Martin The Armenian

Martin The Armenian

Armenian Americans (Armenian: Ամերիկահայերa) are citizens of the United States of Armenian origin. Armenians in the United States form the second largest Armenian community of the Armenian diaspora after Russia. The 2011 American Community Survey one-year estimates indicated 483,366 Americans with full or partial Armenian ancestry. Because many find these numbers underestimated, various organizations and media have estimated the number of Armenian American that usually range from 800,000 to 1,500,000.b

First major wave of the Armenian immigration to North America took place in late 19th and early 20th century. Most came from the Ottoman Empire, escaping persecution in their homeland. First the Hamidian massacres in 1894-1896, then the Armenian Genocide lead to a great influx of Armenians to the United States. Since the mid-century, the number of Armenian Americans increased as a result of instability in Middle Eastern nations of Iran, Lebanon, Syria, where hundreds of thousands Armenians Genocide survivors have settled earlier. Since the late 1980s, immigrants from Soviet Armenia appeared in the country. Armenia proclaimed its independence in 1991 and a year later a military conflict escalated with neighboring Azerbaijan over a small Armenian-populated enclave. Energetic crisis soon took over Armenia and many Armenians found their new homes in America.

The highest concentration of Americans of Armenian descent is in the Greater Los Angeles area, where 166,498 people have identified themselves as Armenian according to the 2000 Census, which was over 40% of the 385,488 people with Armenian origin in the United States at the time. Glendale, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, is widely known as the center of Armenian American life. A large part of its population is of Armenian origin.