, or "Kara Kelissa",
West Azerbaijan province, believed by some to have been first built in 66 AD by
Saint Jude. Since Antiquity, there has always been much interaction between ancient
Armenia and Persia. The Armenian people are among the native ethnic groups of northwestern Iran, having millennia-long recorded history there. The region (or parts of it) has made up part of
historical Armenia numerous times in history. These historical Armenian regions that nowadays include Iranian Azerbaijan are
Nor Shirakan,
Vaspurakan, and
Paytakaran. Many of the world's oldest
Armenian chapels, monasteries and churches are located within this region of Iran. On the
Behistun Inscription of 515 BC,
Darius the Great indirectly confirmed that
Urartu and Armenia are synonymous when describing their conquests. Armenia became a
satrapy of the Achaemenid for a long time, and relations between
Armenians and
Persians were cordial. The cultural links between the Armenians and the Persians can be traced back to Zoroastrian times. Before the 3rd century, no other neighbor had as much influence on Armenian life and culture as
Parthia. They shared many religious and cultural characteristics, and intermarriage among the Parthian and Armenian nobility was common. For twelve more centuries, Armenia was under the direct or indirect rule of the Persians. In the 11th century, the
Seljuks drove thousands of Armenians into Iran, where some were sold as slaves and others worked as artisans and merchants. After the
Mongol invasion of Persia and Mesopotamia in the 13th century, many Armenian merchants and artists settled in Iran, in cities that were once part of historic Armenia such as
Khoy,
Salmas,
Maku,
Maragheh,
Urmia, and especially
Tabriz.
Early modern to late modern era made in
Isfahan in 1655.
Chester Beatty Library Although Armenians have a long history of interaction and settlement with Persia/Iran and within the modern-day borders of the nation, Iran's Armenian community emerged under the
Safavids. In the 16th century, the
Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran divided Armenia. From the early 16th century, both
Western Armenia and
Eastern Armenia fell under Iranian
Safavid rule. Owing to the century-long Turco-Iranian geo-political rivalry that would last in
Western Asia, significant parts of the region were frequently fought over between the two rival empires. From the mid-16th century with the
Peace of Amasya, and decisively from the first half of the 17th century with the
Treaty of Zuhab until the
first half of the 19th century, Eastern Armenia was ruled by the successive
Iranian Safavid,
Afsharid and
Qajar empires, while Western Armenia remained under
Ottoman rule. From 1604
Abbas I of Iran implemented a
scorched earth policy in the region to protect his north-western frontier against any invading Ottoman forces, a policy which involved a
forced resettlement of masses of Armenians outside of their homelands. Shah Abbas
relocated an estimated 500,000 Armenians from
his Armenian lands during the
Ottoman–Safavid War of 1603–1618 Bourvari () is a collection of villages in Iran between the city of
Khomeyn (
Markazi province) and
Aligudarz (
Lorestan province). It was mainly populated by Armenians who were forcibly deported to the region by Shah Abbas of the Safavid Persian Empire during the same as part of Abbas's massive scorched earth resettlement policies within the empire. The villages populated by the Armenians in Bourvari were Dehno, Khorzend, Farajabad, Bahmanabad and Sangesfid.
Loss of Eastern Armenia From the late 18th century, an expanding
Imperial Russia switched to a more aggressive geo-political stance towards its two neighbors and rivals to the south, namely Iran and the Ottoman Empire. As a result of the
Treaty of Gulistan (1813), Qajar Iran was forced to irrevocably cede swaths of its territories in the Caucasus, comprising modern-day Eastern
Georgia,
Dagestan, and most of the
Republic of Azerbaijan. By the
Treaty of Turkmenchay (1828), Qajar Iran had to cede the remainder of its Caucasian territories, comprising modern-day Armenia and the remaining part of the contemporary Azerbaijan Republic. The ceding of what is modern-day Armenia (Eastern Armenia in general) in 1828 resulted in a large number of Armenians falling now under the rule of the Russians.
