Outlines

 After the collapse of the multi-ethnic Soviet Union, some of the emerging new republics faced crucial problems with respect to ethnic identity:

  1. Reinforcement of the titular majority's ethnic identity, controlled mainly by an initial 'anti-Russian' and 'derussification' policy or by over-   emphasizing its own ethnic history, culture, language or religion;

  2. Gradually increasing ethnic self-awareness of the ethnic or religious minority groups;

  3. Political pressure of international and European organizations to sign and implement the international charters for the rights of minorities in order to be accepted by the international political community and to have access to international economic support and partnerships.

Publications on minorities living in the Republic of Armenia, in general, but in particular on the actual status and linguistic, religious and cultural situation of the minority groups did not start earlier than in the late 1990ies. There are two main publications that offer a general description of the minority groups, which most of the later publications and even international reports usually refer to:

  • "Nationalities of Armenia" (1999) eds. Hovhannisyan, N, Chatoev, V. Kosyan, A. Yerevan: YEGEA. (120 pages)

  • "The ethnic minorities of Armenia" (2002) eds. Asatryan, G. Arakelova, V. Yerevan. Online: http://www.hra.am/file/minorities_en.pdf. (20 pages)

    Both are mainly intended to provide basic information about the minorities in the Republic of Armenia.

Related to the official registration of minorities groups, some members of the respective minorities, in particular their representatives, started to investigate their history and their ethnic peculiarities. Some of these surveys and studies have been published only in Armenia (and are hardly available), some have been added to the new homepages of the groups' NGO's or other organizations. In some cases, young scholars became interested in their own ethnic roots, having worked or actually work on the history or on ethnic features (such as language, culture, traditions etc.) for their MA or PhD degrees at Yerevan universities. These important contributions are usually not published officially, and information about such research is only available by means of good contacts with the chairs concerned at Yerevan's universities or with the local minority organizations. 

Only a small amount on research on Armenia's minorities is carried out in the West, in Europe or the US. This is perhaps also due to the lack of up-dated and reliable information about Armenia's minorities.

Another part of the publications on Armenia's minorities are the annual reports of various international and European organizations; however, they usually refer to the two main publications given above and to information obtained from official Armenian newspapers and the minority organizations. They are not of real scientific value, but they strikingly reflect the actual situation of the minorities in their most sensitive issues: language maintenance, language teaching, freedom of religious beliefs, maintenance of cultural traditions and commitment one's ethnic and religious affiliation  

The project aims at a comprehensive survey of minorities in Armenia. It concentrates on the eleven officially recognized minorities, but also includes research on the two 'new minorities' resulting from the refugee movements in the years 1989-90 (Udis and Tats). If technically possible, the Bosha (Lom)  'hidden' minority will also be included in the context of these 'unofficial' minorities. The survey will be conducted under a common methodological and theoretical paradigm resulting in a consistent and homogenous descriptive format that allows interethnic comparison. This format includes the determination of sociocultural and sociolinguisitic values that are weighted according the the actual situation relevant for a given minority.