What are some other ethnicities you've mistaken for Armenian?

[cmariee]

For instance, I am Portuguese-American (with a strong interest in Armenian culture hence my registration on this site) and people have mistaken me for Armenian before, at least when traveling to parts of the United States with large diaspora populations.

Some people also say Italians, Greeks, and Lebanese people have some physical similarities.
So I'll pass this question onto you guys and I made a poll.

[HyeFighter2]

Re: What are some other ethnicities you've mistaken for Armenian?

hehe your welocme, and nice that you interesed of Armenia, iam interesed of portuguese-spain lenguage, tell me somethink about, for my ears they are same

[cmariee]

Re: What are some other ethnicities you've mistaken for Armenian?

Spain and Portugal are similar culturally in many ways but you also have to take into consideration the linguistic and cultural differences within Spain itself.. Galician is linguistically closer to Portuguese than to Castilian Spanish and coastal eastern Spain is very similar to parts of southern France. Portuguese islands like the Azores also have Flemish influence from the 1500s and 1600s.

[cmariee]

Re: What are some other ethnicities you've mistaken for Armenian?

Anyone else have an opinion?

[jgk3]

Re: What are some other ethnicities you've mistaken for Armenian?

Of people I've meet: Iranians, Lebanese/Syrians, Georgians. This to me is interesting because genetically, we are not necessarily significantly closer to them than to other ethnic groups in the area.

[Federate]

Re: What are some other ethnicities you've mistaken for Armenian?

Greek mostly followed by Iranians.

[cmariee]

Re: What are some other ethnicities you've mistaken for Armenian?

I sometimes mistake Lebanese for Armenian, but I never mistake Lebanese and Georgian.

I also mistake Armenian-Greek but never Lebanese-Greek.

[LadyLazarus]

Re: What are some other ethnicities you've mistaken for Armenian?

Some Italians.. Some Greeks.... Very rarely Iranians. However, once I look into that person's eyes I can usually tell with a ridiculous amount of certainty whether he/she is Armenian or not with a rather high degree of accuracy. I think there's a lot of truth to the lore about "Armenian eyes"--they're unmistakable.

On another note... why not mention the Turks? Outwardly, some of them look a lot like Armenians--at least until you look into their eyes. Let me share a story... Just recently, on a flight to NY, we were observing a young woman with kids whom most everyone in my party took to be Armenian. I insisted she wasn't Armenian, but Turkish (we couldn't hear them at all). I think she decided I looked friendly enough and struck up a conversation with me later--she turned out to be Turkish.

[cmariee]

Re: What are some other ethnicities you've mistaken for Armenian?

Some Italians.. Some Greeks.... Very rarely Iranians. However, once I look into that person's eyes I can usually tell with a ridiculous amount of certainty whether he/she is Armenian or not with a rather high degree of accuracy. I think there's a lot of truth to the lore about "Armenian eyes"--they're unmistakable.

On another note... why not mention the Turks? Outwardly, some of them look a lot like Armenians--at least until you look into their eyes. Let me share a story... Just recently, on a flight to NY, we were observing a young woman with kids whom most everyone in my party took to be Armenian. I insisted she wasn't Armenian, but Turkish (we couldn't hear them at all). I think she decided I looked friendly enough and struck up a conversation with me later--she turned out to be Turkish.

Do you know which parts of Italy and Greece the people have been from that you took for Armenian?

I figured Turkish and Georgian would both be obvious ones so I didn't bother including them because for some people they go without saying.. interestingly though I have met a lot of Turkish people and people from western Turkey on the Aegean look quite European, like a Greek or Bulgarian, while eastern Turks look more Armenian.

[bell-the-cat]

Re: What are some other ethnicities you've mistaken for Armenian?

I suppose an Armenian might be mistaken for a Romanian if he/she is a prostitute or professional beggar, or might be mistaken for a Russian, Ukrainian, or Belarusian if he is a criminal or rapist, or a Greek if he doesn't pay any taxes ever and boasts endlessly about it, or an Iranian if he has bad taste in everything (music, clothes, furnishings, etc.), or a Frenchman if he can't speak English and never lets anyone sit in the front passenger seat of his car, or a fundamentalist Afghan if he is Kanadahye.