 Polish sweets shop in Yerevan | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| several hundred [1] (2002) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Yerevan, Gyumri, Vanadzor, Spitak, Stepanavan, Ashtarak, Armavir, Abovyan, Hrazdan, Vagharshapat [2] [1] | |
| Languages | |
| Polish • Armenian • Russian |
Poles in Armenia form a small population of a few hundred, and are part of the Polish diaspora of the Caucasus region, with first Poles coming to Armenia in the 16th century.
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1926 | 705 | — |
| 1939 | 240 | −66.0% |
| 1959 | 208 | −13.3% |
| 1970 | 389 | +87.0% |
| 1979 | 691 | +77.6% |
| 1989 | 270 | −60.9% |
| Sources: [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] | ||
Polish merchants visited Armenia since the 16th century. [9] In the 17th century, Polish Catholic missionaries came to Armenia, and opened a mission station in 1669. [10] Polish Jesuits in Armenia, Tadeusz Krusiński and Michał Wieczorkowski, spoke Armenian and, apart from missionary work, engaged in dyplomacy and cultural activities. [10]
After the Partitions of Poland carried out by Austria, Prussia and Russia in 1772–1795, and the annexation of Eastern Armenia by Russia in 1828, many Poles were either deported as political prisoners from the Russian Partition of Poland to Russian-controlled Armenian lands or were sent there after being conscripted to the Russian Army. [11] Some conscripted Poles took part in the Russian capture of Kars in 1828. [10] Polish poet Tadeusz Łada-Zabłocki was exiled by the Russians in Armenia in the 1840s. [12] Since 1843, Polish engineer Kazimierz Łapczyński was also exiled in Armenia, where he eventually was employed in building forts. [13] In 1850, Józef Chodźko became the first Pole and one of the first people overall to climb Mount Ararat. [14]
Approximately 5,000 Poles lived in Armenia in the late 19th and early 20th century. [10] Notable Polish communities existed in the cities of Yerevan, Gyumri, Kars and Ardahan. [10] In 1917, Poles in Armenia established several Polish military associations. [13]
Poles were repatriated from Armenia to newly reborn Poland since 1918. [15] Polish navy officer Stanisław Korwin-Pawłowski started the creation of the Armenian Navy and founded a training center for the Armenian Navy. [15] After World War II, some deported Poles from Soviet-occupied eastern Poland to Siberia and Kazakhstan, moved to Armenia. [2]
In 1995, the Polonia Association of Poles in Armenia was established. [2]
In 2021, a khachkar commemorating Armenian-Polish friendship and Pope John Paul II was unveiled in Yerevan. [16]
The Polish diaspora comprises Poles and people of Polish heritage or origin who live outside Poland. The Polish diaspora is also known in modern Polish as Polonia, the name for Poland in Latin and many Romance languages.
Poles in Germany are the second largest Polish diaspora (Polonia) in the world and the biggest in Europe. Estimates of the number of Poles living in Germany vary from 2 million to about 3 million people living that might be of Polish descent. Their number has quickly decreased over the years, and according to the latest census, there are approximately 866,690 Poles in Germany. The main Polonia organisations in Germany are the Union of Poles in Germany and Congress of Polonia in Germany. Polish surnames are relatively common in Germany, especially in the Ruhr area.
Ardahan is a city in northeastern Turkey, near the Georgian border. It is the seat of Ardahan Province and Ardahan District. Its population is 22,927 (2021).
Agarak is a village in the Meghri Municipality of the Syunik Province in southern Armenia, founded in 1949. As of 2011, the population of Agarak was 4,429.
Assyrians in Armenia make up the country's third largest ethnic minority, after Yazidis and Russians. According to the 2011 census, there are 2,769 Assyrians living in Armenia, and Armenia is home to some of the last surviving Assyrian communities in the Caucasus. There were 6,000 Assyrians in Armenia before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but because of Armenia's struggling economy during the 1990s, the population has been cut by half, as many have emigrated.
