Senin, 25 April 2011

Are Armenians white?

One of the most frequent questions that I get asked is my ethnicity. People have mistaken me for being Jewish, Georgian, Turkish, Tartar, Indian, Assyrian, Moroccan, Gypsy, Lebanese and a lot of other nationalities. People often ask me if I'm white. I prefer to tell them that I'm middle eastern. If I tell them that I'm Caucasian they would start arguing that I don't have "white features" or that I don't have the "European look". But then how come Italians who are very dark skinned (especially Sicilians and Corsicans) are European, or Spaniards who are mixed with Arabs or many Russians in Urals and Siberia have predominant mongoloid features, yet there's no hesitation to call them white.
Armenians are Caucasian. They are typically referred to, as "Indo-European". Armenia is situated at the confluence of east and west, it has a very long history and has been invaded many times by different ethnic groups. So it's only natural that the modern population is a mixture of different ethnic groups (Persians, Turks, Assyrians, Georgians, etc.)
 Here are some pictures of famous Armenians. You can see they all look different, yet they are all Armenians.













I'm very interested in my genealogy and I plan to take the DNA test when I save enough money. Most Armenians claim that they are 100% Armenian because Armenians rarely marry outside of their "race". But it's wrong to claim that you are purely Armenian since most people do not know their family background outside of a few generations and until recently there was no scientific way to prove once hereditary genes. I know that my fathers side of the family lived in Iran (in Isfahan) since the 17th century. I don't know much about my dad's side of the family and unfortunately my grandparents died so there's no way to find out more about my father's family. I did some research and I know that my mother's family is from Sasun and Mush which are now the territory of Turkey. They are often referred to as "Sasunci". I know that I might have Assyrian and Persian blood in me.
In my family we all look different. Some of my family members have blue eyes and fair hair, others are very dark-skinned and have raven black hair. I assume we inherited different genes from different ancestors. And it's great!
Here are pictures of some of my family.










On a final note, I want to add that Armenians are related to everyone. Don't you know where Noah lived? ;)

Blessings,
~Shushanna.



Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar

LinkWithin

'