by David Zenian
Political upheavals and regional wars in the Middle East in the 1970's brought tens of thousands of Armenian Diaspora immigrants to the distant shores of the United States and Canada, energizing already existing communities.
The collapse of the Soviet Union nearly 10 years ago opened the flood-gates to a new wave of immigration-this time from Armenia itself. Better known as "economic immigrants", they were those who left their homeland in search of a better life.
Many moved to other parts of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and thousands found their way to Greece, a country with close emotional affiliations with Armenia.
According to estimates available to Armenian community-based organizations, more than 20,000 such immigrants have settled in Greece since 1990, not only swelling the ranks of an already exisiting Armenian population, but also setting the tone for the future character of what the community will look like in the next millennium.
But not all of the estimated 20,000 are Armenians. They also include several thousand ethnic Greeks who have lived in Armenia for generations.
They are the Bondos Greeks of the Ottoman era, or the old Greek population of the Black Sea region which was forced to escape the 1828-1829 and 1877-1878 Russian-Turkish wars and and settle in Christian Armenia and other republics of the former Soviet Union.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Greek government, in a major repatriation effort, invited these Greeks to return to their ancestral homeland.
The returning Greeks were given housing, stipends, jobs and other assistance for their resettlement in northeastern Greece, where more than 100,000 ethnic Turks live-remnants of the Ottoman era.
In a country of 10.6 million, the Moslem Turks today constitute a little more than 1.3 percent of the population-but growing fast.
"It was a calculated move on the part of the Greek government. It wanted to create a better ethnic balance and increase the Greek population in those northern regions, especially the towns and villages close to the Turkish border," a Western diplomat explained.
But with the ethnic Greeks of Armenia also came thousands of Armenians.
"Many of them found a way to enter as immigrants, based on some connection or another to what they said was their Greek ancestry. Others came as tourists and stayed," the diplomat said in an interview on condition that his name is not used.
The Greek government settled the new immigrants in such northeastern cities as Thessaloniki, Kavala, Xánthi, Komotini and Alexandroupolis, once known as Dede-aghach, the name given to the city under Ottoman rule.
Their children were soon enrolled in Greek schools and the assimilation process got underway, and, for the most part, their parents kept their distance from the already existing Armenian communities of these cities.
"The majority of the new Armenian immigrants tend to cluster among themselves and avoid getting involved with us," an Armenian activist said.
"Within a few years after their arrival, their children start speaking Greek and mix with the majority Greek population. We are in a constant battle to get them interested in our Armenian activities, but it is not easy," he added. "For them the most important thing is to make a comfortable living. We see them sometimes and that's when they need help, but once they feel settled and a bit comfortable, they disappear."
The community has set up special Sunday Armenian language classes for the children of the new immigrants. The Armenian churches organize other activities to attract the new immigrants as well.
But short of a few exceptions, the effort has been an uphill battle.
In Thessaloniki, the local chapter of the Armenian General Benevolent Union has established an Armenian Dance group which has brought dozens of the new immigrants together.
The group recently won a gold medal in a festival organized by the Thessaloniki municipality, and has received invitations from other municipalities across Greece to perform at various festivals.
But the dance group is one of the very few points of contact between the old community and the new immigrants.
Similar activities are also being provided by other Armenian organizations in an effort to attract the new immigrants and to get them involved in community life.
With little education and no marketable skills, many of the immigrants-especially women-find themselves trapped in menial jobs such as caring for the elderly, cleaning homes and other low-paying chores.
Unlike the early immigrants who built their own schools, churches and other community institutions, the latest wave of Armenians to arrive in Greece are keeping to themselves and have shown little or no interest to mix with fellow Armenians.
Another important factor is the absence of any "community spirit"-something which has not only kept the Armenian Diaspora together for generations, but effectively created the need to gather around their churches along with their social, political and cultural organizations.
In Greece today, the new immigrants by far outnumber the local Armenian community-often by two to one.
But the distance between the old and new remains.
"We cannot say that our community has been enhanced by the new wave of immigrants. And if we cannot attract them into our society, then I'm afraid they will disappear in a decade or two," a community activist said.
