
The preservation of important buildings and artefacts for
instance, depends on the interest and goodwill of relevant
authorities. The transmission of intangible heritage such
as music and literature can also be particularly difficult for
diasporas due to the absence of dedicated institutions.
Memory is a particular form of intangible heritage: it includes histories, public and private, and the discourse
and understanding of communities about themselves.
Memory, too, requires institutions for its transmission.
It is important that scholars and academics from within
diaspora communities research and publicize this work
themselves. The Roma, for instance, are underrepresented in academia, so that learned discourse on their
history was largely elaborated by non-Roma. As for Armenians, the upheavals of the early twentieth century
following the Armenian genocide and the efforts of the
Turkish Republic have made their story and heritage disappear from public consciousness in Europe.
Social issues
Today, the social situation of the different diasporas does
not seem to follow a common pattern. While the Roma are
often underprivileged or even excluded from the mainstream of society, Armenians, Jews and Assyrians have no
specific socio-economic profile. Over the past 20 years,
however, substantial immigration from the Middle East
and the former Soviet Union has considerably changed
the composition and social profile of Armenian, Jewish
and Assyrian communities in many countries.
Public representation and prejudice
Members of diaspora groups can be the victims of prejudice and persecution. This is often due to the difficulty
many people have in understanding the nature of diasporic identities. It is also associated with behaviours
and perceptions that perpetuate a legacy of domination.
Finally, it is due to the vulnerability of diaspora groups
as they rarely benefit from adequate political representation in the political arena and public space. Today,
there is recurrent victimization of Roma communities in
many European countries. Jews are often the targets of
anti-Semitism. Armenians are scapegoated mostly in the
Turkish-speaking world.
© Grisha Kheifets
European and international law requires that cultural
minorities benefit from a clearly defined set of cultural
rights, such as the right to use and learn their language,
to preserve their culture and to be protected from discrimination. Applying those rights to diasporas can be
more complex because they are dispersed. Different approaches may therefore be needed to secure the cultural
and social rights of diasporas.
In pre-modern Europe, diasporas were often subjected
to a very different social status than the rest of society
in Europe: they were often subject to discrimination, taboos and even slavery, although they could also benefit
from privileges such as monopolies on trading in certain
products or on certain professions.
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© Linda Asmar
Genocides are an extreme form of persecution. It is striking to note that many diasporas have been targeted by
genocides. Those communities that have experienced
genocide feel a strong need for the recognition of these
attempted suppressions, and of their consequences for
the communities and cultures concerned. An attempt to
destroy a group through genocide durably affects the
group’s identity and its relations with others.
An associated concern is the promotion of a single strand
of identity within diasporas. Diasporas are indeed diverse
by nature, and there can be no ‘genuine’ or ‘pure’ form of
their identity. Attempts to project a standardized image,
often imported, can end up smothering their cultural, linguistic and identity diversity. This can eventually hinder the
cultural survival and welfare of individual communities.
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Why Europe needs diasporas
Established diasporas are an important part of the fabric
of European society and they are here to stay. They have
contributed much to European society and have much
still to contribute.
Their frequent cross-border links across the continent,
due to family connections, migrations or cultural connections, contribute to the web of human contact that
knits European society and makes it strong. They contribute to the circulation of ideas and knowledge and to
keeping our societies open and forward-looking.
The practices of individuals who are part of diasporas in
managing different identities should be useful cultural
know-how for others. If one of the major challenges facing the European continent and its neighbourhood in
the twenty-first century is peacefully managing human
diversity, diasporas are part of the solution.
T h e ro m a
peop l e : an
unto l d S tor y
ate the corn and asked for more. Consequently, the Shah
sent the Luri out into the world on the backs of their animals. Similar legends are told by other historiographers.
Today, about 12 million Roma live in Europe, which makes
them Europe’s largest ethnic minority. The Roma do not have
their own state, but are citizens of numerous states in Europe
and all over the globe. What follows is an overview of the
Roma people, their history, culture and language.
Map of the Roma Migration to Europe from India
The origins of the Roma
For many centuries the language of the Roma (Romani
chib or Romanes) was not written. This makes it difficult
for scholars today to know precisely from Roma sources
where the Roma came from and the course of their history. However, genetics, linguistics and cultural anthropology can help in reconstructing the Roma people’s history
and together they show that the Roma people came originally from the territory of what today is India. Because
Romanes (the only new Indo-Aryan language spoken
extensively in Europe for many centuries) has many features of the so-called Central Indo-Aryan languages, linguistic experts believe that the Roma lived in central India
a long time ago, before the Common Era. Subsequently,
the Roma moved to the lands of northern India and from
there they started migrating westward to Europe through
the lands of Persia (now Iran) and Armenia.
The Roma reached the Byzantine Empire almost a millenium ago. The reasons for leaving the lands of India,
however, remain unclear.
In his Shahnameh (The Book of Kings), written in 1011,
the Persian poet Ferdowsi mentions a legend according to which the Indian King Shangul gave his Persian
colleague Bahram V (420-438) 10,000 so-called ‘Luri’ as
a present, to entertain the latter’s people with music.
Bahram gave the Luri crops to sow for their service; they
Besides Hindi, a large part of the vocabulary and grammar of Romanes originates from Greek, leading scholars
to assume that the Roma spent many centuries within the
Byzantine Empire. The first clear proof of the presence of
Roma in Byzantium dates back to 1280 in a letter concerning tax collection from ‘Egyptani’ (Greek Peloponnese). The
Roma were known by many names: Athinganoi or Athingani (coming from Greece), Aigupti (coming from Egypt),
and Mandopolini (prophets, fortune-tellers), Katsibeli and
Lori (in the Caucasus they are still known as ‘Lori’ or ‘Luri’).
The terms ‘Athingani’ and ‘Aigupti’ later developed, as is often assumed, into the commonly used exonym for Roma:
according to some researchers, the exonyms for Roma in
Slavic languages (Czech ‘Cikán’, Slovakian ‘Cigán’) and German ‘Zigeuner’ or Italian ‘Zingaro’ derive from ‘Athingani’;
the term ‘Aiguptos’ is assumed to be at the basis of English ‘Gypsy’, Spanish ‘Gitano’ or French ‘Gitan’. The Greek
word ‘Athingani’ means ‘people who do not want others
to touch them, who do not want to be touched, who are
untouchable’. Roma people provided a variety of services and crafts: blacksmithing (producing knives, swords,
axes, cutlasses, hoes, horseshoes and other things), carpentry (wooden bowls, forks and spoons), production of
copper vessels, horse trading, knitting of wicker baskets,
shoemaking, trade, and entertainment (music, circus,
fortune-telling, cinema, magic).
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Some words in Romanes
Sanskrit words in Romanes
Pani (water), maro (bread), kham (sun), phuy (earth),
churi (knife)
Persian words in Romanes
Mol (wine), ambrol (pear), cerxen (star)
Armenian Words in Romanes
Greek words in Romanes
Zor (strength), baxt (luck)
Bov (oven), kotor (piece of fabric), grast (horse),
cikat (forehead)
Drom (road), xoli (anger), saranda (forty), peinda (fifty)
The Roma first come together
Roma is an umbrella term that refers to all ethnic groups
who identify themselves as Roma, Gypsies, Kale, Sinti,
Manush, Romanichal and other related groups, such as
Travellers, Dom and Lom. In the Romani language, the
word ‘Roma’ has the meaning of ‘people’ (plural form).
