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The Armenians in the Middle East are mostly concentrated in Iran, Lebanon, Cyprus, Syria, Jordan, and Palestine, although well-established communities exist in Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, and other countries of the area. The Armenians of the Middle East speak the western dialect of the Armenian language (except those of Iran) and the majority are adherents of the Armenian Apostolic Church, with smaller Catholic and Protestant minorities. There is a sizable Armenian population in the thousands in Palestine and the Palestinian territories, especially the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem with a history that goes back 2,000 years. Armenians in Lebanon have the most freedoms, compared to other regions in the area that have large number of Armenians. ==History== Armenians have always kept a certain political, social, and economic contact with the Middle East. The Armenian royalty had always kept close contact with neighbouring Persia. In the 1st century B.C., Tigranes the Great, the King of Kings of the Armenian Empire, ruled over a significant part of the region. Armenians have a millennia long native history in the region, and are part of the indigenous inhabitants of northwestern Iran, as well as many of the oldest Armenian churches, chapels, and monasteries are located there. During the Middle Ages, Armenians established a new kingdom in Cilicia, which despite its strong European influence, not unlike Cyprus, was often considered as being part of the Levant, thus in the Middle East. There were Armenian communities (in the form of well-established quarters in major cities) in the Edessa region, Northern Syria, Jerusalem, Egypt, and have played a direct role in many key events, such as the Crusades. The Armenians presence in northern Persia/Iran continued to increase. However their presence notably significantly strengthened in 1604-1605, when Shah Abbas of the Safavid Empire deported 250,000-300,000 Armenians deeper into to Persia. The Armenians, notably those of Iran, were recognized as being astute businessmen and were renowned throughout the World. During the Ottoman period, the Levantine Armenian communities had diminished in number because of previous conflicts, such as the Mamluk invasion of Cilicia, Tamerlane's invasion of Syria, and so on. From the 16th century until 1828, all of Eastern Armenia, which includes all of the modern-day Republic of Armenia, were part of Qajar Iran, alongside the rest of Transcaucasia and parts of the North Caucasus. As a result of the Treaty of Turkmenchay, Iran irrevocably lost Eastern Armenia to neighbouring Imperial Russia,〔 Timothy C. Dowling (''Russia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond'' ) p 729 ABC-CLIO, 2 dec. 2014 ISBN 1598849484〕 while the terms stipulated the rights of the Tsar to make a call for Iran's very large Armenian community to settle in the newly conquered Caucasian territories of Russia. Many tens of thousands of Armenians relocated. A year after, per the Treaty of Adrianople of 1829 concluded with Ottoman Turkey, the Tsar gained the same rights now for the extant Ottoman Armenian population, and again many tens of thousands moved. As a result of this, the number of Armenians in the Middle East, who all lived either in Qajar Iran or the Ottoman Empire, became reduced. Many Ottoman Armenians forcefully came to the Levant and Mesopotamia (known today as Iraq) while many strengthened the already large Armenian community in neighboring Iran, while others moved to Russia and other parts of the world, as they fled during the Armenian Genocide, during which 1.5 million Armenians perished. In contemporary times, the Armenians in the region lived through and were forced to participate in many conflicts, such as the Arab-Israeli Wars, the Lebanese Civil War, and under Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s and the first Gulf War of 1990-91. Because of political turmoil and tension in the region (such as the Lebanese Civil War and the Islamic Revolution), many Middle Eastern Armenians have emigrated to the Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and the Persian Gulf states. Although a good quantity have left the region, they never have lost their foothold in the Orient. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Armenians in the Middle East」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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