Armenians in the Baltic states of

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

, and

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

settled there mostly during the

Soviet occupation of the Baltic States The Soviet occupation of the Baltic states covers the period from the Soviet–Baltic mutual assistance pacts in 1939, to their invasion and annexation in 1940, to the mass deportations of 1941. In September and October 1939 the Soviet governme ...

Estonia

According to the year 2000 census, there were 1,444 Armenians living in Estonia. According to the 2011 census, the number of Armenians had decreased slightly to 1,042. In 1989 (according to Soviet 1989 census) the number was 1,669. The majority of Armenians live in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

: 58% in the year 2000. With the affirmation of Estonia's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Soviet-era immigrants and their Estonian-born children were not granted citizenship automatically. A football club based in Tallinn, FC Ararat Tallinn, is named after the mountain Ararat and has a partnership with the Armenian club

FC Ararat Yerevan Football Club Ararat Yerevan ( hy, Ֆուտբոլային Ակումբ Արարատ Երևան), commonly known as Ararat Yerevan, is an Armenian association football, football club based in Yerevan that plays in the Armenian Premier League. Si ...

Latvia

Armenians in

number around 5,000 according to armeniandiaspora.comArmenianDiaspora website
and 2,742 according to Latvian yearly statistics of 2008. The Armenians live mainly in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

. In 1887 had established Latvian Armenian Society. One Armenian was reported in the

Jäger Report The so-called Jäger Report, also Jaeger Report (full title: ''Complete tabulation of executions carried out in the Einsatzkommando 3 zone up to December 1, 1941'') was written on 1 December 1941 by Karl Jäger, commander of ''Einsatzkommando'' ...

as murdered by

Einsatzgruppe A (, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the im ...

Daugavpils Daugavpils (; russian: Двинск; ltg, Daugpiļs ; german: Dünaburg, ; pl, Dyneburg; see other names) is a state city in south-eastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city gets its name. The parts of the c ...

in 1941. In 1990, in the center of

had been set a khachkar. In 1991, the first issue of the newspaper "Ararat". In 2001, Armenian community of Riga had established. In 2002, the publishing of the newspaper “Ararat” had resumed. File:Rīga, piemineklis Hačkars 2004-04-08 - panoramio.jpg, Riga khachkar File:Saint Gregory the Illuminator church in Riga.JPG, Riga St. Gregory Armenian Apostolic Church

Lithuania

According to the last Lithuanian census of 2011 there were 1,233 Armenians in Lithuania. Armenian organizations put the number around 2,500. According to Soviet 1989 census there are 1,655

Armenians Armenians ( hy, հայեր, ''hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diaspora ...

in Lithuania. The Armenians live mainly in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

. The settlement of Armenians in Lithuania, in the distant past of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

was of an episodic nature and was due mainly to the needs of trade, although from the historical sources it is known, that Armenian school was established in 16th century Vilnius, Armenian guild in the 16th to 18th centuries Vilnius.
History of Armenians in Lithuania One of the most prominent painter of the 19th century in Lithuania was

Jan Rustem Jan Rustem ( hy, Յան Ռուստամ; 1762 – 21 June 1835) was a painter of Armenian ethnicity who lived and worked in the territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Primarily a portrait painter, he was commissioned to execute ...

(Armenian: Յան Ռուստամ). The history of most of the Armenian community now living in Lithuania mainly occurs in the 20th century.

Famous Baltic Armenians

* Arturs Akopjans *

Alan Melikdjanian Alan Melikdjanian (; Russian: Алан Меликджанян; born April 13, 1980), known by the alias Captain Disillusion, is a Soviet-born American independent filmmaker and YouTuber. Melikdjanian has been active in the founding of video-s ...

Asmik Grigorian Asmik Grigorian (born 12 May 1981 in Vilnius) is a Lithuanian operatic soprano. Life and career In 1999, Asmik Grigorian graduated from National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art in Vilnius. She studied music at the Lithuanian Academy of Music a ...

Boris Parsadanian Boris Khristoforovich Parsadanian (russian: Бори́с Христофо́рович Парсаданя́н; May 14, 1925 – May 14, 1997) was a Soviet-born Armenian-Estonian composer, violinist, and arts administrator. Biography Parsadanian w ...

Stefan Airapetjan Stefan Airapetjan ( hy, Ստեֆան Հայրապետյան, translit=Stefan Hayrapetyan; born 24 December 1997), known simply as Stefan, is an Estonian singer and songwriter, best known for winning the first edition of ''Maskis Laulja'', the E ...

References

External links

Eastern Minorities
/Latvian Institute
Baltic “yans”: A visit with the Armenians of Latvia

Армяне в Латвии. От общества — к общине
{{Immigration to Lithuania

Baltic states The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...