by David Zenian
The first Armenian book was printed in Venice in 1512, but it was not until mid-1600 when the foundations of Armenian printing were laid with the opening of the first all-Armenian printing house in Amsterdam.
But why Amsterdam and not the other European cities like Lvov, Rome, Milan, Paris and Livorno where Armenian books were already being printed.
One explanation often given by historians is the control the Catholic Church had over the printing facilities in these cities and the growing restrictions and lack of freedom it imposed on the publication of ecclesiastical materials.
Holland was a Protestant country, and as such more liberal and open to the Armenian Apostolic faith - and Armenian merchants were already well established in Amsterdam, one of Europe's main maritime centers for trade with the East.
Connections between Dutch and Armenian traders date back to the early part of the 13th century with the arrival in Cilicia in ancient Armenia of Dutch merchants on their way to the East. Soon, Armenian traders were to appear on the Dutch scene bringing carpets, spices, paints and cotton, establishing permanent trading posts in Amsterdam and selling precious stones and pearls from the Orient.
By the 1560's a small Armenian colony had already taken shape in Amsterdam. Therefore it was not accidental that the first Armenian printing house was opened in Amsterdam in 1658 under the direction of Mateos Tsaretsi, a clergyman who commissioned Christoffel van Dyck, the famous Dutch punch-cutter of the Elzevir printing office, to help him with launching the project.
On November 27, 1658, Tsaretsi reached an agreement with van Dyck, under which the Dutch master was commissioned to prepare 170 block punches and 240 matrices for small and large size Armenian letters. But before the completion of the work, Tsaretsi died in 1661, leaving his mission in the hands of Avedis Yerevantsi, a merchant living in Amsterdam who completed the task and supervised the printing in Amsterdam of the Armenian Bible in 1666.
Over the years, the Armenian printing house changed ownerships but prevailed despite financial hardships. Between 1664 and 1669, 18 ecclesiastical and secular works were printed before the Armenian printing house succumbed to financial pressures and was forced to close down.
But printing was too important for the Armenian people and church to neglect. In 1695, the torch of Armenian printing was lit again, this time by Mateos Vanandetsi, another clergyman, who revived the industry at the instructions of Catholicos Hagop, the spiritual head of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Holy Etchmiadzin, Armenia.
For many years to come the Amsterdam Armenian printing facility changed hands from one owner to another until 1717 when due, once again, to the accumulation of debts the equipment fell into the hands of creditors. It was eventually sold to the Mekhitarist Armenian Catholic order of Venice. A report by the Mekhitarists dated 1729 confirms the purchase of Armenian printing types from Amsterdam. "We have received the copper matrices and steel punch blocks...all of them are immaculate and flawless," the report states.
But the Armenian presence in Amsterdam did not end.
According to Dutch historians, Armenian traders consolidated their presence in Amsterdam in the years to come, and up to 1765 they had a monopoly over the silk trade in the city.
During the early 1700's, more than 70 Armenian families lived in Amsterdam, including many representatives of international trading houses who used the city as their main center of operations. It was during this time that the Armenians settled in the eastern neighborhoods of the city including Monnikenstaat, Dykstraat, Keizerstaat and Boomsloot.
They also had their own market, Qoster market, or the eastern market, and operated an Armenian-owned fleet of merchant ships, including the Cooperman Armenian or Armenian Merchant, from as early as 1653 which sailed under the Dutch flag.
Many traders remained in Amsterdam for decades, establishing Europe's first Armenian Church in 1714 which still stands 285 years later. The building, with its traditional Dutch architectural fagade was sold to a Catholic religious order in 1828 with the dwindling of the Armenian community in the city. At that time, only a handful of Armenians had remained in Holland. Many had assimilated and others had left for various parts of Europe due to the decline in maritime trade.
The Armenian Church was turned into a Catholic school run by an order of nuns until 1987 when the new and slowly growing Armenian community with the help of a major contribution from the Armenian General Benevolent Union, funding from the Holy See of Etchmiadzin and others the building was purchased and the Armenian church re-opened.
Today, the church elders are locked in a bitter lawsuit to annul the sale of the building last year to a Dutch group of investors. The sale, by the members of the outgoing parish council on grounds that the cash from the sale would be used for the construction of a new church, is being contested in the courts.
The church elders are fighting the sale, which they say was contingent on a number of clauses including the approval of the Armenian Apostolic Diocese in Paris. They are determined to keep the historical building in the hands of the Armenian community.
But the church remains open and active. The community has grown from a handful of families at the turn of the century to more than 7,000, consisting mainly of new immigrants from the trouble spots of the Middle East, Iran, eastern Turkey and of late, Armenia.
The Dutch, always tolerant and understanding, have welcomed their new Armenian subjects once more and the cycle of growth and prosperity is back again.