The Greeks in Armenia, like the other groups of Caucasus Greeks such as the Greeks in Georgia, are mainly descendants of the Pontic Greeks, who originally lived along the shores of the Black Sea, in the uplands of the Pontic Alps, and other parts of northeastern Anatolia. In their original homelands these Greek communities are called Pontic Greeks and Eastern Anatolia Greeks respectively. Seafaring Ionian Greeks settled around the southern shores of the Black Sea starting around 800 BC, later expanding to coastal regions of modern Romania, Russia, Bulgaria and Ukraine. The Pontic Greeks lived for thousands of years almost isolated from the Greek peninsula, retaining elements of the Ancient Greek language and making Pontic Greek unintelligible to most other modern Hellenic languages. They were joined in the region by later waves of Greeks in the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine period, ranging from traders, scholars, churchmen, mercenaries, or refugees from elsewhere in Anatolia or the southern Balkans.
The population of Armenia includes various significant minority ethnic groups.
Armenia–Poland relations are bilateral relations between Armenia and Poland. Both nations enjoy historically friendly relations, owing to their centuries-long cultural exchange and trade. Both countries are full members of the OSCE, COE, WTO and UN.
Tadeusz Bohdan Isakowicz-Zaleski was a Polish Roman Catholic and Armenian Catholic priest, author and activist. He was a leader of the anticommunist student opposition in Kraków in the late 1970s, became a Solidarity chaplain in Kraków's Nowa Huta district in the 1980s, and later an avid supporter of the lustration of the Polish Church. On 3 May 2006, he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, one of Poland's highest orders. Subsequently, in 2007, he was awarded the Order of the Smile and the Polish Ombudsman's Order of Paweł Włodkowic.
Georgia–Poland relations refers to foreign relations between Georgia and Poland. Both nations enjoy close and historically friendly relations, rooted in similar experiences, solidarity and shared struggles against foreign imperialism, especially that of Russia.
Poles in Kazakhstan form one portion of the Polish diaspora in the former Soviet Union. Slightly less than half of Kazakhstan's Poles live in the Karaganda region, with another 2,500 in Astana, 1,200 in Almaty, and the rest scattered throughout rural regions.
There is a long history of Poles in Azerbaijan. Although the current Polish population of the Republic of Azerbaijan is lower than in former times, the number of people with Polish descent in the capital city Baku is around 2,000 and several thousand self-identified Poles live in Azerbaijan. Poles as an ethnic group have lived in Azerbaijan for centuries. The Russian Empire included Azerbaijan and parts of Poland, thus it could deport members of opposition of Polish nationality there, which explains the presence of Poles in Azerbaijan.
Poland–Spain relations are cultural and political relations between Poland and Spain. Both nations are members of NATO, the European Union, OECD, OSCE, the Council of Europe and the United Nations. Spain has given full support to Poland's membership in the European Union and NATO.
A Polonophile is an individual who respects and is fond of Poland's culture as well as Polish history, traditions and customs. The term defining this kind of attitude is Polonophilia. The antonym and opposite of Polonophilia is Polonophobia.
Poles in Georgia form a population estimated at 6,000, and are part of the Polish diaspora of the Caucasus region. Polish presence in Georgia dates back to the 18th century.
Poles in Uzbekistan form a small population, although historically the second most numerous Polish diaspora of Central Asia. Polish presence in Uzbekistan dates back to the 19th century.
Poles in Turkmenistan form a small population of 501, according to the 1995 census, and Polish presence in Turkmenistan dates back to the 19th century.
Poles in Kyrgyzstan form a small population, part of the Polish diaspora in Central Asia. Polish presence in Kyrgyzstan dates back to the 19th century.
Poles in China form a small population, estimated at 1,000 and mostly concentrated in the major cities of Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shanghai. First noted Polish people lived in China in the 17th century.
Poles in Buryatia form part of the Polish diaspora in Siberia. Polish presence in Buryatia dates back over 300 years.
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