The founders of Basque national historiography Esteban de Garibay, Andres de Posa and Baltasar de Echave considered Armenia as homeland of Basques. The Armenian origin of Basques was strongly supported by several prominent researchers, such as Joseph Karst Gaspar Eskolano, Edward Spencer Dodgson, and Bernardo Estornes Lasa
By the end of 19th century the English lingust Edward Spencer Dodgson absolutely accidentally made a very interesting discovery. Being already a well-known basqologist, Dodgson studied Armenian in Parisian “Ecole Special”, in the class of the famous philologist Ogust Career. The result was highly unexpected: already after 2 months studies, Dodgson noticed that many Armenian and Basque words are practically identical. Dodgson published an article “Basque words in Armenian” in the journal “Euskera” (“Basque language”), in 1884. The list mentioned the parallels between more than fifty words. It was like thunder in the clear sky for the scientists, who long maintained the hypothesis of Georgian origin of Basques.
For example, (with transcriptions) BS- char «bad, evil» – ARM. char «bad, evil», BS. anti «from there» – ARM. anti «from there», BS. ais «wind» -ARM. ais «wind», BS. zati «separate» – ARM. zati «separate», BS. tegi «place» – ARM. tegh «place» .….
The second important discovery on this subject was made later. In 1920s Basque philologist Bernardo Estornes Lasa, a prominent scientist and academician, was collecting Basque folklore items in Rapcal valley, in the eastern part of province Navarra. In the village Isaba, Estornes Lasa wrote down a local legend according to which the village Isaba was founded by the Armenians, the first inhabitants of Navarra and the ancestors of Basque people.
The legend says that the leader of Basques was called Haytor who arrived from Armenia with his seven sons and in their honour founded seven settlements in Navarra. It also said that the ancestor of Basques knew the secret of processing metal. Later, an ancient manuscript was found in the archives of the village, an ancient historical chronical, which confirmed the spoken legends. Highly notable that in Basque language Isaba is translated as “The trace of ancestors”. Although this can seem absolutely incredible, but the fact remains the fact, in village Isaba exists a road, which has the name Erminia (Armenia), in honour of the first colonizers of Navarra.
In Basque language the name of their ancestor Haytor means “Received from Haya” which correlates to Armenian ‘hay tor’ (“a Grandson of Armenian”). Joseph Karst also mentioned this fact. The ancestor of Armenians, Hayk, indeed, had a grandson, whose name was Pask (in some Armenian dialects Bask). The first time the possible relationship between Armenian name Pask and etnoname of Basques was indicated by N. Marr. It’s interesting that the Basque term for thoroughbred ‘haytoren seme’ means “the son of Haytor”.
All these facts were only the top of iceberg of the greatest secret of the European civilization. The theory of the Armenian origin of the oldest people of Europe has its deep roots in the historical collective memory of Basques and found its reflection in their written sources. As far back as XVI-XVIIcc., the founders of Basque national historiography Garibay, Andres de Posa and Baltasar de Echave considered Armenia the prehomeland (or original homeland) of Basques and tried to prove this on the basis of Basque-Armenian toponymic parallels… Araks (the name of a river in Armenia and in the Land of Basques), Apalar, the mountain in the land of Basques and biblical Ararat, the symbol of Armenians. Moreover, de Posa insisted that Basques are from Armenia. He mentioned that the city Taragona meant “commune of shepherds” and compared it with Armenian Taron, the ancient form of which is – Tarawna.
A spanish historian of 17th century Gaspar Eskolano, in his book about the history of Valencia (1610), wrote that after the Worldwide flood the patriarch Tubal and his people disembarked on the coast of Spain and they spoke Armenian.
Besides, Gaspar Eskolano described the place, where, according to the legends, Armenians – the first inhabitants of Spain were buried. Today, on those locations, mainly in modern Catalonia, churches can be found, indicating that the they have been considered sacred for centures.
All this information was defied because the subject wasn’t discussed and made out with the help of Armenian language. When German linguist Joseph Karst undertook the detailed study of Basque-Armenian parallels, the hypothesis about Georgian origin of Basques was firmly motivated. Georgian words in Basque language were obviously borrowings from Armenian, this was indicated by Basque academician Bernard Estorence Lasa.
In 1928 Joseph Karst published the results of his studies which caused resonance in the scientific world. He presented more than 300 Basque-Armenian lexical, phonetic and grammatical similiarites, including a shared systems of declension, conjugations and others. Karst came into conclusion that Basque and Armenian languages are two varieties of one linguistical type, which he named Alarodian. Besides, Karst handled the ethnography and the anthropology of Basques and Armenians; new data and proofs shed light on this matter .
In 1993 Armenian centre of Yerevan state university founded Armenian-Basque international scientific journal “Araks”, which is edited by armenologists and basqologists from different countries of the world.
