Torn Between Loyalty And Identity: The Crimean Armenians In The Post-Soviet Era

Abstract

The following research tries to understand how the lives of the Crimean Armenians were impacted after the collapse of the Soviet Union. After briefly discussing the Crimean Armenian communities in the Soviet Period, the article mainly focuses on the social and political issues that Armenians of Crimea have faced during the post-Soviet period. There are two research questions: 1. What key problems have the Crimean Armenians encountered during the post-Soviet transformational period? 2. How did the 2014 events impact the Crimean Armenians? With the help of content analysis and interviews, the research looks into these and a set of other relevant questions. The main findings are that Crimean Armenians have mostly perceived the peninsula to be more Russian than Ukrainian, that is why their lives were not dramatically affected after Crimea came under the control of Russia, apart from some issues concerning traveling and visas, documentation and social protection. Keywords: Crimea, Armenian diaspora, Ukraine, Russia, Identity politics