A very interesting series of articles by Joseph Lazaridis and David Reich, major authors of ancient genetics, has been published in the journal Science. The series of articles was titled “Genetic History of the Southern Arc, a Bridge Between Western Asia and Europe”. In the series of articles, Reich and Lazaridis came to the conclusion that the language pre -Indo-European must not have originated on the steppe, as previously thought, but somewhere in the Armenian highlands.
This series of studies led Turkish scientists to publish studies on Urartian (Araratian) DNA from Van (Tushpai).
Western Armenian television has repeatedly stated that the DNA of Van, the center of the Urartu (Ararat) kingdom, perfectly matches that of Armenians. However, despite numerous excavations of Urartian remains, Turkish authorities are reluctant to disclose genetic data. However, after this “noise”, they finally did it. They prepared five research papers on the Urartian period. The results are more impressive than we could have expected.
It is clear from the studies that the Van Urartians do not differ from modern Armenians.
As you can see from the PCA chart above of various Middle Eastern populations, the ancient Urartians of Van are indistinguishable from modern Armenians.
We can also confirm these results using the G25 Vahaduo genetic calculator, where we can see the genetic distance of different groups from each other. The lower the number, the closer they are genetically.
As you can see, of all the populations, Van’s Urartian DNA is closest to the modern Armenian population. They are literally indistinguishable. In particular, the Armenians of Urfa, Karin and Caesarea (former name of Little Hayk, Mazhak) are very close to the Middle Urartians of Van.
It should also be noted that modern Armenians are closest to the ancient population of the Urartians of Van. All this constitutes undeniable proof that as far as the genetic argument is concerned, there should be so far no doubt that the Urartians were just Iron Age Armenians and nothing other.