Armenians live in all European countries. Their story started about 3000 years ago in Armenia- Eastern Anatolia and the South Caucasus. TheArmenian Diaspora is about half that age-about 1700 years. Over the centuries, driven by trade or by empires, Armenian communities formed in most European countries, from Bulgaria to Sweden and from Portugal to Russia.
They are variously associated with a language, an alphabet
, a Church, a homeland and a state, a commitment to books, education and the arts, and a world-wide web of communities that nurture the Armenian idea, each in their own way. They are connected, above all, by a desire to continue to play a part in a story that spans the millennia.
Armenians also tend to be known for the misfortunes of their history. Their collective survival has repeatedly been at issue, particularly during the 20th century. Many of those who escaped the genocide of 1915 suffered more wars in the Caucasus involving the Russian, British and Turkish Empires, Stalinism and its atrocities, the Second World War on the Russian front and, finally, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the conflicts that accompanied it.