In Romanes ‘Rom’ means a man, husband and ‘Romni’
a woman, wife. Roma is an endonym (the name used by
a group or category of people to refer to themselves)
as opposed to a name given to them by other groups
(exonyms). For example, the English exonym ‘gypsy’
is traditionally used in the English language to define
those groups of people who refer to themselves in their
own language as ‘Roma’ or other terms, according to the
subgroup. The decision to use ‘Roma’ as a common term
referring to the same ethnic group of people was taken
during the First World Roma Congress in Orpington,
England (1971). At this Congress the Roma flag and the
Roma anthem ‘Djelem, Djelem’ were also adopted.
Anti-Gypsyism
The lack of recognition of the Roma Genocide, among
other things, creates walls in the people minds towards
the Roma that results in stigmatization and discrimination. Anti-Gypsyism itself is a complex social phenomenon
which can manifest itself through violence, hate speech,
exploitation, and discrimination in its most visible forms.
Discourses and representations from the political arena,
academia and civil society, segregation, dehumaniza-
8
tion and stigmatisation, as well as social aggression and
socio-economic exclusion are other ways through which
anti-Gypsyism is spread. Anti-Gypsyism is used to justify
and perpetrate the exclusion and supposed inferiority of
Roma and is based on historical persecution and negative stereotypes.
To understand the realities facing young Roma, it is important to look at individual stories and the effects of discrimination on the lives of these inviduals. The structural
context in which this happens is also an important factor.
When and how did the Roma
spread to Europe?
The term anti-Gypsyism has been used widely since the
2000s in academia and activist contexts. It goes back to
Roma activists and researchers such as Ian Hancock and
Valeriu Nicolae, whose identification of anti-Gypsyism as
a specific form of racism in 2006 is the basis of many subsequent publications.
© Flora Maxim
Kurdish and Persian words in Romanes
‘I argue here that anti-Gypsyism is a distinct type of racist
ideology. It is, at the same time, similar, different, and intertwined with many other types of racism. Anti-Gypsyism
itself is a complex social phenomenon which manifests
itself through violence, hate speech, exploitation, and discrimination in its most visible form. Discourses and representations from the political, academic and civil society
communities, segregation, dehumanization, stigmata as
well as social aggression and socio-economic exclusion are
other ways through which anti-Gypsyism is spread. AntiGypsyism is used to justify and perpetrate the exclusion
and supposed inferiority of Roma and is based on historical
persecution and negative stereotypes.’ (Nicolae 2006: 1)
style of jazz guitar technique (sometimes called ‘hot’ jazz
guitar), which has since become a living musical tradition
within French Gypsy culture. With violinist Stéphane Grappelli, Reinhardt co-founded the Quintette du Hot Club de
France, described by critic Thom Jurek as ‘one of the most
original bands in the history of recorded jazz’.
In the past two years the term anti-Gypsyism has been criticized, especially in Berlin, by several groups and individuals, because it contains the discriminatory term ‘G*’. But also
internationally not everybody supports the term and other
terms are used as well. Suggestions for new terms include
Romaphobia, anti-Romaism or anti-Romani racism; the latter is used also by the European Roma Rights Centre.
Ceija Stojka was born as Margarethe Stojka in a family of Lovari Roma, traditionally horse-traders. As a child
she was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau with her whole
family; then she was transferred to different concentration camps until she was liberated from Bergen-Belsen.
Then Ceija decided to study and became a writer; her
first book was the first literary work about the Holocaust
written by a Romani. She is also a self-taught painter and
her works have been presented in exhibitions. She has
also published a collection of poetry.
Examples of anti-Gypsyism
In September 2014, Raymond Gurême, an 89 year old
survivor of the Roma persecution in France during the
Second World War, was physically assaulted in his home
by a French policeman. Later he was refused an examination of his injuries by a police doctor. Nevertheless,
the public prosecutor decided that there was no proof to
indict anyone. The incident was reported in international
media, but he is still waiting for justice.
Anti-Gypsyism, therefore, can be defined as a form of
dehumanization because prejudice against the Roma
clearly goes beyond racist stereotyping, whereby Roma
are associated with negative traits and behaviour.
Through dehumanization, Roma are viewed as less than
human and, being less than human, they are perceived
as not morally entitled to human rights equal to those of
the rest of the population.
Famous Roma
Django Reinhardt is regarded as one of the greatest
guitar players of all time; he was the first important European jazz musician who made major contributions to
the development of the genre. He created an entirely new
Katarzyna Pollok is an internationally recognized
painter and sculptor. She is a Sinti woman committed
to minority rights and often deals with the memory of
the Roma Holocaust (Porhaymós). At present resident in
Germany, there are exhibitions of her work worldwide,
including in Jewish museums of the Shoah.
Matéo Maximoff. His father was a Russian Kalderash
who migrated to France and his mother a Manouche
(French Sinti). Matéo Maximoff survived the ‘Porhaymós’ during the Second World War and became an outstanding writer in Romani and French, and advocated
the schooling of Roma children. His literary works have
been translated into several languages. After becoming
an Evangelical pastor, he completed a translation of the
New Testament into Kalderash Romani.
The Roma Genocide – ‘Porrajmos’
or ‘Samudaripen’
It is estimated that at least 500,000 Roma were victims
of the genocide, amounting to perhaps as much as 7080 per cent of the total Roma population in Europe at
the time. However, the death toll could be significantly
higher than half a million, with countless more casualties
still to be documented in the search for mass graves and
unmarked massacre sites throughout the Nazi-occupied
areas, especially in the eastern regions.
But this genocide is still largely unknown. Roma people were murdered in extermination camps and died of
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2 August – Roma Genocide
Remembrance Day
On 15 April 2015 the European Parliament recognized
2 August as European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day.
© Flora Maxim
The European Parliament voted by an overwhelming majority to finally adopt a resolution that recognizes ‘the historical fact of the genocide of Roma that took place during
World War II’ and concludes ‘that a European day should be
dedicated to commemorating the victims of the genocide
of the Roma during World War II’. Of huge importance is the
fact that this resolution also ‘underlines the need to combat anti-Gypsyism at every level and by every means, and
stresses that this phenomenon is an especially persistent,
violent, recurrent and commonplace form of racism.’
hunger and disease in forced labour and concentration
camps during the Second World War. Many more were
deported and exploited as forced labour on farms and
construction sites and in industry. For decades after the
war the survivors were not recognized as victims of the
Nazi persecution and received little or no compensation
or restitution of their lost property. The Nazi persecution
of the Roma varied from country to country and region to
region. In the Balkan states and the Soviet Union, mobile
killing squads travelled from village to village massacring
the inhabitants and typically left few or no records of the
number of victims. Roma were also victims of the puppet
regimes that cooperated with the Third Reich during the
war, especially the Ustasa regime in Croatia. In Jasenovac
concentration camp tens of thousands of Roma were
killed. Yad Vashem estimates that the Roma Genocide was
most intense in Yugoslavia, where around 90,000 Roma
were murdered. The Romanian regime did not systematically annihilate the Roma population in its territory, but
deported 26,000 Roma to Transnistria, where thousands
died from disease, starvation and brutal treatment.
