Reference Type: Book Section
Author: Tóth, K. József
Year: 2007
Title: Örmény identitás a dualizmuskorban
Translated Title: [Armenian identity in hungary at the dualism age (1867-1918)]
Editor: Őze, Sándor - Kovács, Bálint
Book Title: Örmény diaszpora a Kárpát-medencében II. kötet
City: Piliscsaba
Publisher: Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetem Bölcsészettudományi Kar
Volume: II
Number of Volumes: 2
Language: Hungarian
Keywords: Armenian minority, history, sociology, ethnic identity, assimilation, integration, interethnic relationships, self-perception, social groups, modernization, employment, economy, politics
Abstract: (En) In the historical territory of Hungary many nations lived, and the Armenian was one of the less populous of them. This is one of the rcasons why they are hardly unknown, however hundreds of thousands of their descendants are still living in the Carpathian basin and elsewhere in the world, a lot of them do not even know their own origin.
The first bigger Armenians came to the Carpathian basin in the 17th century. Until the middle of the 18th century further groups arrived from Moldavia and Poland. The Armenians easily became used to the new surroundings and vvay of life. Most of them were craftsmen (furrier, tanner, shoe-maker) and retailer of their goods. Many of them became more and more well-to-do, they were long trade merchants. They rented grazing grounds in the southern part of Hungarian Great Plain (in Bánát and Temesköz), and they sold their fattened cattle in Austria and Germany. The most of them soon became the members of the Hungarian nobility.
In the 19th century the Armenian population begun to assimilate to the Hungarian population, mixed marriages often occurred with Hungarians having the same social status. So thus they had a double identity, which can be seen in their self definition: they called themselves Hungarian-Armenians (magyar-örmények). In the revolution and civil war in 1848-49 they participated at the Hungarian side. The 19th century meant the beginning of modern national consciousness and each ethnic group tumed to his cultural roots. The Armenians also started to study their history and ethnology. Szongott Kristóf (a secondary school tcacher in Gherla) published these researchcs in Hungarian, which indicates that they have already lost their mother language.
The traditional branches of commerce and handicraft were declining and the Armenians scattered to all parts of the historical Hungary. The merchants became landowners, and their sons became intellcctuals (lawyers, medicos, politicians). Many of them changcd their original family names into Hungarian ones. At the end of the 19th century Armenians in Hungary were not a separate nation, but an ethno-cultural group of the Hungarian speaking civilians in the Carpathian basin.
Notes: 000
URL: http://www.sulinet.hu/oroksegtar/data/magyarorszagi_nemzetisegek/ormenyek/ormeny_diaszpora_a_karpat_medenceben_II/pages/magyar/010_toth_jozsef.htm