The Greeks of Armenia are mainly descendants of the Pontic Greeks

Pontic Greeks

The Pontians are an ethnic group traditionally living in the Pontus region, the shores of Turkey's Black Sea...

, who originally lived along the shores of the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

. Seafaring Ionian Greeks

Ionians

The Ionians were one of the four major tribes into which the Classical Greeks considered the population of Hellenes to have been divided...

 settled around the southern shores of the Black Sea starting around 800 BC later expanding to coastal regions of modern Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

 and Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. The Pontic Greeks lived for thousands of years almost isolated from the Greek peninsula, retaining elements of the Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 language and making Pontic Greek unintelligible to most other modern Hellenic languages

Hellenic languages

Hellenic, as a technical term in historical linguistics, is the branch of the Indo-European language family that includes Greek . According to most traditional classifications, Hellenic contains only Greek as a single language alone in its branch, and is as such co-extensive with "Greek"...

.

Modern

Several villages with large proportion of Greek Armenians are found in areas along Armenia's northern border with Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

, in the northern part of the Lori marz (province). The largest communities can be found in Alaverdi

Alaverdi

Alaverdi formerly Manes, is a city situated in the northeast of the Armenian province of Lori, not far from the border with Georgia. This mining and industrial city with approximately 16,500 inhabitants -down from 26,300 of the 1989- situated at the bottom of the Debed river gorge, is one of the...

 and Yerevan

Yerevan

Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...

, followed by Vanadzor

Vanadzor

-Industry:Vanadzor is dominated by large chemical plants which include: "Prometey-Khimprom", "Vanadzor Chemical Plant", "Vanadzor Khimprom" and "Vanadzor Chemical Fiber Plant". Another big enterprise is the "Vanadzor Thermal Power Plant....

, Gyumri

Gyumri

Gyumri is the capital and largest city of the Shirak Province in northwest Armenia. It is located about 120 km from the capital Yerevan, and, with a population of 168,918 , is the second-largest city in Armenia.The name of the city has been changed many times in history...

, Stepanavan

Stepanavan

Stepanavan is the second largest city in Lori Province of Armenia. The town is located 139 km north of the capital Yerevan and 24 km north of the provincial centre Vanadzor, in the centre of Yerevan-Tbilisi highway....

, Hankavan

Hankavan

Hankavan is a town in the Kotayk Province of Armenia along in the Marmarik River below the Pambak Mountain Range. It is noted for its mineral springs, which were used as part of a sanitarium industry during the Soviet period.-Demographics:...

 and Noyemberyan

Noyemberyan

Noyemberyan is a city in northeast of Armenia in the Tavush province. It is located on the river Koghb, 187 km from Yerevan and in 22 km from railway station Ayrum, on the Yerevan-Tbilisi route...

. Greeks in Armenia number around 1,800 to over 4,000 with staggered emigration to other former Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 republics and Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 for economic reasons. Greeks and Armenians often live together in mixed communities north of the Armenian border in Georgia.