Question:
About 6,000-9,000 Armenians now live in Holland. The exact number isunknown, since the Dutch Immigration Office only offers data on countryof origin. Ethnic subcategories are not taken into account. Apart fromthe contemporary Armenian community spread out over Holland, there wasan independent Armenian community concentrated in Amsterdam during the17th and 18th centuries can be distinguished..

Current Armenian community

Armenians arrived in Holland between 1950-2000 in various migrationwaves. The main causes for migration were: decolonisation, civil wars,political and economical upheavals, and religious repression.

Armenians arrived from Indonesia (former Dutch Indies) (1950s), Turkey(1970s), Lebanon (1970s), Iran (1980s), Iraq (early 1990s), Russia andArmenia (1990s). The current biggest group of Armenians arrived fromShirnak and Dyabakir in Turkey in the 1970s as guest workers in chainmigration, finding employment in textile plants in Almelo and Hengelo.Currently most Armenians live in the major urban centres in the westernpart of Holland: Amsterdam, Dordrecht, The Hague, Leiden and Rotterdam.Armenian church services are held in Amsterdam and Almelo.

Amsterdam Armenian community in the 17th and 18th centuries

Armenian merchants arrived in the Republic of the Seven United DutchProvinces in three immigration waves during the 17th and 18thcenturies. The first wave arrived from Julfa, a suburb of Isfahan, inIran and were called 'Jolfalijnen' or Persians by the Dutch. Thesecond group came from the main Turkish seaports Aleppo, Constantinopeland Smyrna and the third from Archangel, Moscow and St. Petersburg. Themain incentive to migrate was the rise of the Dutch Republic, andAmsterdam in particular, as a centre of global economic activity in the17th century. The Republic was economically less protectionist thansurrounding countries like England and France, and Amsterdam'smerchant elite tried to attract foreigner merchants to bolster thecity's leading position. A series of trade pacts concluded withTurkey and Iran in the 17th and 18th centuries permitted the Dutch tosettle in Turkey or Iran, while Turkish and Iranian Armenians wereallowed to start a business in the Republic.

Demography

The Armenian community in Amsterdam was small. Approximately 800Armenian names appear in the notarial acts of the city's municipalarchives for the period from 1600 to 1800. The community reached itsdemographic zenith in 1668 when 66 Armenian family names can becounted. By 1687, however, there were only 26 Armenians are left. A newpeak of 71 was reached in 1715, and between 1731 and 1750, numbersfluctuate between 26 and 45. In 1810, the community had as good as diedout, with only five Armenians are left in Amsterdam.

The settlement pattern of Armenians in Amsterdam shows a low level ofintegration in Amsterdam society. 71 of the 110 Armenians whoseaddresses are known settled in quarters 10, 11 and 12 in the heart ofthe city, a relatively small area situated eastwards from theNieuwmarkt (New Market). This area remained the centre of thecommunity, even after Armenians started to settle in other parts of thecity after 1750. Their initial social isolation was not the result of adeliberate policy by the Amsterdam authorities, but a matter of choice.The Armenians, who specialised in importing raw silk bales, wanted tobe close to the silk dying plants. In 1591 the city council had decidedto locate the plants in this area, outside the city gates. So theArmenians rented cellars and attics in warehouses, weighed the bales inthe nearby Weighing House on the Nieuwmarkt and worshipped at theArmenian Church, on the nearby Kromboomssloot.

Trade

Although most Armenians, particular those coming from Iran, initiallyspecialised in trading raw silk, they spread their economic risks byimporting a variety of products from Turkey and Iran, includingprecious stones, Turkish yarn, camel and goat hair, raisins, figs, riceand coffee beans. They also imported whale teeth from Archangel, amberfrom Danzig and mirrors from Venice and exported Dutch products rangingfrom Leiden cloth, linen and moquette to furniture and tiles, to Turkeyand Iran. Tiles exported from Holland were reused in the church ofSanta Maria in Cadiz.

Since the Amsterdam guild records have been lost, it is difficult toassess how many Armenians were members of the local guilds. In 1755, anArmenian by the name of Martin Gregory passed his pharmacist exam,while another, Jacobus d'Avetik, belonged to the broker's guild.Perhaps this is no coincidence, since both of these guilds were open toJews and other foreigners.

