The Orthodox Armenians in Bucovina
Zamca Publishing House in Bucharest offers us through the “Archive Siruni” from the State Archives, a surprise-work of historical-documentary value about the Orthodox Armenians in Bucovina. The first edition of this book appeared in 1890 in Cernauţi in German under the title “Die Orientalisches Armenien der Bukovina” and was later translated into Romanian “Armenii Orientali din Bucovina” (Eastern Armenians in Bucovina) , in 1891. At the same time a new edition of this volume was published in Vienna, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which occupied at that time Bucovina. The author is a well-known Romanian intellectual from Bucovina, Priest and ethnographer Dimitrie Dan. He is known for numerous essays on ecclesiastical history, Romanian traditions and customs, and also as a correspondent-member of the Romanian Academy since 1904.
The foreword in the edition published by Zamca, signed by the editor Flori Bălălnescu, offers an appropriate contextualization of the book, with numerous historical details, as it also mentions other related titles on the same subject previously reported by Bedros Horasangian (see “Datininile, credinţele si obiceiurile armenilor din Ţările Române”/ “Customs, beliefs and traditions of the Armenians living in the Historical regions of Romania” by Grigore Goilav, 1911). Unfortunately, the name of the person who translated the book in Romanian (also the author of some adjacent notes) seems to be lost. Dimitrie/Dumitru Dan’s book is known especially in its German versions. Although very short, the 1890 foreword written by the author deserves to be mentioned for its significant stakes: “Among the types of people from Bucovina, the Orthodox Armenians represent a very important segment. In this book I decided to collect all the historical material concerning them and their churches – which has been incredibly difficult, because until now nobody has focused on the history of this people; also, to correct several misconceptions about their history and their beliefs, to let everybody know their unknown habits and customs regarding the church and their everyday life and to save this facts from oblivion and to preserve them for future generations.” The foreword that follows – accompanied by the translator’s note about the Armenian colony in Amsterdam that disappeared in the meantime – outlines a laudatory profile of the Armenian Diaspora in “the whole world” (“To escape these inhuman cruelties, in different ages, many Armenians fled from their homeland in all regions of the world, leaving all their fortune to the greedy conquerors …. “), stressing that in the Historical regions of Romania and particularly in Bucovina “they must be considered some of the oldest inhabitants”. The history of the Armenians in Moldova and Bucovina is, indeed, a substantial chapter in the history of the place, if we think that only in Suceava, in the time of Alexander the Good (Alexandru cel Bun) there were a few thousands Armenians, not to mention the economic importance of the colony (reduced in 1779 to approx. 131 families). Her traces can still be found today, even if there are very few Armenians left in the area.
Although brief – less than 80 pages – Dimitrie Dan’s book is very dense, rich in historical, economical and statistical information, with significant openings to adjacent geo-cultural areas (Central and Eastern Europe – especially Poland, but also Armenia, Byzantium, etc.), and it approaches even the linguistic contamination of the Armenian migration. Based on prestigious sources (Gaebert, Haşdeu Xenopol) Demetri Dan says from the beginning that the Armenians in the Ţara de Sus and Ardeal came from the ancient capital Anni that was destroyed by the great earthquake of 1313 and that Argeş(?) was founded by Armenians to remind them of a village on Lake Van. We must say that Zamca itself – area that gave the name of the publishing house – was the place of residence, close to Suceava, of the Armenian bishop. The permanent link that the author makes between the troubled and sinuous history of the Orthodox Armenians in Bucovina and the ecclesiastical history, relying on a bibliography of history books mainly in German but also in Romanian or Hungarian, is remarkable. The second chapter deals especially with the ecclesiastical dimension of the history of Armenians in Bucovina, while the third and final chapter talks about the profane customs of the Orthodox Armenians in Bucovina. We must notice that the history of the Orthodox Armenians in Bucovina is always discussed in relation to the host communities and placed in broader international contexts.
Dimitrie Dan’s volume would deserve a thorough historical analysis. The documentary importance of his book is relevant for the Armenian community but also for a better understanding of the multicultural and the multiethnic history of Bucovina where the Armenian colonies had, especially in the pre-modern period, an important position.
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