Վարդան Մատթէոսեան2025-10-292025-10-292002Մատթէոսեան, Վ., «Ուրուկուայի հայ համայնքը (սկիզբէն մինչեւ 1950)», «Հայկազեան հայագիտական հանդէս», 2002, Պէյրութ, էջ 137-160https://haigrepository.haigazian.edu.lb/handle/123456789/877The Armenian community of Uruguay has been little studied. With the exception of Ashot Artzruni’s yearbook devoted to the Armenians of South America (1943, in Armenian) and the pioneering, scholarly book of Alberto Douredjian and Daniel Karamanoukian (vol. I, 1993, in Spanish), research on the subject is still lacking. The author has brought together a collection of hitherto untapped primary and secondary sources in this article to give an overall picture of the history of the community until 1950. Although some Armenian names were recorded in the early 1900s century, the first references to the arrival of immigrants in this South American country are from the second half of that century. Attempts at organization are recorded in 1890 and the 1910s. The big migratory wave from 1923–1931 gave the community its definitive shape and the momentum for its institutional organization. In this period the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Diocesan Council, political parties, compatriotic unions, schools, and other organizations were formed. The consolidation of institutions continued in the mid-thirties, although the community underwent a serious split in the Apostolic Church (1935–1939), which, however, was overcome through the intervention of the newly-appointed Patriarchal Legate for the Armenians of South America, Abp. Karekin Khatchadourian. It was also in the 1930s that two radio hours, “Armenia” and “Gomidas,” were founded (1935); they are the oldest radio programs in the Diaspora to this day. By 1946 the community of 6,000–7,000 had already reached economic and social integration in the Uruguayan society.