Armenians in Ukraine
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (99,894 (2001)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Donetsk Oblast, Kharkiv Oblast, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Crimea, Odessa Oblast, Luhansk Oblast, Zaporizhia Oblast, Kiev | |
| Languages | |
| Armenian (50.4%), Russian (43.2%), Kipchak | |
| Religion | |
| Armenian Apostolic Church | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Armenian diaspora | |
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Armenians in Ukraine are ethnic Armenians who live in Ukraine. They number 99,894 according to the 2001 Ukrainian census. However, the country is also host to a number of Armenian guest workers which has yet to be ascertained. The Armenian population in Ukraine has nearly doubled since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989, largely due to instability in the Caucasus. Today, Ukraine is home to the 5th largest Armenian community in the world.
Armenians first appeared in Ukraine during the times of Kievan Rus'. During the 10th century individual Armenian merchants, mercenaries and craftsmen served at the courts of various Ruthenian rulers. A larger wave of Armenians settled in southeastern Ukraine after the fall of the Armenian capital of Ani to Seljuks in the 11th century. They arrived mainly at the Crimean peninsula and established colonies in Kaffa (Feodosiya), Sudak and Solcati (Staryi Krym). Their numbers were further strengthened throughout the 12th-15th century by Armenians fleeing from a Mongol invasion. This gave the peninsula the name Armenia Maritima in medieval chronicles. Smaller Armenian communities were established in central Ukraine, including Kiev, and the western regions of Podolia and Halychyna, concentrating around Lviv which in 1267 became the center of an Armenian eparchy.
At the end of the thirteenth century, when members of the Armenian diaspora moved from the Crimean peninsula to the Polish-Ukrainian borderland, they brought Armeno-Kipchak, a Turkic language with them. Armeno-Kipchak of the Kipchak people was still current in the 16th and 17th centuries among the Armenian communities settling in the Lviv and Kamianets-Podilskyi area of what is now Ukraine.
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Wikipedia