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Such recognition also entails a continuous fight against
racial and ethnic violence and discrimination. We all
need to be vigilant and stand up against xenophobia,
hate crimes and discrimination against anyone, including the Roma minority.
16 May – Romani Resistance Day
Romani Resistance days commemorates the exceptional
instance of resistance in the extermination camp Auschwitz II – Birkenau. The camp’s section B was called the
‘Gypsy Camp’ (Zigeuner Lager). Some of the Romani
people transported into the hell of Auschwitz by the
Nazis were not gassed immediately upon arrival, but
were placed in the Zigeuner Lager. It was a ‘mixed’ camp,
which meant that children, men and women were imprisoned there together.
The Nazis planned the extermination of the so-called Gypsy Camp for 16 May 1944. At the time there were more than
6,000 Romani prisoners there. On 15 May, the underground
resistance movement in the camp warned the Roma of
what the Nazis were planning. On the morning of 16 May,
the Romani prisoners did not show up for the usual morning roll call and ceased cooperating with the SS guards.
The Roma barricaded themselves in their shanties. They
had broken into an equipment warehouse and armed
themselves with hammers, pickaxes and shovels, taking
apart the wooden sections of the bunks they slept on to
make wooden stakes.
The children collected rocks. When the SS guards entered the camp in the late afternoon to take the Roma to
the gas chambers, they began to fight for their lives. The
Roma fought to the death. Children, men, and women all
fought. Auschwitz had never experienced anything like
it before and would not experience it again. There were
losses on both sides.
The SS were in shock because they had completely failed
to anticipate this resistance. Concerned they might lose
more men and that the uprising might spread to other
parts of Auschwitz, they retreated from the Gypsy camp.
No Roma died in the gas chambers that day. The Nazis
subsequently put the prisoners of Zigeuner Lager on a
starvation diet. Almost 3,000 were transported to the
camps in Buchenwald, Ravensbruck and others. Less
than 3,000 Romani prisoners remained in the family
camp at BIIe, most of them children. On 2 August 1944,
the Nazis gassed them all to death in gas chamber V, although the Roma fought back on that dark night as well.
Alfreda Markowska is a Polish Roma who during the
Second World War saved around fifty Jewish and Roma
children from death. Alfreda Markowska was born in
1926 in a Roma caravan near the town of Stanisławów.
In 1941, her family were murdered by the Germans; she
was arrested. After her escape from prison, she and her
husband resided first in the Lublin ghetto, and later in
Łódź and Bełżec. She escaped from each of these places,
saving Jewish and Roma children. Upon receiving the
news of yet another pogrom, she would visit execution
sites in search for surviving children. She then transported the survivors to her ‘base’ and procured false papers
for them. Some of them she gave back to their guardians, others she placed in the care of Roma families or
brought up herself. ‘Noncia’, as she is called in the Roma
community, was the first Roma woman to be awarded
a Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia
Restituta for heroism and exceptional courage, and for
outstanding merit in saving human life for saving the
lives of several dozen Roma and Jewish children during the Second World War. After the war, she met with
a group of young survivors whom she had rescued.
International Roma Day
It is an opportunity for us all to celebrate Romani culture
and raise awareness of the issues facing Roma people. International Roma Day also draws attention to discrimination directed at Roma and Gypsy communities globally
and is a call for the human rights of all to be respected
and observed.
Roma heroes and heroines
Here we shall name only a few of the Roma heroines and
heroes whose stories bring home to us the power and
meaning of ordinary kindness and compassion that saved
lives during the Holocaust. Our task is not only to remember the dead and commemorate the survivors, but also to
celebrate the heroes, those who reached out beyond their
families, beyond their communities, who in their efforts
to save the lives of others ran the risk of losing their own.
© Joseph G Jones
Also known as International Romani Day, this takes place
on 8 April every year. It was first declared in 1990.
Raymond Gurême is a French Roma Holocaust survivor,
89 years old. Raymond is from a traditional Roma family. From childhood he performed in his family’s circus
as an acrobat. Raymond and his family were arrested
75 years ago, following an order by the German occupying
forces that all ‘Gypsies’ in France had to be sent to detention camps. They were immediately transferred to
Linas-Monthléry on the southern outskirts of Paris. He
was interned eight times in French concentration camps
but he managed to escape from all of them. By digging
a tunnel he could provide his imprisoned family with
food during the night and he also helped children to
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© Andreea Tanase
escape through the tunnel. During the Second World
War he joined the French Underground Resistance to
liberate France from the Nazi occupation. When he was
87 years old he decided to share his history, with the
help of the journalist Isabelle Ligner, in the book Interdit
aux Nomades.
Johann Trollmann is a German Sinti boxer. Noted for his
speed, agility and surprising power Trollmann became
known as ‘Rukeli’, from the Romani word for tree, ‘ruk’. In
1932 Trollmann fought an amazing 32 times but while his
box-office appeal grew he began to draw unwanted attention from fascist media who labelled him ‘the gypsy in the
ring’. Hitler was known to be an admirer of boxing and was
keen to see his idea of the master race being superior to all
others, especially Jews, Roma and Sinti, so the sight of Trollmann’s success infuriated him. The following month, having been warned to change his flamboyant style and told
not to ‘dance like a gypsy’, Trollmann dyed his hair blonde
and used flour to whiten his body before taking to the ring
and losing against Gustav Eder. It was a courageous show
of defiance against the Nazi regime that would be his last
act in German professional boxing. He divorced his wife to
protect his family. Soon he was sterilized, taken to concentration camps and was killed in a fixed boxing match.
Recommended reading and resources
• Rombase Pedagogics is recommended for teachers, Roma mediators and for all those interested in the
history and culture of the Roma: http://rombase.uni-graz.at/ped/index.en.html
• Fact sheets on Roma: http://romafacts.uni-graz.at/index.php/history/general-introduction/general-introduction
• Right to Remember, A Handbook for Education with Young People on the Roma Genocide: http://enter.coe.
int/roma/Media/Files/Right-to-Remember-A-Handbook-for-Education-with-Young-People-on-the-Roma-Genocide
• Roma Genocide and educational material for teachers: http://www.romasintigenocide.eu/en/home
• Johann ‘Rukeli’ Trollmann, the Sinti boxing star: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/a-fight-for-memory-monument-honors-sinti-boxer-murdered-by-the-nazis-a-702938.html
Edited by the Phiren Amenca team
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Jews in Europe have identified throughout history according to cultural and religious denominations. Besides the Italkim (Jews who follow the ancient Italian
rite), the Romaniotes (the Jewish community in Greece
and neighbouring countries that has resided there for
2000 years) and the Georgian Jews (the Jewish community in Georgia, which traces its roots back to Babylonian rule in the 6th century BCE), the two best known
and most important groups for European history are the
Ashkenazim and the Sephardim.
The term Ashkenaz means ‘Germany’ and was used to
describe the first compact area of Jewish settlement in
northwestern Europe, on both sides of the river Rhine. In a
broader sense it became the denotation for the entire cultural complex of Jews from France and Germany, PolandLithuania and in modern times for Jewish settlements all
over the world. One of its most apparent markers is the use
of the Judeo-German language, also known as Yiddish.
