Genetic Research Excluded Turkish origin of Hamshen Armenians

PanARMENIAN.Net - The initial results of the genetic research of Hamshen Armenians launched in 2003 have been received. As reported by Yerkramas, the newspaper of Armenians of Russia, quoting project director Levon Yepiskoposyan, the genetic DNA analysis taken from Hamshen Armenians of Krasnodar and Rostov regions was carried out on the London university college jointly with British colleagues. The genetic investigation showed the following:



-Hamshen Armenians represent rather isolated territorial group, Armenian origin of which make no doubt.



-The hypothesis advanced by Turkish scientists on the so-called Turkish origin of Armenian-speaking. Hamshens was completely refuted.



Some clarity was introduced in the problem of Hamshens' homeland. To receive a final answer to this question the genetic history of Hamshens is being investigated.



Hamshen Armenians make the majority of the Armenian population of the Krasnodar region and some regions of Kuban and Adygea. They originate from the region of Hamshen of Western Armenia, who settled in Kuban after the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. According to the experts, some 250 thousand Armenians live in Adygea and Abkhazia. The number of islamized Hamshen Armenians living in Turkey varies from 700 thousand to 1.5.2 million.