Armenians of Iran

Armenians call themselves Hay and their homeland Hayastan. The Republic of Armenia, independent since 1991, is a nation in its own right; but Armenians have also lived within Iranian lands since antiquity, and Iran’s Armenian community is one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. Iranian Armenians speak Eastern Armenian with their own Iranian dialect, write it in the alphabet created by Mesrop Mashtots in the early fifth century, and belong mostly to the Armenian Apostolic Church.

New Julfa

In 1604–1605, during his wars with the Ottomans, Shah Abbas I deported the Armenian population of Julfa on the Aras river and settled many of them across the river from his new capital, Isfahan. New Julfa, Nor Jugha, grew into one of the richest merchant communities of the early modern world, with trading houses from Venice to Manila. Its Holy Saviour Cathedral, known as Vank, built in the mid-seventeenth century, joins a Persian dome and tilework with Armenian frescoes of the Last Judgement, and its museum holds manuscripts and the first book printed in Iran. Julfa today is a quarter of churches, cafés and quiet lanes.

The north-west and Tehran

In the north-west, the Armenian Monastic Ensembles of Iran, the monasteries of St Thaddeus (Qara Kelisa) and St Stepanos and the chapel of Dzordzor, became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2008. Every July thousands of Armenians make the pilgrimage to St Thaddeus near Maku, camping around the church for several days of liturgy and celebration. In the twentieth century survivors of the 1915 Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire found refuge in Iran, and Tehran became the community’s largest centre, with its schools, clubs, newspapers and St Sarkis Cathedral.

In Iranian life

Armenians have been part of modern Iranian culture out of all proportion to their numbers. Antoin Sevruguin photographed Qajar Iran; Yeprem Khan was a commander of the constitutionalist forces in 1909; Armenian craftsmen, musicians, filmmakers and athletes have left their mark on every field. The feast of Vardanants, remembering the battle of Avarayr against a Sasanian army in 451, is kept in Armenian schools: a reminder that the community’s history with Iran has been long and close, if not always easy. Christmas falls on 6 January, Easter is kept by the Armenian calendar, and at Nowruz many Armenian families lay their own tables beside their Muslim neighbours.

Iran’s constitution recognises Armenians as a religious minority and reserves two seats in parliament for them, one for the north and one for the south. They may worship and run their own schools. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom and other monitors have reported restrictions on teaching in Armenian schools and a strict ban on services in Persian or on receiving converts from Islam. Many Armenians left after 1979, for Los Angeles, Yerevan and elsewhere, but the churches of Tehran, Tabriz and Julfa still ring their bells on Sunday.