«Սիրեթի հայերի պատմությունից» - Տաթևիկ ՍԱՐԳՍՅԱՆ

Tatevik Sargsyan's article is devoted to the history of the Armenian community of the town of Siret (present-day Romania) — one of the early Armenian settlement centers of medieval Moldavia — and is based on materials from the 2011 "ANIV" scholarly expedition.

Introduction and Methodology
The work draws on a complex of written sources — Catholicos epistles of the 14th–15th centuries, memorial inscriptions (colophons) from manuscript books of the 15th–17th centuries, testimonies of travelers and missionaries, as well as epigraphic material — surviving Armenian tombstones of the 16th–17th centuries, recorded and partially published by E. Kozak in 1903.

Early Mention and Church Organization
The author demonstrates that the Armenians of Siret appear in sources as early as 1371 in connection with attempts by the Catholic curia to establish a bishop there. Catholicos epistles of 1388, 1410, and the third quarter of the 15th century attest to the inclusion of Siret within the Lviv diocese alongside Suceava, Kamenets, Lutsk, and Kyiv. Under Hospodar Stephen the Great, the Armenians of the Moldavian principality were granted a separate episcopal see centered in Suceava, which is confirmed by a memorial inscription of 1507 from the "Homiliary" book, commissioned by the Armenians of Siret and containing the names of local priests, elders, and parishioners.

Destruction and Subsequent Restoration of the Church
Special attention is given to the pogrom of Armenian churches in 1551, carried out by Hospodar Ştefan Rareş, recorded in Minas Tokhatetsi's poem "Lament for the Armenians of the Land of Wallachia," where among the ravaged churches the one in Siret is also named. Based on colophons of 1652–1653 (a Gospel and a Hymnal written for the Church of the Holy Mother of God in Siret) and a 1669 mention by the Catholic missionary L.M. Pidou, the author establishes that the church was restored and continued to function in the 17th century.

Decline of the Community and Loss of Material Evidence
The testimony of Minas Bzhishkyan from 1808 records the near-total disappearance of the Armenian community (10 houses without their own priest or church). The author reconstructs the location of the former Armenian quarter in the area of present-day Bogdan Vodă Street based on oral information from a local museum employee about the discovery of tombstones with Armenian epitaphs during the construction of a school in the 19th century.

Epigraphic Analysis
The central focus of the article is an analysis of six surviving Armenian tombstones embedded in the fence of the Catholic cemetery of Siret. The author traces their fate: original placement in the Armenian cemetery, transfer to the ruins of the Dominican monastery (where they were used as paving slabs), and then relocation into the cemetery wall by the end of the 19th century. The lamentable condition of the monuments is noted, owing to the fragility of the sandstone and the lack of protection from weathering.

Key Conclusion
Based on a comparison of written and epigraphic data, the author concludes that the Armenian church in Siret ceased to exist no later than the mid-18th century, and that memory of it and of the cemetery had already been completely lost by the time of Bzhishkyan's visit.

The key conclusion of the article is that the history of the Armenian community of Siret, traceable from the 14th to the 19th century, represents an example of the gradual decline of what was once a large and significant Armenian ecclesiastical center of Moldavia, whose material traces — unique tombstones of the 16th–17th centuries — require urgent protection and scholarly documentation in view of their progressive deterioration.