Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09BAGHDAD892
2009-04-01 11:31:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Baghdad
Cable title:  

Armenian Community Clings to Independence in Kirkuk.

Tags:  PREL PGOV IZ AM 
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VZCZCXRO6245
RR RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHKUK
DE RUEHGB #0892/01 0911131
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 011131Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2497
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEHYE/AMEMBASSY YEREVAN 0018
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 000892 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV IZ AM
SUBJECT: Armenian Community Clings to Independence in Kirkuk.

This is a PRT Kirkuk reporting cable.

This message is Sensitive but Unclassified; handle accordingly. Not
for distribution on the Internet

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 000892

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV IZ AM
SUBJECT: Armenian Community Clings to Independence in Kirkuk.

This is a PRT Kirkuk reporting cable.

This message is Sensitive but Unclassified; handle accordingly. Not
for distribution on the Internet


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On March 11 PRT Kirkuk visited leaders of the
Armenian community at their headquarters in Kirkuk City. The 93
Armenian families in Kirkuk (520 people) are the remnants of the
Armenians that fled persecution in Turkey between 1915 and 1918.
While the Armenian population has dropped over the past 50 years, it
appears to have stabilized over the past couple of years. The
Kirkuk Armenians are closely tied to other groups of Armenians
across Iraq, the largest of which is in Baghdad. The Armenians are
fiercely independent and consciously remove themselves from the
political landscape in Kirkuk. The self-described goal of the
Armenian community is to maintain their "language, religion and
ethnicity". They appear to have good relations with the other
ethnicities in Kirkuk, and maintain especially close ties with the
Assyrians. There is no evidence of any persecution or
discrimination against this small ethnic group. END SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) On March 11, PRT Team Leader along, with IPAO, visited
leaders of Kirkuk's Armenian community at their headquarters in the
Almas area of Kirkuk City. This trip is part of an ongoing PRT
outreach initiative to minority communities in Kirkuk province. The
meeting took place in the well furnished office of Keork Stragyam,
Chairman of the Armenian Ethnic Committee (AEC). The AEC is a
five-member committee that acts as the primary governing body in the
Armenian community. Four other Armenian leaders attended the
meeting: Father Avedek Marderosyan, the lone priest of the Armenian
Orthodox Church in Kirkuk; Mases Sarkesyan, Secretary of the AEC;
and Agob Yagobyan and Rafi Yeranosyan, both members of the AEC. Both
Mases and Agob are also employed as engineers at the Northern Oil
Company (NOC). The meeting took place at the Armenia{
?b('9QQO}g,Bx building, which doubles as a sports complex, complete
with a large meeting hall and an outdoor basketball court.


3. (U) The 93 Armenian families (520 people) in Kirkuk are the
remnants of the Armenian Diaspora that fled persecution in Turkey
between 1915 and 1918. The Armenians that fled to Iraq came in
several waves, each settling in a different area of Iraq. There are

surviving Armenian communities in Baghdad, Basra, Kirkuk, Zakho,
Dahuk, Mosul, and Erbil. Baghdad contains the largest Armenian
community in Iraq (estimated by the Kirkuki Armenians at 6000
people),and is the center of authority for the Armenian Orthodox
Church (also know as the Armenian Apostolic Church). Each of the
Armenian communities in Iraq except Erbil has an elected five-member
AEC subordinate to the AEC in Baghdad. According to Keork Stragyam,
there are approximately 20,000 Armenians currently living in Iraq,
with Baghdad and Basra maintaining the largest populations.


4. (U) The Kirkuk Armenians have seen their population drop from
almost 4000 people in 1958, to 750 in 2003, and now 520 people. The
vast majority of those leaving Iraq have settled in the Los Angeles
area, with a smaller population residing in France. According to
the Armenian leaders, unemployment is the primary reason for
emigration; however security has also been a factor. They pointed
out that, while Armenian emigration from Kirkuk has not completely
stopped, the population seems to have stabilized in the past year or
so. The Armenian leaders also reported that Armenians from the
South of Iraq, particularly Basra, are slowly moving northward to
QSouth of Iraq, particularly Basra, are slowly moving northward to
cities such as Mosul, Kirkuk and Erbil. Shi'a persecution is the
primary reason for this migration. Despite the precipitous decrease
in their population over the past 50 years, the Armenians remain
confident that they will be able to maintain their community in
Kirkuk for the foreseeable future.