The term Sepharad relates to ‘Hispania’, hence the
Sephardim are descendants of the Jews of Spain and
Portugal. Sephardic Jews retained a special idiom of the
Spanish language called ‘Ladino’ or Judeo-Spanish. Similar to Ashkenazim, Sephardim also became a denotation
for an entire cultural complex of Jews, often used in contrast to Ashkenazim. In history, the centres of Ashkenazi
and Sephardi culture have influenced each other and
have shown parallel developments. A prominent example of this correlation of the two cultural hemispheres
can be found in the work of the codifiers of Halakhah
(religious law), Joseph Caro (1488-1575) and Moses Isserles (1520-1572). Caro, born in Toledo, Spain, codified
the Shulchan Aruch (literally ‘Set table’) in Safed in 1563.
Caro’s Codex follows mainly the Sephardic interpretation
of Jewish law. Moses Isserles, who was born and lived in
Krakow, was the halakhic authority of European Jews
at that time. Isserles published a commentary on Caro’s
Shulchan Aruch, the Mapah (literally ‘tablecloth’). The
Mapah is written as a gloss, pointing out the cases of Jewish law on which Ashkenazi and Sephardi customs differ.
From the seventeenth century, the Ashkenazim gained
influence as they increased in number and importance,
while the importance of the Sephardim started to dimin-
ish. Before the Second World War Ashkenazi Jewry represented 90 percent of the total Jewish population. Today,
the two cultural complexes exist side by side. The Enlightenment not only stimulates change in European societies, but also had its effects on Judaism.
The eighteenth century marked the dawn of Hassidism,
an ultra-orthodox movement, which includes Kabalah,
Jewish mysticism, in a living tradition. The Rabbi plays a
central role in the structure of a Hassidic community as well
as communal experiences and storytelling. Prominent figures of the movement include its founder, Israel ben Eliezer
(Baal Schem Tow), Dow Bär and Jakob Josef von Polonoje.
The importance and acceptance of philosophical dissent
in Judaism generates the enormous variety of religious denominations during the Enlightenment. The main strands
are: Haredi (Ultra-Orthodoxy), Orthodoxy, Conservative
and Liberal Judaism. This differentiation is the result
of processes within the Jewish community of the
German Kaiserreich.
Liberal Judaism acts on the assumption of an ongoing revelation of God. Religious law is subdivided into unchangeable ethical laws and ritual laws. The ritual laws should be
© Pia Hagenbach
T h e J e w is h
diaspora in
E urope
13
interpreted according to the environment and are therefore alterable. Important figures include Israel Jacobson,
Abraham Geiger and, in recent history, Walter Jacob.
Conservative Judaism tries to preserve tradition as much
as possible, unless compatible with modern understanding. Important figures include: Zacharias Frankel and
Solomon Schechter.
The small number of community members throughout
Europe today, all of different denominations, has often
resulted in a need for compromise in recent history. Accordingly, many European communities have offered
predominantly orthodox services. Although a majority
of European Jewish populations may attend orthodox
services, they live a fairly secular life. Additionally, both
the Liberal and the Conservative movements are growing, especially in Central and parts of Eastern Europe.
They both also play an essential role in European Jewish
history and have their roots in Germany. The key factor
for each denomination is its philosophical approach to
religious texts and as a result, for example, the role of
gender or religious law in daily life may differ drastically.
Nevertheless, the big four denominations are anything
but homogenous internally. As part of the Haredi movement, Hassidic Judaism consists of hundreds of different
branches, with differences in traditional clothing, religious practice and religious law.
Distribution in Europe
and socio-economic status
Jews lived and still live in almost every European country
and mostly mirror society’s socio-economic structures.
France has the largest population with around 480,000,
following by Great Britain with 292,000 and Russia with
157,000. The next largest communities are:
Germany – 119,000 members
Ukraine – 71,500 members
Hungary – 48,600 members
Belgium – 30,300 members
Netherlands – 30,000 members
Italy – 28,400 members
Turkey/Switzerland – 17,600 members
Jewish history in Europe
© Pia Hagenbach
The life of European Jewry throughout the ages could
be viewed as a paradigm of diaspora. Jews mainly represented a persecuted minority within the population of
the empire or state they lived in, dependent on the support and protection of the sovereign or ruling authorities.
14
There were Jewish communities in the Hellenistic Empire
from the third century BCE. The Jewish historian Josephus
stated in his Antiquities that as early as 90 BCE two of the
Jewish tribes lived in Asia and Europe under Roman rule.
Persecution as the strong marker of Jewish experience in
Europe evolved around the institutionalization and recognition of Christianity as a state religion in the Roman
empire. Hostility towards Jews – conversion, confiscation
of property, enslavement and expulsion – grew among
their Christian neighbours and was widespread throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Changes within the
Catholic Church, conflicts between social groups, natural
catastrophes or the outbreak of epidemics – such as the
Black Death during the fourteenth century – often led to
outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence.
Timeline
• Around 1200 BCE – First archaeological evidence of Judaism as a religion (hieroglyphic Inscription ‘Israel’ on a stele
of the ancient Egyptian king Merneptah)
• Around 1000 BCE – Monarchy, first central sanctuary in Jerusalem
• 926 BCE – Nation of Israel splits into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah
• 720 BCE – Kingdom of Israel conquered by the Assyrians
• 586 BCE – The Babylonians conquered the kingdom of Judah, first Temple destroyed, beginning, begin of the
Babylonian exile
• 538 BCE – Babylonia defeated by the Persian King Kyros, adherents of the Israelite religion are allowed
to return to Jerusalem
• Around 520 BCE – Second Temple constructed
• 332 BCE – Military campaign of Alexander the Great of Macedonia against the Persian Empire,
beginning of the hellenistic era
• 3rd century BCE – Translation of the Torah into Greek language (Septuaginta)
• Around 250 BCE – First mention of Judaism on the island of Rhodes
• 175 BCE – The Seleucid King Antiochus IV banned Jewish rites and desecrated the Temple, Revolt under
the leadership of the Maccabees
• 1st century BCE – Records of a Jewish community in Rome
• 63 BCE – Roman general Pompey conquered the Jewish kingdom of the Hasmonean family
• 70 CE – Roman emperor Titus destroyed the second Temple
• 132 CE – Revolt of Bar Kokhba: after the defeat Jews were expelled from Jerusalem and the city was renamed Aelia
Capitolina and Judea Syria Palestine
• Around 200 CE – Revision of the Mishnah by Judah haNasi
• Around 390 CE – Compilation of the Jerusalem Talmud, Babylon became the centre of rabbinical theology
• Around 500 CE – Compilation of the Babylonian Talmud
• 638 CE – The Arab Islamic Empire under the rule of Caliph Omar conquered Jerusalem, Palestine and Syria;
Jews were allowed to re-establish
• 1096 – 13th century – Pogroms against the Jews under the ruling of the Crusades
• 13th century – Formation of Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah)
• 1348-1350 – Persecution of Jews in Western Europe, migration to Eastern Europe
• 1492 – Jews expelled from the Iberian peninsula
• 1516 – First segregated residential area for Jews in Venice, the Ghetto
• 1648 – Uprising of the Cossacks under Bogdan Chmielnicki – pogroms in Poland and Lithuania
• 1791 – French National Assembly granted Jews equal rights
• End of 18th century – Haskalah as part of the European Enlightenment
• 1871 – Emancipation of the Jews in Germany; except Russia, in every European country except Russia
• 1881-1882 – Pogroms in Russia and the Ukraine, mass migration to Central Europe and the USA
• 1882 – First Jewish settlement – Rishon LeZion in the Land of Israel
• 1884 – Beginning of the Zionist Movement
• 1894-1906 – Dreyfus trial in France
• 1897 – First Zionist Congress
• 1909 – Establishment of the first Kibbutz
• 1917 – United Kingdom conquered Palestine from the Ottoman Empire, Balfour Declaration announced
‘National Home’ for Jews
• 1920 – British Mandate for Palestine
• 1935 – Nuremberg laws – Jews lost civil rights in Nazi Germany, beginning of mass migration
• 1938 – Jewish shops and synagogues were destroyed on the night of 9th November.