Some examples on Armenian – Basque similarities
BS.’elki'(exit)-ARM.’elk'(exit)
BS.’ete'(if)-ARM.’ete'(if)
BS.’jaraunsi'(to inherit)-ARM ‘jarangel'(to inherit)
BS.’muruncha'(snarl)-ARM.’merenchots'(snarl)
BS.’murtsa'(fist)-ARM.’murts'(fist)
BS.’orma'(wall)-ARM.’vorm'(wall)
BS.’tegi'(place)-ARM.’tegh'(place)
BS.’toil'(weak)-ARM.’tuil'(weak)
BS.’laino'(size,breadth)-ARM.’lain'(broad)
BS.’irurden'(third)-ARM.’erordn'(third)
BS.’astadun'(weighty)-ARM.’hastatun'(strong, steadfast)
BS.’astatu'(to prove)-ARM.’hastatel'(to prove) .
In the Armenian Highlands and in the land of Basques there are enourmous amounts of toponyms, which sometimes get to the level of simple repetition, such as
Ashtarak (a town in Armenia) – Astarak (a settlement in south of France).
Goris (a city in southeast Armenia) – Goris (a settlement in Gascony).
Deba (a river in north Armenia) – Deba (a name of a river in Gascony).
Shubria (the ancient name of Sasun province) – Shuberoa (tha name to Basque province in France).
Araks (a famous river in Armenia) – Arakses (a famous river in Gascony).
Aran (the name of terrain in Armenia) – Aran (Wide-spread toponym in Gascon-speaking part of Catalonia).
Karkar (area in Western Armenia) – Karkar (famous toponym in Gascony), etc.
Basques call themselves ‘euskaldun(ak)’, which derives from the root word ‘eusk’, in different dialects it has different forms – eusk, usk, esku, asketic. The word is etymologically linked with Armenian word ‘voski’ “gold”, with the variations: iski, veske, aske, ioski. The Armenian word voski “gold” is the root of the proper name ‘Voskan’, which means “one who owns gold” and it reminds the ethnic name of Basques ‘baskon’, and in latin sources fixed as ‘Vaskon’. In Armenian – Araratyan Kingdom (“Urartian kindom”), the southeastern coast of the lake Van, which was the crandle of Armenian people, is called ‘Khubushkia’ which means “valley of usks” that is to say “valley of gold “. In medieval Armenian sources Khubushkia, “valley of usks” or ” golden valley” was renamed into ‘Hayots dzor’ which means “Armenian valley”. On the other hand, the Ushkiani mountains are mentioned in “Urartian” inscriptions on the northeastern coast of lake Urmia. In the time of Strabo, the Ushkiani mountains were already identified as ‘Armenian mountains’, but in Armenian sources they are known as ‘Voskean’ -“golden”.
All these facts allow us to conclude that for our ancestors the notions “gold-miner” and “Armenian” were synonymous, which is also evidenced by Basque legends.
In conclusion, there was a genetic study done in different regions of Armenia, that detected that the characteristic genetic code prevalent in Welsh, Basques and Irish, called the Atlantic Modal Haplotype, is also present in Armenian population of Syunik and Artsax. These are two Armenian provinces predominantly isolated in the mountains, which precluded genetic admixture with neighboring ethnic groups and nations». The Armenian modal haplotype is also the modal R1b3 haplotype.
For a proximate examination of European affiliations to Armenians, you may also refer to a study done by Michael E. Weale, Rolf F. Jager and Neil Bradman in 2001 called “Armenian Y chromosome haplotypes reveal strong regional structure within a single ethno-national group, revealing prevalent link between Welsh, Basques and Irish to the Armenian populace in Syunik and Karabakh. You may access this study by contacting:
Departments of Biology and Anthropology,
University College London, University of London,
Darwin Bdg, Gower St, London WC1E 6BT, UK
e-mail: m.weale@ucl.ac.uk,
Tel.: +44-207-4043040, Fax: +44-207-4042081
Another fact: Ireland is an Armenian term, which is derived from the word Eyre, meaning to burn, he burns and any other variation, and it was associated with the Celtic God Eyre. You can also see the similarities between Armenian and Celtic stone carvings, which no other similarity is present anywhere else in the world. Also, is not a coincidence that the word Spain, is a Basque-derivative term of Espanna.
Anyone claiming these are coincidental suppositions are more claims of an inferiority complex rather than strict examinations of their unlikely coincidences and due to mere probabilistic terms, a coincidence is astronomically unlikely. Remember what Robert Ellis, a British scholar once declared, “Armenian conquests of Europe were during pre-historic and pre-traditional times.” Think about it…
According to the papers published by Vahan Sargsyan and Vahan Setyan