Armenian Colombians

Armenian Colombians are Colombian citizens of full or partial Armenian ancestry, or Armenian-born person residing in Colombia. The Armenian population in the country forms the smallest Armenian diaspora in Latin America. Most of them came from the Middle East (Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Egypt and Turkey), Greece and Russia as a result of the Hamidian Massacres.

History
Most Armenian immigrants in Colombia settled in a city that was founded in 1889 by Jesús María Ocampo, which became the present-day "Armenia". The city received its name in honor of recognition to Armenians murdered by the Turkish Ottomans in the Hamidian Massacres from 1894 to 1897 and later the Armenian Genocide.

Between 1938 and 1941, many ethnic Armenians from the Middle East (Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Egypt and Turkey), the Soviet Union, and Greece came to Colombia because of the Second World War. Once in Colombia, Armenian immigrants began to lose their surnames, but they retained their first names. The city had recognized the Armenian Genocide. In 1954, the Armenian Catholic bishop Cyril Zohrabian visited Colombia and stated that the first Armenian immigrant in Colombia named Hovhannesov came from Russia and settled in the country 20 years before.

According to the The Municipal Institute of Culture of Armenia, the news from the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Turks in a region of Bessarabia called Armenia and the existence of a farm with the same denomination made villagers prefer the name of Armenia.