• 1939-1945 – Second World War, 6 million Jews were killed during the Shoah
• 1948 – Declaration of the Establishment of a Jewish State in Israel
• 1948-1973 – Jews from the Maghreb states migrate to Israel and France
15
• 1967 – Jewish Community is banned from Libya and migrates mostly to Israel, France and Italy
• 1978 – Discrimination after the Iranian Revolution leads to Jewish migration from Iran to Italy, United States,
Israel, Germany
• 1990 – The fall of the Iron Curtain leads to increased migration from the FSU
• 1994 – AMIA bombing leads to increased security measures in Europe
• 1995 – First female rabbi after the Second World War starts her ministry in Germany
• 2012 – Shooting in Jewish School in Toulouse
• 2015 – Attacks on Hypercacher, Paris, and Synagogue of Copenhagen
Jewish communities have always been a vital part of the
society they lived in. Therefore Jewish history is intertwinded with and European history writ large. Landmarks
in and quarters of cities and villages, bits and pieces in Europe’s languages, street names, artists, writers, scientists
and politicians have written this rich history since time immemorial and a full record would expand the magnitude
of this work. The most common proof of Jewish life in a
settlement lies in Jewish cemeteries, however. The silence
of death is defined as eternal in Judaism. Hence, cemeteries, if not destroyed, remain for centuries, often even with
no Jewish presence on the site. Wherever there is a Jewish
cemetery, there is or was Jewish life.
Today’s perception of Judaism in Europe is often connected to the Shoah. While it undoubtedly constitutes
the darkest chapter of European Jewish history and was
responsible for the extinction of large parts of the Jewish
community (especially in Eastern Europe), the perception
that the Shoah meant the end for Jewish history in Europe
is wrong. It is a history that is still being written even today.
Mobilization of Jews in Europe
Jews throughout Europe are mostly organized in and
around Jewish communities. However, there are vast
differences in community life, partially also due to the
drastically divergent numbers of community members
in Europe. In case of a smaller Jewish population, communities often are an umbrella for all Jewish activities
carried out in a city. Jews of different denominations and
cultural background come together in order to ensure
any form of Jewish life. In contrast, larger Jewish populations lead to a greater variety in Jewish life. Different denominations then build and run their own communities,
their own synagogues and community centers, and run
their own activities.
© Alberto Modiano
Jewish heritage in Europe
There are few European cities with such thriving Jewish life, however. The Jewish community in London is
a bright example of a thriving Jewish community with
a large Jewish population: numerous Jewish schools, different synagogues, Jewish NGOs, office hubs for Jewish
social projects, Jewish cemeteries, hospitals and newspapers are well developed and well integrated in the city’s
everyday life. On a national level, European communities
have political representation, mostly in umbrella federations of Jewish communities. Apart from being the national point of contact for any interaction with national
governments, these federations are also organized under
a European umbrella, the European Jewish Congress.
Since 1978 there has also been a student body, the European Union of Jewish Students. Every country also has a religious representative. While the office of Chief Rabbi does
not come with any political powers, it voices the religious
affiliation of the community. However, when it comes to
religious decision-making, in contrast to Catholicism, for
example, there is no religious hierarchy in Judaism. The
Chief Rabbi’s vote counts the same as those of every other
community member with regard to religious decisions.
Other than these democratic representations there are
a variety of grassroots movements, foundations and initiatives connected or affiliated to European Jewry, many
of them with a very strong social focus.
Authors: The Board of EUJS and Tobias
Barniske, Abraham Geiger Kolleg
16
T h e A ss y rian
peop l e
but with the arrival of the new faith, a process started by
which the Assyrians alienated themselves from their preChristian heritage, which they began to consider pagan.
The Assyrians are one of the oldest peoples in the world,
originating in northern Mesopotamia around the river
Tigris. Their historical area of settlement is today divided between Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. The Assyrian
identity started to develop in this area about 4,000 years
ago. After the fall of Nineveh – the Assyrian capital in the
seventh century BCE – the Assyrians continued to live
in northern Mesopotamia, although under new rulers
(Babylonians, Persians and Greeks). Despite the lack of
a political authority to represent them, they survived as
a people in their original territories for centuries.
The Assyrians were strongly affected by the arrival of
Christianity. The new religion spread among them very
early. Many churches still survive that were built in Assyria
in the fourth century, often on the sites of temples of the
Assyrian old gods. According to tradition, the apostle
Judas Thaddeus brought Christianity to northern Mesopotamia. It should be noted that it was with the advent
of Christianity that the persecution of the Assyrians began, starting with the Persians, who at that time ruled
over northern Mesopotamia.
© Lisbah Barsaume/Mike Malke
Christianity had a strong influence on Assyrian self-perception. Assyrians were worshippers of the god Ashur,
Their original ethnic-religious identity faded away over
the centuries, to the point at which the Assyrians considered themselves solely Christian. The Christian faith is
an essential element in the Assyrian identity, as it is for
Armenians. Anyone who relinquished their Christian
faith, also ceased be an Assyrian. Indeed, a strong Christian identity has been crucial for the Assyrians: without
it, they would undoubtedly have been assimilated into
the Muslim milieu in which they have lived since the
Arab conquests of the region in the seventh century.
The Diaspora
Due to war, persecution and genocide, Assyrians became small minority groups in their home countries.
Many have lived as diaspora, scattered across several
continents, since the creation of the diaspora after the
1915 genocide, which exterminated more than twothirds of the community, alongside the Armenians and
Greeks in the Ottoman empire. The chaos in the Middle
East during the past century has provoked the flight of
most Assyrians from Turkey, Iraq and Iran, and today we
are witnessing the same thing in Syria. Therefore, an increasing number of Assyrians are joining the Western
diaspora in the United States, Europe and Australia. Taking that into account, the number of Assyrians in the
European diaspora is today coming to exceed the number who have remained in their homeland.
During the nineteenth century, many Assyrians migrated to the Russian empire. Many believed that it would
be easier to live in Christian Russia than to suffer the
increasing persecution of non-Muslims in the Ottoman
empire. America also attracted Assyrians at the end of the
nineteenth century. The establishment of the Western
European diaspora, however, is more recent. The exodus
from the region of Tur Abdin, in south-east Turkey, began
in the 1960s and almost completely emptied that region.
Today, there are only 3,000 Assyrians in Tur Abdin. The
main reason for this exodus was the increasing tensions
in the region. The Assyrians were denied their national
and cultural rights. For example, they had no right to use
their own language in contacts with the authorities or to
run schools where they could teach their children. Religious intolerance was also widespread.
17
© Manuela Saliba
Nowadays, Assyrians in Europe – who number almost
half a million – are becoming more structured and organised as a community, struggling to preserve their
identity, language, history, culture and folklore, while at
the same time living as European citizens involved in the
development of their new country.
