Month: September 2017

Armenians in British India

/ bluebirdmaps

The Google Map shows the major sites associated with the Armenians of British India.

In some cases (such as Calcutta, Madras and Surat), the community was large and stable enough to support a church; in other cases, there may have been a modest chapel, or services, if any, may have taken place in the home of a leading member of the community. Those places shown with Armenian cemeteries (as opposed to burial grounds within general Christian, Protestant or Roman Catholic cemeteries) probably had at least a chapel.

For more information on the Armenians in British India, we recommend Liz Chater’s website http://www.chater-genealogy.com

 

Sites associated with the Sufi saint Sari Saltik Baba

/ bluebirdmaps

The C13th Bektashi Sufi saint is venerated in several places in the Balkans, as well as Anatolia.

Both Muslims and Christians come to the sites in the Balkans, where he is sometimes identified with a Christian saint such as St Naum and especially St Nicholas. One feature of the shrines is that non-orthodox acts of devotion take place, such as tying strips of cloth to trees and making votive offerings during prayer.

Tradition holds that Sari Saltik Baba asked that, when he died, his body be washed and seven coffins prepared, in each of which his body would appear. More than seven sites with a claim are shown on the Google Map.

 

Armenians in the Bulgarian Army 1912-1913

/ bluebirdmaps

This Google Map shows the birth places, where given, of Bulgarian soldiers of Armenian ethnicity who were killed during the Balkan Wars 1912-1913.

Click on a pin on the map to see Armenian soldiers born in a particular town. All the places are specific bar one, being that for the soldier whose file merely states “Persia” as his birth place.

It will be seen that while, as might be expected, most individuals were born within Bulgaria, two were from Constantinople, five from locations within Armenian parts of the former Ottoman Empire, and two from what was then Persia (the man from “Persia” and the soldier from Tabriz).

The mapping does not purport to be complete: only those soldiers with indisputably or probably Armenian forenames or surnames have been included. The map is likely to omit such Armenians who had assimilated and/or taken completely Bulgarianised names; and, of course, it excludes Armenians who served with the Bulgarian Army but who survived the conflict.

 

Armenians in Abkhazia

/ bluebirdmaps

The modern-day Armenian population of Abkhazia dates back to Russian occupation of this formerly Ottoman territory in 1864, and particularly the years following the 1878 Berlin Conference, which facilitated the movement of Christians from within the Ottoman Empire to the Russian Empire. There was a further influx following the 1915 Armenian Genocide within the Ottoman Empire and later movements during the Soviet era and at times of conflict and unrest in the Caucasus.

The Google Map shows the major known Armenian communities in Abkhazia, but does not purport to be complete or comprehensive. According to the 2011 census of the Republic of Abkhazia, there were 41,907 declared Armenians at that date, which is just over 17% of the total population (and makes the Armenians the largest ethnic group after the Abkhazians themselves). The number is declining (compare 44,870 in 2003 and 76,541 in 1989), mostly due to emigration to Armenia and to Russia for employment.