Hayhurum ( hy, Հայհրում, el, Βυζαντινοἰ Αρμένιοι) is the name given to
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
-speaking Christians who are members of the
Greek Orthodox Church. Their exact ethnicity has been a source of debate. Some (''although not all'') of these Armenian speakers living in the vicinity of the town of
Akn till the 16th century were of Orthodox faith (instead of
Armenian Apostolic Church
, native_name_lang = hy
, icon = Armenian Apostolic Church logo.svg
, icon_width = 100px
, icon_alt =
, image = Էջմիածնի_Մայր_Տաճար.jpg
, imagewidth = 250px
, a ...
as is the case for most Armenians). There were also a number of people of Greek Orthodox faith among
Hamshenis, who are considered to have been converted to Greek Orthodoxy during the late Middle Ages under the rule of the
Empire of Trebizond.
Greek Orthodox in faith and
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
in language, they were called Hayhurums, from the Armenian words, ''
Hay
Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticated ...
'' meaning ''Armenian'', ''hu'' meaning ''and,'' and ''
Rûm'' meaning ''Eastern Roman'' or, as it is now called in the West, ''Byzantine,'' denoting the state religion of the
Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinop ...
, which was
Greek Orthodoxy. Modern Greek sources seeking to integrate these refugees (forced out of Turkey in 1923) into contemporary Greek society, asserted that they were former Greek colonists who had settled in Akn and then adopted the Armenian culture and heritage of the region. Armenian sources have disputed this narrative, asserting that the Hayhurum are ethnic Armenians that converted to the state church of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire during its eight centuries of rule in Anatolia. The latter view is considered correct by most modern scholars studying the group.
Assimilation to Greek Orthodox Christianity from the Armenian Apostolic Church was a common practice among Anatolian Armenian populations during the Middle Ages (9th - 11th centuries), when mixed Armenian-Greek military families ruled the Byzantine Empire from Constantinople and appointed their family members to the role of Patriarch of the empire's
Eastern Orthodox church. Many of the greatest Byzantine scholars, generals, clerics and emperors were of Armenian heritage and adopted the Greek Orthodox faith out of formal necessity, (as in the case of emperors and Patriarchs who had to be of the Greek Orthodox faith), or out of cosmopolitanism.
Hayhurum had a significant presence in
Adapazarı
Adapazarı () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the central district of Sakarya Province. The province itself was originally named Adapazarı as well. Adapazarı is a part of the densely populated region of the country known as the Marmara Regi ...
where there had been an Armenian community since 1608. They were included in the 1923 agreement for
Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations between
Turkey and
Greece and were also forced out of Turkey and settled in various parts of Greece. Precious objects of culture belonging to this small community are displayed today in
Athens at the
Benaki Museum
The Benaki Museum, established and endowed in 1930 by Antonis Benakis in memory of his father Emmanuel Benakis, is housed in the Benakis family mansion in downtown Athens, Greece. The museum houses Greek works of art from the prehistorical to the ...
.
In the region of Agn by the 20th century Hayhurums were essentially concentrated in 5 villages: Vag, Zorak, Musaga, Sirzu, Hogus. In the region of Dersim near Çemişgezek they were found in the village of Memsa, near Pertak in the village of hromkéğ, In the region of Ilic the village of Atma was named as a Hayhorom village in 1582 but was a Kurdish village by the 20th century. In the region of Kharberd the village of Haydi and near Erzincan in the village of Dzatkéğ
In the medieval era there were more Hayhurum villages throughout the Kemaliye, Dersim, Erzincan region but due to Islamization, depopulation from the Perso-Ottoman wars,
Turkification
Turkification, Turkization, or Turkicization ( tr, Türkleştirme) describes a shift whereby populations or places received or adopted Turkic attributes such as culture, language, history, or ethnicity. However, often this term is more narrowly ...
, and migration to western Anatolia, their numbers shrank.
References
{{reflist
Anatolian Greeks
Armenian people by religion
Greek Orthodoxy