Dutch paintings, engravings and poetry show that Armenian merchants hadtheir own niche in the economic life of Amsterdam. The earliest sourceon which Armenians are depicted is an allegoric engraving by PieterBast, dating from 1611, called Panorama of Amsterdam. They are depictedas Persians, trading in silk and precious stones. Armenians silkmerchants had their own fixed trading spot in the Amsterdam StockExchange, in the inner courtyard between 12 and 13, next to the Turkishmerchants. They also made active use of the services of the AmsterdamExchange Bank. On the stock exchange, Armenians dealt in debentures,shares, bonds and bills of exchange. They never succeeded, however, inacquiring prominent positions in the sectors in which they traded. Evenin the silk trade, they were unable to challenge the Jews andHuguenots, who already dominated the branch before they arrived.

Social status

Armenian merchants in Amsterdam were middle class and cannot be placedon the same level as the local merchant elite or the wealthy PortugueseJewish merchants. Few Armenian merchants are registered in the taxregister of 1742 as capitalists. Those who were successful showed offtheir social status with sumptuous summerhouses in the country or townhouses along the main canals in Amsterdam. In the second half of the18th century, Alexander di Masse possessed a country house'Welgelegen' (well situated) with a double pleasure garden.Johannes de Jacob Galdar owned a country house and town house on theFluweelenburgwal, a fashionable quarter of Amsterdam.

Mariage and burials

Data on the frequency of marriages between Armenians merchants andbrides indicate a gradual but not full integration into Dutch society.Rich Armenians imitated the Amsterdam elite, by ordering gold- and-silver birth and marriage medallions bearing Armenian inscriptions tomark births and marriages. In contrast to the Jews, who had their owngraveyards outside Amsterdam, Armenians were mainly buried inprestigious Protestant churches or in the adjacent graveyards. At least50 Armenians are buried in the Oude Kerk, indicating quite a high levelof integration in Amsterdam society.

Armenian church

The trade pacts concluded between Holland and Iran and Turkey permittedthe citizens of the signatory countries to practise their own religionin the other countries. Before 1578 Amsterdam was a mainly catholiccity, but in that year Dutch Protestants came to power and bannedCatholics from practising their religion in public. They were forced tohold services in 'hiding churches', which were not visible from thestreet. Only minority religions were tolerated by the AmsterdamBurgomasters with proviso that, like the Catholics, they they kept alow profile. Gradually, however, religious minorities obtainedpermission from the city authorities to erect official churches andsynagogues. The first Armenian priest was invited to Amsterdam to holdreligious services in private homes in 1665. A notarial inventorydating from 1703 refers to an Armenian hiding church in theKoningsdwarsstraat.

On 30 January 1714 the authorities issues a permit for Armenians toerect an official church building, visible from the street. In May1714, 40 Armenian merchants financed the conversion of two warehousesinto an Armenian Church on the Kromboomsloot in the centre ofAmsterdam. In 1749 the outside entrance was embellished with amonumental gable stone with a lamb and an Armenian text, privatelyfinanced by the Armenian priest Johannes di Minas. Most probably,Armenian priests first lived at the upper floor of the church but diMinas moved to a private house at 27 Koningsstraat. The gable stoneclearly indicates the profession of the resident.

Armenian Church: Social and Cultural Broker

Armenian priests supported newcomers in search of rooms and storagespace. They also acted as solicitors when Armenian merchants set out onmissions abroad and as witnesses in trade transactions, or in cases ofbankruptcy. Most Armenians felt obliged to do something in return andwould leave part of their money to the Church or allow priests to selltheir house or make use of its usufruct. In certain periods, priestsplayed an important role as exporters of Armenian culture.

Amsterdam was the leading book export centre in Europe in the 17th and18th centuries.The small Armenian printing house in Amsterdam,intermittently active between 1660 and 1718, was no serious threat tothe main Amsterdam printing firms. Most Armenian books, bibles andother religious works, printed in Amsterdam were exported to Turkey andIran. In 1666, the priest-printer Oskan took the initiative of printingan Armenian Bible, illustrated with engravings of the Dutch artistChristoffel van Sichem. Exporting books was often a risky business. In1694 6,000 of some 8000 book exported from Amsterdam to Smyrna werelost in an earthquake. Armenians books were partly financed by priestsor privately by Armenian merchants. In 1699 Martin Gregory placed anorder to print and bind 250 Persian music books. Specimens from theAmsterdam Armenian printing firm can be consulted in the librarycollections of the ...

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