History

Early traces of Armenians in Romania (and Moldova) are dated by 967 (at Cetatea Alba). Early Armenian diasporas are associated with the fall of the Bagratuni rule and other disaster, including Mongol invasion. A considerable number of noble Romanian families are of Armenian descent.

In 1572-1574, Ioann III was hospodar (prince) of Moldova, grandson of Stefan III the Great , son of Bogdan III and his Armenian concubine Serpega.

After the Armenian genocide of 1915, Romania was the first state to officially provide political asylum to Armenian refugees.

In 1940 about 40,000 Armenians lived in Romania. Under the communist system Armenians started to emigrate. The Nicolae Ceausescu regime eventually closed all Armenian schools.

Present situation

Since 1989, there has been an Armenian cultural and political revival in Romania. As of 2000, there were less than 25,000 of Armenians, many of them from mixed families, and the number of native speakers of the Armenian language is probably less than 1,000.

Notable Romanian Armenians

Varujan Pambuccian represents the Armenian minority in Parliament. Two other noted Armenian-Romanians are economist and political figure Varujan Vosganian and opera tenor David Ohanesian .

References

Nicolae Iorga, Choses d’art arméniennes en Roumanie (1935)