Armenian Cypriots
Armenian Cypriots are ethnic Armenians native to Cyprus. The Armenian Cypriot community has had a significant impact upon the Armenian people as a whole despite its small numbers. During the Middle Ages, Cyprus had an extensive connection with the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, while the Ganchvor monastery had an important presence in Famagusta. During the Ottoman era, the Virgin Mary church and the Magaravank were prominent. Certain Armenian Cypriots have been prominent on a Pan-Armenian or international level and survivors of the Armenian genocide have co-operated and co-existed peacefully with Turkish Cypriots.
Currently, there are around 4,000 Armenians on the island, mostly centred on the capital Nicosia, but also with communities in Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos. The Armenian Prelature of Cyprus is located in Nicosia. According to the 1960 Constitution of Cyprus, Armenians, together with the Maronites and the Latins, are recognised as a "religious group" and have opted to belong to the Greek Cypriot community and Armenian Cypriots are represented by an elected Representative in the House of Representatives. The representative has been Vartkes Mahdessian since May 2006. Since July 2024, the religious leader of the community, has been Catholicosal Vicar Archbishop Gomidas Ohanian, accountable to the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia.
History
Byzantine era (578–1191)
Armenians have had a presence in Cyprus since the 6th century. According to Theophylact Simocatta, an early 7th-century Byzantine writer, the Byzantine General Maurice the Cappadocian captured 10,090 Armenians as prisoners during his campaign against the Persian King Chosroes I; around 3,350 of these prisoners were deported to Cyprus. More Armenians arrived during the reign of the Armenian-descended emperor Heraclius for political reasons and during the pontificate of Catholicos Hovhannes III Odznetsi for commercial reasons. After the end of Arab raids in Cyprus, more arrived due to the patrician Niketas Chalkoutzes, when Armenian mercenaries were transferred to Cyprus to protect it. In the middle Byzantine period, Armenian generals and governors served in Cyprus, like Alexios Mousele or Mousere who undertook the construction of the Church of Saint Lazarus in Larnaca. It appears that it had been an Armenian Apostolic church in the 10th century and was used by Armenian-Catholics during the Latin era as well. The numerous Armenians required an analogous spiritual pastorate, and so in 973 Catholicos Khatchig I established the Armenian Bishopric in Nicosia. Relations between Cyprus and the Armenians became closer when the Kingdom of Cilicia was established. Between 1136 and 1138, Byzantine emperor John II Komnenos moved the entire population of the Armenian city of Tell Hamdun to Cyprus. After Isaac Komnenos's wedding to the daughter of the Armenian prince Thoros II in 1185, Armenian nobles and warriors came with him to Cyprus, many of whom defended the island against Richard the Lionheart, when he landed in Limassol.Latin era (1191–1570)
After the purchase of Cyprus by Guy of Lusignan in 1192, in his attempt to establish a western-style feudal kingdom, sent emissaries to Europe, Cilicia and the Levant, resulting in a massive immigration of Armenians and other peoples. Because of their proximity, their commercial ties and a series of royal and noble marriages, the Kingdom of Cyprus and the Kingdom of Cilicia became inextricably linked. In the subsequent centuries, thousands of Cilician Armenians sought refuge in Cyprus fleeing Muslim attacks such as the siege of Antioch. Cyprus now became the easternmost bulwark of Christianity; in 1441 the authorities of Famagusta invited Armenians from Cilicia to settle there. The fall of Sis in April 1375 put an end to the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia; its last king, Leo V, was granted safe passage to Cyprus. Although the Mamluk Sultanate had taken over Cilicia, they were unable to maintain their hold on it; Turkic tribes eventually made their way to the region and established themselves there, leading to the conquest of Cilicia by Timur. As a result, 30,000 Armenians left Cilicia in 1403 and settled in Cyprus, which continued to be ruled by the Lusignan dynasty until 1489. During the Frankish and the Venetian eras, there were Armenian churches in Nicosia, Famagusta, Spathariko. Armenians were in possession of stores and shops in the ports of Famagusta, Limassol and Paphos, as well as in the capital Nicosia, thus controlling a large segment of commerce. Additionally, Armenian was one of the eleven official languages of the Kingdom of Cyprus. According to chroniclers Leontios Makhairas, Georgios Boustronios and Florio Bustron, the Armenians of Nicosia had their own prelature and used to live in their own quarter, called Armenia or Armenoyitonia. In Famagusta, a bishopric was established in the late 12th century and Armenians lived around the Syrian quarter. Historical documents suggest the presence of an important monastic and theological centre there, at which Nerses of Lambron is said to have studied.During the Middle Ages, Armenians in Cyprus were actively engaged in commerce, while some of them formed military garrisons in Kyrenia and elsewhere. A number of Armenians defended the Kingdom of Cyprus against the Genoese at Xeros, against the Saracens at Stylli village and against the Mamluks in Limassol and Khirokitia. By 1425, the renowned Magaravank – originally the Coptic monastery of Saint Makarios near Halevga came under Armenian possession, as did the Benedictine/Carthusian nunnery of Notre Dame de Tyre in Nicosia sometime before 1504. During the Latin era, there was also a small number of Armenian Catholics in Nicosia, Famagusta and the Bellapais Abbey, where Lord Hayton of Corycus served as a monk. The prosperity of the inhabitants of Cyprus was brought to a halt by the harsh and corrupt Venetian administration and the iniquitous taxes they imposed. Their tyrannical rule, combined with adverse conditions, caused a noticeable decline in the island's population. According to historian Stephen de Lusignan, by the late Venetian era, Armenians lived mainly in Famagusta and Nicosia and, in small numbers, at three "Armenian villages", Platani, Kornokipos and Spathariko.