Iranian Armenia was thus supplanted by
Russian Armenia. The Treaty of Turkmenchay further stipulated that the
Tsar had the right to encourage the resettling of Armenians from Iran into the newly established Russian Armenia. This resulted in a large demographic shift; many of Iran's Armenians followed the call, while many Caucasian Muslims migrated to Iran proper. Until the mid-fourteenth century, Armenians had constituted a majority in
Eastern Armenia. At the close of the fourteenth century, after
Timur's campaigns, Islam had become the dominant faith, and Armenians became a minority in Eastern Armenia. In the wake of the Russian invasion of Iran and the subsequent loss of territories, Muslims (
Persians,
Turkic speakers, and
Kurds) constituted some 80% of the population of
Iranian Armenia, whereas Christian
Armenians constituted a minority of about 20%. After the Russian administration took hold of Iranian Armenia, the ethnic make-up shifted, and thus for the first time in more than four centuries, ethnic Armenians started to form a majority once again in one part of historic Armenia. The new Russian administration encouraged the settling of ethnic Armenians from Iran proper and
Ottoman Turkey. Some 35,000 Muslims out of more than 100,000 emigrated from the region, while some 57,000 Armenians from Iran proper and Turkey arrived after 1828 (see also
Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829). As a result, by 1832, the number of ethnic Armenians had matched that of the Muslims. Not until after the
Crimean War and the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, which brought another influx of Turkish Armenians, would ethnic Armenians once again establish a solid majority in
Eastern Armenia. Nevertheless, Erivan remained a Muslim-majority city up to the twentieth century. According to the traveller
H. F. B. Lynch, the city of Erivan was about 50% Armenian and 50% Muslim (Tatars i.e. Azeris and Persians) in the early 1890s. With these events of the first half of the 19th century, and the end of centuries of Iranian rule over
Eastern Armenia, a new era had started for the Armenians within the newly established borders of Iran. The Armenians in the recently lost territories north of the
Aras river would go through a
Russian-dominated period until 1991.
Twentieth century up to 1979 in the
New Julfa district of Isfahan. One of the oldest of Iran's Armenian churches, built during the Safavid Persian Empire, 1655 – 1664. The Armenians played a significant role in the development of 20th-century Iran, regarding both its economical as well as its cultural configuration. They were pioneers in photography, theater, and the film industry, and also played a very pivotal role in Iranian political affairs. was a leading figure in the Constitutional Revolution of Iran The Revolution of 1905 in Russia had a major effect on northern Iran and, in 1906, Iranian liberals and revolutionaries demanded a constitution in Iran. In 1909 the revolutionaries forced the crown to give up some of its powers.
Yeprem Khan, an ethnic Armenian, was an important figure of the
Persian Constitutional Revolution. Armenian Apostolic theologian
Malachia Ormanian, in his 1911 book on the Armenian Church, estimated that some 83,400 Armenians lived in Persia, of whom 81,000 were followers of the Apostolic Church, while 2,400 were Armenian Catholics. The Armenian population was distributed in the following regions: 40,400 in
Azerbaijan, 31,000 in and around
Isfahan, 7,000 in
Kurdistan and
Lorestan, and 5,000 in Tehran. During the
Armenian genocide, about 50,000 Armenians fled the
Ottoman Empire and took refuge in Persia. As a result of the
Persian Campaign in
northern Iran during
World War I, the Ottomans massacred 80,000 Armenians and 30,000 fled to the Russian Empire. The community experienced a political rejuvenation with the arrival of the exiled
Dashnak (ARF) leadership from
Russian Armenia in mid-1921; approximately 10,000 Armenian ARF party leaders, intellectuals, fighters, and their families crossed the
Aras River and took refuge in Qajar Iran. The modernization efforts of Reza Shah (1924–1941) and Mohammad Reza Shah (1941–1979) gave the Armenians ample opportunities for advancement, and Armenians gained important positions in the arts and sciences, economy and services sectors, mainly in Tehran, Tabriz, and Isfahan that became major centers for Armenians. From 1946–1949 about 20,000 Armenians left Iran for the Soviet Union and from 1962–1982 another 25,000 Armenians followed them to
Soviet Armenia. By 1979, in the dawn of the Islamic Revolution, an estimated 200,000 – 300,000 Armenians were living in Iran. By 1978, Tehran alone had an Armenian population of 110,000, in part due to migration of Armenian villagers from rural areas of Iran. Armenian churches, schools, cultural centers, sports clubs and associations flourished and Armenians had their own senator and member of parliament, 300 churches and 500 schools and libraries served the needs of the community. Armenian presses published numerous books, journals, periodicals, and newspapers, the prominent one being the daily "Alik".
After the 1979 Revolution Many Armenians served in the
Iranian Armed Forces, with 89 killed in action during the
Iran–Iraq War. Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei has praised the role of Armenians in the war, saying to the
Armenian Prime Minister that "Armenian martyrs of the imposed war are like Muslims martyrs and we consider them as honors of Iran". The fall of the
Soviet Union, the common border with Armenia, and the Armeno-Iranian diplomatic and economic agreements have opened a new era for the Iranian Armenians. Iran remains one of Armenia's major trade partners, and the Iranian government has helped ease the hardships of Armenia caused by the blockade imposed by
Azerbaijan and
Turkey. This includes important consumer products, access to air travel, and energy sources (like petroleum and electricity). == Current status ==