Armenians in Poland

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Armenian Cathedral Lviv
Armenians from Chernivtsi

The Armenians in Poland are one of the oldest national minorities in Poland . In the Middle Ages , at the time of the Kingdom of Poland , they settled in the cities between Lemberg and Chernivtsi , mainly as merchants . The Armenians were mediators between Europe and the countries of the Middle East . Their descendants also play an important role in Polish culture today.

They brought their culture and religion with them. As Christians , they had little difficulty adapting to Polish society. They built their own places of worship, maintained contacts with their mother country and the religious center of all Armenians in Echmiadzin . As early as 1356, the Polish King Casimir the Great recognized the autonomy of Polish Armenians and in 1367 allowed them to build an Armenian cathedral in Lviv . The Armenian Archeparchy of Lviv was established .

Because of their knowledge of oriental languages, Polish Armenians were often sent to the countries of the Middle East as diplomats.

Around 1630, the bishop of the Polish Armenians, Nikolaus Torosowicz, recognized the ecclesiastical authority of the Vatican over the Polish Armenians. The Polish Armenian Catholic believers kept the traditional rite.

The Armenians adopted surnames in Polish, made up of Armenian baptismal names and the Polish ending -wicz, such as Torosiewicz (from Toros) or Sarkisiewicz (from Sarkis).

The Armenian ethnic group came from important Polish artists and scholars such as the composer Krzysztof Penderecki and the film director Jerzy Kawalerowicz .

After 1945, most of the Armenians left the eastern territories of Poland occupied by the Soviet Union and settled in cities in the west of the country such as Breslau , Opole and Gliwice .

After 1989, many political and economic emigrants from Armenia came to Poland and found support from the Polish Armenian Society. In the 2002 census, 1,100 Polish citizens named Armenian as their nationality. For 2003 the number of Armenians was estimated at 5,000 to 8,000. Generally speaking, the Armenians no longer speak Armenian, but Polish, but they belong to the Armenian Catholic Church . The only parish is in Gliwice .

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Footnotes

  1. ↑ Dieter Bringen, Krzysztof Ruchniewicz (Ed.): Country Report Poland. Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 2009, ISBN 978-3-593-38991-2 , pp. 362 and 368