Ottoman era (1570–1878)
During the Ottoman conquest of the island, about 40,000 Ottoman-Armenian craftsmen were recruited. Many of the Ottoman Armenians who survived the conquest settled mainly in Nicosia, while the Armenian Prelature of Cyprus was recognised as an ethnarchy, through the millet institution. However, the bishopric in Famagusta was abolished, as the Christian population was killed or expelled and the entire walled city became forbidden for non-Muslims. As a reward for their services during the conquest, the Armenians of Nicosia were granted the right to guard Paphos Gate. However this privilege was only used for a short period. By a firman, they were given back the Notre Dame de Tyre church, which the Ottomans had turned into a salt store. Additionally, the Magaravank monastery had won the favour of the Ottomans and became an important way station for Armenian and other pilgrims en route to the Holy Land, as well as a place of rest for travellers and Catholicoi and other clergymen from Cilicia and Jerusalem. Contrary to the Latins and the Maronites, Armenians – being Oriental Orthodox rather than Catholic – were not persecuted because of their religion by the Ottomans. Even though about 20,000 Armenians lived in Cyprus during the very first years of the Ottoman era, by 1630 only 2,000 Armenians remained, out of a total of 56,530 inhabitants.In the Bedesten, there were many Armenian merchants and in the late 18th century/early 19th century Nicosia's leading citizen was an Armenian trader called Sarkis, who was a beratli and was initially the dragoman for the French Consul, before becoming the dragoman for the English Consul. Gifted with the acumen of industry, Armenians practised lucrative professions and in the beginning of the 17th century Persian Armenians settled in Cyprus as silk traders, as did some affluent Ottoman-Armenians in the 18th and 19th centuries, such as Boghos-Berge Agha Eramian. However, with the new order of things, the number of Armenians and other Christians dramatically declined due to the onerous taxation and the harshness of the Ottoman administration, compelling many Christians to become Linobambaki, Crypto-Christians, which explains why former Armenian villages were inhabited by Turkish Cypriots at the end of the 19th century. A few Armenian Cypriots became Catholics through marriage with affluent Roman Catholic families.
Gradually, after the bloody events of 1821, the Ottomans destroyed the Armenian and Greek mansions, prohibited Greeks, Franks, Armenians and Maronites from carrying guns and hanged or massacred 470 notables, amongst them the Armenian parish priest of Nicosia, der Bedros, some improvements were observed during the Tanzimat period. In the spirit of the Hatt-ı Şerif of Gülhane, the Armenian Bishop, the Greek Archbishop and the Maronite Suffragan Bishop participated in the Administrative Council, which was formed in 1840. After 1850, some Armenians were employed in the civil service, while in 1860 the Notre Dame de Tyre became amongst the first in Cyprus to have a belfry. Additionally, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 benefited the Armenian merchants of the island, while in 1870 the first Armenian school was established in Nicosia by newly arrived Archimandrite Vartan Mamigonian. As a result of the Hatt-ı Hümayun in 1856, the administrative autonomy of the Armenian Prelature of Cyprus was officially recognised. Based on various estimates, the Armenian Cypriot community of the 19th century numbered between 150 and 250 people, the majority of whom lived in Nicosia, with smaller numbers living in Famagusta, Larnaca, and, around the Magaravank.