Peoples of The Caucasus - Peoples Speaking Indo-European Languages

Peoples Speaking Indo-European Languages

Peoples of the Caucasus that speak languages that belong to the Indo-European language family:

• Indo-European languages:
• Armenians
• Iranian group:
  • Ossetians
  • Talysh
  • Kurds
  • Tats
  • Mountain Jews
• Slavic group:
  • Russians
    • Kuban Cossacks
    • Terek Cossacks
  • Ukrainians
• Hellenic group:
  • Pontic Greeks
  • Caucasus Greeks, including Turkish Speaking Christian Greeks of Georgia or Urums

Armenians number 3,215,800 in their native Armenia, though approximately 8 million live outside the republic, forming the Armenian diaspora. Elsewhere in the region, they reside in Nagorno-Karabakh (which is de facto independent, but de jure is part of Azerbaijan), Georgia (primarily Samtskhe-Javakheti, Adjara, and Abkhazia), and the Russian North Caucasus. The Ossetians live in North Ossetia–Alania (autonomous republic within Russia) and in South Ossetia, which is de facto independent, but de jure is part of Georgia. The Yazidi Kurds reside in the western areas of Armenia, mostly in the Aragatsotn marz. An autonomous Kurdish region was created in 1923 in Soviet Azerbaijan but was later abolished in 1929. Pontic Greeks reside in Armenia (Lori Province, especially in Alaverdi) and Georgia (Kvemo Kartli, Adjara, the Tsalka, and Abkhazia). Pontic Greeks had also made up a significant component of the southern Caucasus region acquired from the Ottoman Turkish Empire (following the 1878 Treaty of San Stefano) that centred on the town of Kars (ceded back to Turkey in 1916). Russians mostly live in the Russian North Caucasus and their largest concentration is in Stavropol Krai, Krasnodar Krai, and in Adygea. Georgia and the former south Russian Caucasus province of Kars Oblast was also home to a significant minority of ethnic (Swabian) Germans, although their numbers have become depleted as a result of deportations (to Kazakhstan followng WWII), immigration to Germany, and assimilation into indigenous Christian Orthodox communities.