What happened to the Armenian population of Ani.

[edward demian]

I recently spent two weeks in Romania, having gone there to claim the property Confiscated by the Communists from the Armenian Industrialist families. I had left the country as a child of 10, and this is the first time that I saw the country with adult eyes.

What amazed me was the number of Armenian churches and structures. The Armenians of Moldova were originally refugees from the city of Ani. They fought so hard against the Mongols, that their bravery earned the the hatred of the Mongols and the admiration of the Plosh nobility.

The Armenians that left Ani when the walls fell, had to perform an unimaginable fighting retreat for thosands of miles. They travelled North and West around the Black Sea. Eventually they settled in Crimea where after a century the constant and unceasing pressure from the Mongols, forced them to retreat yet again all the way to Poland. In Poland, The Armenian Community was extremely successful financially that soon found itself in a position to bail out the Polish monarchy out of their financial problems brought about by constant warfare with the same Mongols. The Armenian community had the obligation of providing a military contigent and to our credit we were master cannoneers and very knowledgeble about Mongol military tactics which made us very valuable. So valuable, that intermarriage started to take place between the Poles and the Armenians.

When the bishops tried to convert the Armenian masses to Catholicism, the majority rebelled and accepted the invitation of a Romanian King of Moldova (Mircea the Elder)which, in return for the Armenian community providind a military contigent against the Mongols and by now the Turks, they were given extraordinary rights, and land. We had the right to our schools, churches, Judicial System and Jails. Those rights, exept the Independant Judiciary and penal institutions survive to this day. The decendants of those early Ani settlers built the "White Citadel" and a few monesteries which survive to this day one of them is called "Hatch Gadar" which is a functioning monestary and the population surrounding gather there at certain hollidays and present certain traditional Armenian foods, etc. There are approximately 300,000 descendants,cognizant of their ancestry but no one ministers to their cultural or religious needs. Sad.

I sa Armenian churches in the city of Bucharest, Galati and Tulcea, all part of the ancient silk route. In Bucharest, the odest Han is Manug's Han (Hanu lu Manug), which is a 500 year old caravan Inn, now a restaurant.

[MJ]

Edward,

 

Check the threads /cgi-bin/forum/ultim...c&f=18&t=000003 and /cgi-bin/forum/ultim...c&f=12&t=000027 for related topics.

 

[ August 31, 2001: Message edited by: MJ ]

[edward demian]

MJ

Thank you for the tip. I did check out the historical passages. Nothing there contradicted the short history of the Armenians from Ani. The accounts of the slaughter of the last defenders of the outer and inner citadel does not deal with the plight of the general population of the countryside. The city of Ani did not exist in a sterile Region devoid of population.

Infact the Kayseritzis also clain descent fron Ani refugees. So I suspect that the general population dispersed way before the residents of the Citadel which were probably mostly merchants, servants, soldiers and key noble personnages.

[MJ]

Edward,

 

I didn't point to these materials with a hint of contradiction, but rather as corraborative information.