The war between the Turkish army and Kurdish guerrilla forces in the past thirty years was the main reason
emigration became the preferred option for a majority
of the Assyrians in Turkey. As a consequence, many moved to Istanbul, but the vast majority left for Europe.
Germany and Sweden were popular destinations. The
Assyrian community in Sweden is estimated at more
than 100,000, at least 1 per cent of the Swedish population. Germany has almost the same number, but they
are more geographically scattered than the Assyrians
in Sweden. We also find smaller groups in several other
European countries, such as Switzerland, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Denmark and France.
Since 2003, several hundreds of thousands of Assyrians
have also been forced to leave Iraq and Syria, as result of
increasingly violent religious persecution, which culminated with the rize of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Despite the difficulties they face in adapting to a new
environment, the Assyrian immigration must be regarded as a success story. They have adjusted relatively
smoothly to life in European countries and have integrated well. Assyrians are aspirational and have produced
eminent economists, lawyers, journalists, politicians
and even football players in only a few decades. They
have launched associations and have cultivated a real
cultural and social life in every country they live in. As
tools to combat assimilation and a loss of the Assyrian
identity, they have created magazines, published books
and make tremendous efforts to promote their identity
in their new environment. The Assyrians have this challenge in common with other minorities, who are also
concerned about their future in the diaspora.
18
Education is regarded as the biggest challenge facing
the Assyrian diaspora. More than most communities in
Europe, diasporas face a struggle to maintain an awareness of their own heritage and to prepare their children for a future within the European societies in which
they reside.
Their primary issue is language. Although Armenian
and Jewish communities, for example, have established
schools all over Europe with a specific focus on the preservation and flourishing of their own languages and
cultures, Assyrians are still at the beginning of this process. Assyrian schools have been founded in places such
as Sweden – and further afield in Australia and the United States – but the measures taken so far are insufficient
in both nature and scale. Official and well organised initiatives are strongly needed.
The Assyrian homeland
Even though the original Assyria no longer exists, there
remains a heartland in northern Mesopotamia, which
the Assyrians themselves call their homeland. The role
of the diaspora is crucial for the future of the Assyrians,
but many also aspire to the survival of the Assyrians as a
nation in their original homeland, where many still live,
through the creation of an autonomous area in which
they would be free to teach their language and promote
their culture openly. Indeed, most Assyrians are sceptical
that they could ever obtain sufficient respect for their
human rights – including cultural rights – under Arab,
Turkish or Kurdish rule and thus prevent the complete
annihilation of the Assyrians in their original homeland.
Recommended reading
• Aboona, Hirmiz: Assyrians, Kurds and Ottomans. Intercommunal Relations on the Periphery of the Ottoman Empire.
Cambria Press, 2008.
• Aprim, Frederick A.: Assyrians: The Continuous Saga. Xlibris, 2005.
• Aprim, Frederick A.: Assyrians: From Bedr Khan to Saddam Hussein. Driving into Extinction the Last Aramaic Speakers.
Xlibris, 2006.
• Cetrez, Önver A., Donabed, Sargon G. and Makko Aryo: The Assyrian Heritage. Threads of Continuity and Influence.
Uppsala University Library, 2012.
• Donabed, Sargon G.: Remnants of Heroes: The Assyrian Experience: The Continuity of the Assyrian Heritage from
Kharput to New England. Assyrian Academic Society Press, 2003.
• Gaunt, David: Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia during World War I.
Gorgias Press, 2006.
• Lundgren, Svante: The Assyrians – From Nineveh to Södertälje. Tigris Press, 2014.
• Lundgren, Svante and Yakoub, Afram: Assyrians. Questions and Answers, 2010.
• Parpola, Simon: Assyrians after Assyria. Journal of the Assyrian Academic Society 12/2, 1-16, 2000.
• Yana, George V.: Ancient and Modern Assyrians. A Scientific Analysis. Xlibris, 2008.
• Yildiz, Ephrem: The Assyrians: a historical and current reality. JAAS 13/1, 1999.
Authors: Svante Lundgren and Naher Aslan
19
THE ARMENIAN
DIASPORA IN
EUROPE
The origins of the Armenian diaspora can be traced back
more than 1,500 years. The original Armenian homeland,
where Armenian culture and identity were first forged,
is situated to the east of Anatolia and to the south of
the Caucasus. Its population has been consistently dispersed over the centuries to neighbouring areas and in
particular to the rest of the European continent.
Dispersion has had numerous different causes, including
military service, trade, the attraction of imperial or trade
centres such as Constantinople, deportations, wars and
genocide. The Armenian homeland, furthermore, has
only intermittently experienced full sovereignty. The
durability of the phenomenon of dispersion over the
centuries has created one of the most ancient European
diasporas.
Indeed, this consistent process of dispersion and circulation, over the past 1,500 years, has been so persistent
as to appear organic. According to historian Vladimir
Bakhudaryan,
‘for centuries not only did the large Armenian masses find
themselves outside Armenia, but so did their cultural, public and political centres. ln the Armenian colonies, Armenian culture was not only preserved but also developed. It is
significant that the first printed Armenian book and the first
Armenian periodical originated in Armenian communities
in foreign countries [in Venice and Madras, respectively].
Therefore these communities, also part of the history of
their host country, were an inseparable part of the history
of the Armenian nation.’
Sociologist of diasporas J.M. Bruneau coined a phrase
‘les peuples-monde de la longue durée’ (‘World-peoples of
the long-term’) to designate groups such as the Armenians that have experienced dispersion and yet have preserved their identities over the centuries.
Today, the Armenian population worldwide can be
roughly estimated at 10,000,000. About 7,000,000 of
20
them live in Europe, including Armenia (2.9 million)
and mountainous Karabakh (146,000). The largest concentrations of Armenians in Europe in the rest of the
continent are in Russia (2.5 million), France (0.6 million),
Ukraine (400,000), Georgia (250,000), Spain (80,000),
Greece (70,000), Germany (60,000), Bulgaria (50,000),
Poland (50,000), Hungary (20,000), the United Kingdom
(20,000), the Netherlands (15,000) and Belgium (20,000).
The institutions of the Armenian diaspora have naturally
evolved over time and from one country to another. The
diaspora’s durability is linked to the existence and autonomy of such institutions as the Armenian church and to
the distinctiveness of the Armenian language, that has
its own alphabet and literature. The diaspora has also
arguably been fostered by the unique position of the
Armenians straddling the Christian and Muslim worlds;
this has allowed the Armenians to establish extensive
trade networks and contribute to the circulation of ideas
and technology over the centuries.
Armenian communities today are typically composed
of a diversity of associations, based on cultural, educational, charitable and religious activities. The church
and teaching of the Armenian language and culture
are often central to the community. Donating to good
causes plays an important role in Armenian communities, whether for the benefit of community institutions
or for people in need, most recently Armenians from
Syria. Mobilization for political causes is also a focus of
community activities, particularly for the recognition of
the Armenian genocide. Traditional Armenian political
parties are marginal in numbers, but remain influential.
