Page 19 - THE ARMENIAN CHURCH_Neat

20 The Armenian Church

Kingdom of Cilicia in 1375, then by the
division of Armenia between the Ottoman
and Persian Empires in 1638, and by the
Armenian Genocide in 1915. The independ-
ence of Armenia in 1991 brought with it,
ironically, a new wave of emigration, mainly
for economic reasons. As with all churches,
with growing emigration and globalization,
the territorial understanding of the local
church was changed and, instead of the
'Church of Armenia,' a local entity, the
Armenian Church is now the 'Church of
Armenians,' a global reality.
Presently over ten million Armenians live
in the world; around ninety-five percent of
them belong to the Armenian Church and the
rest to the Armenian Catholic and Armenian
Evangelical Churches. Most Armenians live
in the diaspora, which consists of the histori-
cally established communities, the descen-
dants of the Armenian Genocide survivors,
and recent immigrants from Armenia. The
Armenian diaspora fluctuates because of
continuous migration and new emerging
communities, but the majority of Armenians
live in the Middle East, Eastern and Western
Europe, and in North and South America.