5. (U) After 1918, many of Kirkuk's Armenians worked in technical
jobs for the NOC at the behest of the British. According to Agob
Yagobyan, the British hired mostly Armenians and Assyrians because
the Arabs and Kurds were not well enough educated for the work.
Today the Armenian neighborhood in Almas is full of British-built
brick houses left over from the first half of the 20th century.
Today eight of the 93 Armenian families in Kirkuk have members
working for the NOC. Most other Armenian families work as
machinists and mechanics and are known for their expertise in
repairing engines of various kinds. The Armenian leaders stated
that none of their community serves in the Iraqi Army, as it
requires people to leave their home areas. Some are in the Iraqi
Police, but the numbers are limited mainly because they do not have
the connections in government necessary to obtain these jobs.


6. (U) The Armenian Church is the focal point of the Armenian
community in Kirkuk. Services are held every Friday to correspond
with the majority Islamic population and workweek. The Armenian
church in Kirkuk was built in 1932 and is located in the Corea area,
now predominantly Turkomen. Plans are under way to build a new
Armenian church in the Almas area on land adjacent to the Armenian
community headquarters building. The Armenian community holds
numerous internal social functions and plays bingo every Friday

BAGHDAD 00000892 002 OF 002


night at the headquarters building. These events are closed to
outsiders. While the Armenians converse fluently in Arabic, they
maintain their dialect of the Armenian language at home. All
Armenian children in Kirkuk attend Armenian language classes at the
Armenian community headquarters building. The Armenian leaders
stressed the importance of maintaining their "language, religion and
ethnicity". They reported that Armenian is spoken in all the other
Armenian communities in Iraq except in Zakho where they now only
speak Kurdish.


7. (SBU) The Kirkuk Armenians prefer "Iraqi identification" when
presented with the prospect of joining Kurdistan. They declared
that they are Iraqi first and Armenian second. When their
grandfathers immigrated to Kirkuk between 1915 and 1918, the Arabs
in the area "welcomed" them and "helped them in all ways". They
intimated that have closer ties to the Arabs in Kirkuk than the
Kurds. They would prefer to see a "Kirkuk for the Kirkuki people".
When asked how long the US military should stay in Iraq, the
Armenian leaders appeared hesitant to answer and only said they have
no problem with the Americans.


8. (U) The Armenians made clear that they are fiercely protective of
their independence as a community. They repeated several times
during their meeting with the PRT their desire to remain removed
from politics in the province. In the summer of 2008 the Armenians
were offered a designated position on the Kirkuk City Council - an
offer they refused, citing their preference to not get involved in
Kirkuk's political landscape. Keork Stragyam referred to a saying
in Arabic which says you cannot get bitten by the same snake twice;
the lessons learned from Turkey in the early 20th century are still
fresh for Kirkuk's Armenians. This was practically the only subject
that seemed to bother them as they stated that they are still
waiting for Turkey to apologize. The Armenian community is largely
closed; however they do maintain social contact with the Assyrian
community in Kirkuk (they were proud to point out that their names
end in the same "yam" suffix and it is how to distinguish them from
other ethnicities). Traditionally, marriages have only occurred
between Armenian families; however, due to dwindling numbers there
have been "a few" recent cases of Armenians marrying Assyrians in
Kirkuk.


9. (SBU) COMMENT: The Armenian community in Kirkuk, despite its
small size, appears strong, well adjusted and self reliant. They
had few complaints about their situation and seemed only to want to
be left alone. Their headquarters building was well furnished and
undergoing renovations - demonstrating their relative material
wealth. They did cite the same concerns as other religious
minorities about the lack of any funding from the central
government. There is no evidence that the Armenians are experiencing
any persecution or discrimination in Kirkuk province, and they
clearly stated this. Their desire to remain identified with Iraq's
Central Government likely reflects their close ties to the Armenian
Church in Baghdad. It is highly unlikely that the Armenians will
play any role in Kirkuk's political future, due entirely to their
own preferences and actions. END COMMENT.
Butenis