Typical Armenian communities in Europe today are very
diverse. The old communities were often overwhelmed
by the large numbers of survivors of the genocide of
1915 who arrived in the early 1920s. They were joined
in the 1970s and 1980s by smaller numbers of refugees
from Iran, Lebanon and Turkey. Starting in 1990, the collapse of the Soviet Union and economic hardship caused
a new large wave of immigrants, this time from the newly
independent Republic of Armenia and from the Russianspeaking world. The geographical origin of individuals
can differ significantly from one community to the next:
in some countries, such as Georgia, Bulgaria and Romania, the ancient communities are still prevalent. Others
are dominated by the descendants of refugees from the
© Andreea Tanase
1920s (for example, France); others are now composed
largely of Armenians from Armenia and Russia (for example, Spain and Germany); others still are very diverse,
with no dominant component, attracting individuals of
all origins (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands).
Furthermore, Armenian communities are interconnected. Family and friendship, first of all, create strong bonds
between countries. Books, newspapers and ideas, musical productions, paintings and films, musical and dance
performances, priests and activists circulate through the
‘Armenian transnation’.
A number of institutions also help to connect or mobilize the diaspora internationally in the twentieth century. Traditionally, the Armenian General Benevolent
Union, as well as a number of organizations affiliated to
the Dashnak party have played an important role in this
respect. In the past 15 years, the embassies of the Republic of Armenia, too, have played an increasing role in
mobilizing the diaspora.
1500 years of dispersion
Armenia is located in what might be termed the cradle
of European civilization, an area ranging from the Italian
peninsula to the Armenian highland, first united culturally in the Hellenistic period, then again under the Roman Empire.
Next to the Hellenistic and Roman heritage, the adoption of Christianity as state religion in 301 AD is the third
essential component of historic Armenia’s European
identity. The Armenians, alongside the Greeks, were one
of the core nations of the Byzantine Empire. They repre-
sented a significant part of the Byzantine economic, cultural, intellectual, political and military elite. More than
twenty emperors of Armenian origin ruled the Empire.
The second rise of Byzantium that is also known as the
‘Byzantine Renaissance’ was achieved under an Armenian dynasty (867–1057). Among the many outstanding
Armenian figures that played an important role in the
‘Byzantine Renaissance’ were the Ecumenical Patriarchs
of Constantinople St Photios the Great (858-867; 877886) and John the Grammarian (837-843), Caesar Bardas
and Emperor Leo VI the Philosopher (886-912).
In early Christian times, many Armenians in mainland
Europe served as high-ranking representatives of Roman
or Byzantine imperial authority. Prominent Byzantine
general Narses Kamsarakan (c. 478-573) became the
last Roman general to enjoy – in 554 – an official Roman triumph in the city of Rome and became the Exarch
(viceroy) of Italy. The Armenians served also as Byzantine
exarches of Ravenna or as governors of Lombardy, Sicily,
Thessalonica, Peloponnese, Philippopolis or other territories. Besides high-ranking officials there were also
many ecclesiastical missionaries and settlers in other
Western European countries during this and subsequent
periods, such as Bishop Simon in Tours, France (sixth
century), St Gregory of Pithiviers in France (eleventh century), St Macarius in Ghent, Flanders (eleventh century),
and even the three Armenian bishops Petros, Abraham
and Stephannos in Iceland (eleventh century).
The first major period of Armenian dispersion occurred
in the fifth and sixth centuries as a result of ByzantinePersian wars and the partitions of Armenia between the
two empires. Occasionally, Byzantine emperors themselves deported Armenians to other parts of the Empire.
In the year 578, for instance, around 10,000 Armenians
were forcibly resettled to the island of Cyprus. The policy
of resettling Armenians in the Byzantine Empire continued into later centuries, and tens of thousands of Armenians were resettled in Smyrna, Crete, Cyprus, Thrace,
Macedonia, the Peloponnese, Sparta, Sicily and Italy.
A second wave of Armenian emigration followed the
Arab conquest of Armenia (645): in the seventh century, about 700 feudal lords (nakharars) abandoned their
possessions in Armenia and with their families, military,
people and clergy, they migrated to the Byzantine Empire (modern Greece, Italy and Bulgaria); in the eighth
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A third, particularly large wave of Armenian emigration
was caused by the collapse of the Bagratid Kingdom of
Armenia, in 1045. After the conquest of the Armenian
capital Ani by the Seljuk Turks in 1064, many Armenians
left to establish thriving colonies in the Genoese cities
of Crimea, such as Kaffa and Tana. From Crimea, furthermore, Armenian settlers then travelled inland to other
parts of Eastern Europe, particularly to territories controlled by the Polish crown and to Transylvania. In these
lands Armenians constituted key merchant communities on the East–West and South–North trade routes. The
Armenian trade network and expatriate communities
with churches, as well as economic and cultural institutions also expanded to central and western European
cities such as Vienna and Amsterdam.
After the Seljuk Turk invasions in Anatolia and the decline
of Byzantium, an independent Armenian state was established in Cilicia (1080-1375), a territory to the south of
previous Armenian kingdoms. This was the time of the
Crusades, and the Kingdom of Cilician Armenia developed
very close political, cultural and trade relationships with
western European countries, was influenced by western
European culture and government of the time and was
perceived as a bastion of Christendom in the East.
The conquest of Cilician Armenia by the (Egyptian)
Mamluks in 1375 marked the end of Armenian sovereignty and led to more Armenian emigration to the rest
of Europe. Many of the Armenians from Cilicia – first
and foremost the merchants and aristocrats – sailed to
Cyprus, France, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands or
other countries. This Cilician emigration made a decisive
contribution to the creation of a structured and lasting
Armenian diaspora in Europe.
Mongol and Turkic conquests and raids devastated
much of Armenia in the centuries that followed and
transformed the human geography of the Armenian nation. The Ottoman-Persian wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries generated new waves of emigration.
By this time, Armenian refugees were joining existing
and well-established diaspora communities in Europe.
22
Armenian networks in Europe
During the late Middle Ages and early modern times a
network of well-organized Armenian merchant colonies
with considerable commercial capital developed in cities
from eastern India to western Europe. Large and prosperous Armenian communities developed in Venice,
Genoa, Livorno, Amsterdam, Marseille, Saint Petersburg,
Moscow, Lvov, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Krakow, Bucharest,
Armenopolis, Suceava, Chernovtsy and elsewhere.
The Armenians were exclusively urban dwellers, and in
the towns they formed separate communities. They were
granted limited religious and administrative autonomy
by the Polish crown. In 1726 and in 1733 the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI (1711-1740) granted privileges
of autonomy and the status of free royal cities to the Armenian populated Armenopolis and Elisabethstadt. Part
of this area gradually came under Austrian, then AustroHungarian domination. Between 1818 to 1914 around
68 Armenians became Members of Parliament in Budapest,
four became ministers and one Armenian, László Lukács,
(1850–1932) became prime minister.
© Mitranor
century, another 2,000 Armenian feudal lords fled to the
Byzantine Empire, where they were welcomed by the
emperors and granted lands for settlement.
In pre-modern and modern times Armenian commercial networks played an important role within different
economies throughout Europe, as well as in the Eurasian world economy. By the mid-seventeenth century
the Armenians already controlled the lion’s share of raw
silk imports to Europe, for instance. They also controlled
a significant part of the trade in precious stones.
In 1654 an Armenian, Pascal Harutyun, opened the first
coffee houses in France, first in Marseille and 18 years
later in Paris. Others brought coffee to the other capitals
of Europe, such as Vienna, Prague and London. The development of coffee houses was to have an important
impact on the social and intellectual life of these cities.
