More about me

I am Armenian by origin. Armenians (including my ancestors) have lived in Iran for nearly 400 years, but somehow they have managed to maintain their identity, language and religion. Marked cultural differences with ethnic Persians still persists today.

My name is an uncommon Armenian name. Vazrick (variations: Vazrik, Vazrig) means ‘little sword’ or something like that, from old Greek ‘vazr’ meaning an iron impact weapon, and the Armenian suffix ‘-ik’, a derivation of Persian ‘-ak’ meaning small. The name has been used by Armenians for a long time, and officially listed by Avetis Aharonian in an early 20^th century index of Armenian names. My last name is an Iranicized form of ‘Nazarian’, which is my real family name. The Persian government guy who was writing personal IDs a hundred years ago dropped the –ian from my great grandfather’s family name, and he didn’t even notice as he couldn’t read or write. Hence, we got stuck with this mutilated form of our family name forever.

In his website, Gevork Nazaryan traces the origins of my surname back to the ancient city of Ani in eastern Turkey near the Armenian border, which was home to Nazar Nazaruni and his family. Arguably he is the forefather of all Nazarians everywhere. The city was completely deserted by the late 14^th century, after a long period of wars, earthquake and devastation. The Nazaruni family then spread all across the region, leading to ShahNazaryans in Karabagh, GyulNazaryans in Jugha (Nakhichevan), Lazaryans in Moscow, etc.

There is some information gap as to what happened next in my lineage. A theory is that a smaller branch of Nazarians established themselves somewhere in present southeastern Turkey, perhaps around lake Van. Presence of numerous Turcic words in the dialect of Armenian that my elders still speak has led Minasian and Ghanbari (2006) to hypothesize that we came from somewhere where we had daily contact with Turkish speaking people. This is in contrast to what my grandfather used to tell me, which was that our roots go back to somewhere in the Zangezur mountains, in today’s southern Armenia. I tend to trust Minasian and Ghanbari’s (2006) research rather than my own grandfather’s, as I have been unable to find any evidence that could support his theory.

The next documented historical fact is the mass relocation of Armenians from all across eastern Armenia (now Turkey) and Nakhichevan into Iran by Shah Abbas the Great, the Safavid King of Persia, which happened in1604-1605 AD. It was a time of war between Persia and the Ottoman Empire, and by removing all the inhabitants (numbering over 300,000) from the war zone, the Persian King used the “burnt land” tactic to deprive the invading Ottoman army of sources of food etc. The relocation was forcefully executed, and a lot of people died on this treacherous journey towards the Persian Capital, Isfahan. Many drowned while crossing the river Arax.

The Shah, however, was wise and kind; he gave the Armenians land and freedom to practice their religion, Christianity. The rich were housed in cities and the farmers were settled in rural areas. This is a long story and you can find more about it here and here if interested.

Once removed from their homeland by the Persian army, my ancestors were taken to Tabriz (in northwestern Iran) in 1604. When the winter passed, they were moved again to Hamadan (through Zanjan) in northern Iran. They were settled north of the city of Hamadan, where they lived for the next 120 years or so.

In 1724 the Ottomans invaded Persia again. When they reached Hamadan, they slaughtered or took hostage nearly all civilians. Many, including my ancestors, fled the city and took refuge in the villages surrounding Hamadan and Malayer. Later they moved to the village of Jazanaq near Arak (then called Soltan-abad), and from there to Khosbijan, which is another village in the same area. These villages around Arak (numbering around 20) were collectively called “Kazaz”, and by the late 1700s were mostly populated by Armenians.

Around 1800, the sons of a person by the name of ‘Murad’ from Khosbijan chose a previously uninhabited area known as ‘Goorehzar’ for settlement. They built houses and started farming there. Soon enough people from all over the region joined them, and by 1856, the village had a population of 27 families.

During 1945, when WWII ended, The republic of Armenia announced that it will grant citizenship to Armenians all over the world so that it will reach the population levels required to declare independence. Armenians of Iran, including people of Goorehzar, came to Tehran (where the Armenian embassy was) for the visa, but the borders were closed. Goorehzar, the village of my immediate ancestors, turned from a completely Armenian-Christian village into a completely Persian-Muslim one in a matter of 10 years (1945-1955). My grandfather and his family, including my father (who must have been 4 years old or so at that time – born 1951) have lived in Tehran since then. My mother’s family also came to Tehran from another village in the ‘Kazaz’ district called ‘Ghale bala’ (the upper castle). My mom must have been two year old or so at the time. My parents met years later and got married in Tehran, where I was born in 1974.

Literature cited:

Minasian, H. and Ghanbari, M., 2006. Goorehzar: Commemoration of ancient Persia (in Persian). Navaye Danesh Publications, Arak. 167 pp.