The accumulated commercial capital of the Armenians
at the time helped fund the construction and maintenance of churches, schools and other community buildings, thus contributing to a durable Armenian presence
in Europe. This also contributed to the progress of Armenian intellectual life.
Thus, in 1512, only half a century after the invention of
printing by Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468), the first
printed book in Armenian, Urbatagirk, was published in
Venice. The first Bible was printed in Amsterdam in 1666.
During these times the ‘economic capitals’ of Europe,
Amsterdam and Venice, were also competing centres of
Armenian culture in the West.
The use of printing, in turn, promoted the emergence of
an ‘imagined’ transnational community with a common
language and common discourse, a phenomenon that
Benedict Anderson called ‘Print capitalism’. Armenian
printing served as a preliminary stimulus for Armenian
transnationalism. In 1773 Shahamir Shahamirian published the first work of Armenian political philosophy
with revolutionary ideas of the European Enlightenment, Vorogayt parats (Snare of Glory). The Mkhitarist
Armenian Catholic fathers – based in Venice and later
also in Vienna – were particularly influential and carried
© Setrak Abassian
A 1699 book by an Armenian scholar by the name of
Luke Vanandetzi provides an idea of the remarkably
extensive network of Armenian trade: in addition to
western Europe, the Caucasus, Iran and the Levant, the
book provides detailed information about Moscow, Astrakhan, Novgorod, Mumbai and Manila and the markets of Java, Sulawesi, Ceylon, Egypt, Angola, Zanzibar
and Monomotapa. The Armenians, just as much as the
western European nations, were perfectly aware of the
vast sprawling world system and indeed contributed to
shaping it, at least in the commercial sphere. There was
a period when Armenian merchants imported to France
almost as much Indian cotton as the French East India
Company itself. Moreover, the Armenians helped the
French to learn the Indian calico printing technology.
out considerable research on Armenian history, geography, language and literature. The Mkhitarists monks
were in close contact with the European intellectual
world and carried out an enlightenment project on behalf of the Armenian nation.
The Armenians and Armenian heritage in this period were
common knowledge in Europe. German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) expressed a commonly held
view in his famous work Anthropology from a Pragmatic
Point of View (1798), when he discussed the anthropological characteristics of the peoples of Eastern Europe:
‘Among another Christian people, the Armenians, a certain
commercial spirit of a special kind prevails; they wander on
foot from the borders of China all the way to Cape Corso on the
coast of Guinea to carry on commerce. This indicates a separate origin of this reasonable and industrious people who, in a
line from North-East to South-West, travel through almost the
whole extent of the ancient continent and who know how to
secure a peaceful reception by all the peoples they encounter.’
However, while the Armenians were a familiar presence
in Europe until the nineteenth century, the appearance of
the ‘Armenian question’ came to dominate the representations of the Armenians after the Berlin Congress of 1878.
Paradoxically, the Armenian Diaspora lost its place in the
consciousness of the European public as its numbers
swelled with the arrival in Europe of hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Ottoman Empire after the
genocide of 1915. The transformation of the memory of
the Armenians from Kant’s representation of prosperous,
cultivated and cosmopolitan communities to impoverished refugees and an embattled nation is the legacy of
the Armenian genocide and of a century-long campaign
by the Turkish authorities.
23
Today, the sheer historical significance of the Armenian
diaspora in Europe, as in the Middle East, combined with
the significance of the Armenian genocide in the political and social development of Turkish society, are now
leading to a gradual resurgence of Armenian memory
and renewed interest in recovering this part of Europe’s
heritage, despite one hundred years of suppression.
The emergence of diasporic identity
Through many centuries of statelessness and dispersion,
Armenians have continued to recognize themselves as
such and were recognized as Armenians by others in
the old world: their identity remained. Armenians were
furthermore recognized as one of the old world’s civilizations, a civilization that had left its mark throughout
Europe and Asia.
By necessity as much as by tradition, Armenian minorities
and the diaspora have had a relationship to identity which
did not involve a state. Panossian and other scholars agree
that the formation of the nation in the modern sense,
which for others was made possible by the state, happened in multiple locations in the case of the Armenians.
Panossian explains:
‘from the 17th C. onwards, based on [ancient cultural markers], Armenian identity was transformed into a modern
sense of national belonging. This evolution – usually referred to as “the awakening” – was carried out mostly in diasporan communities by intellectuals who were supported
by merchants. Hence it was a multilocal process with various centres of identity construction. […] The organizational dimension of the renaissance was carried out by various
community (including religious) institutions [which] played
the same role as a ‘national’ state since Armenians did not
have a state of their own.’
24
Understandably, if statelessness, dispersion and a durable sense of identity have been lasting characteristics
of the Armenians as a group, this very experience has
in turn come to form an integral part of their identity.
Scholar Boghos Levon Zekiyan insists that ‘it is impossible
to conceive of both Armenian history and identity without
taking into consideration the essential role played by the
colonies and the diaspora and their development’. According to Zekiyan, the Diaspora has played a key role in the
circulation of information and ideas, bringing to the rest
of the nation not only the prosperity that comes from
trade but also many institutional, cultural and technical
innovations that helped them thrive.
After 1915, this cultural heritage provided an invaluable
resource to help the hundreds of thousands of refugees
arriving in Europe and America to integrate well into
their new social environment. For anthropologist Martine Hovhannisian, ‘the construction of a new life in the
diaspora [after 1915] draws upon a traditional and prestigious mode of dispersion of elites (merchant colonies of
the XVIIth C., intellectual elites of the XIXth C.) that allowed
individuals to set their contemporary experience of dispersion in a historical context.’ Armenian refugees could refer
to a long history of displacement and resettlement and
to a host of prestigious and successful artists, industrialists and even statesmen that came before them.
The key to the durability of Armenian identity lies, therefore, not only in the significance of heritage, in a traditional attachment to their identity or in the resources
invested in the diaspora by past generations, but also in
a specific diasporic culture that thrives in dispersion and
draws strength from the dialogue of cultures.
Authors: Tigran Yepremyan and Nicolas Tavitian
Copyright of pictures
All the photographs reproduced in this brochure are entries in the international photo competition run by the project
in 2016. Credits are provided below. Complete information about the photographs, including an explanatory text
provided by the authors, is available at www.europeofdiasporas.eu
An exhibition has also been produced featuring the 20 photographs selected by the jury, and is available upon request.
Page 3: Ibola Tzari by Andreea Tanase
Page 4: Artin Jan by Anush Babajanyan
Page 5: The Bridge over Ghetto by Grisha Kheifets
Page 6: Hope in the New Generation by Linda Asmar
Page 9: Roma Flag by Flora Maxim
Page 10: My Grandmother by Flora Maxim
Page 11: Sundown over Appleby by Joseph G Jones
Page 12: A Little Girl is Posing from Behind a Window by Andreea Tanase
Page 13: Kleine Spergasse by Pia Hagenbach
Page 14: Chanukkah 2015 by Pia Hagenbach
Page 16: Passover by Alberto Modiano
Page 17: Forgotten and Hope by Lisbah Barsaume/Mike Malke
Page 18: Siboro by Manuela Saliba
Page 21: Holy Thursday by Andreea Tanase
Page 22: Rain by Mitranor
Page 23: Struggle throughout the Centuries by Setrak Abassian
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