Armenians in Western Europe[]
The next mass emigration was that from Cilician Armenia, three centuries after the fall of Ani. Immensely outnumbered by aggressor forces — Memlouk, Turk, Turkoman, Kurd and others — the Armenians left behind what had become for them a second national home between the Taurus, the Amanus and the blue waters of the Mediterranean, with dwellings, castles, cities and villages, slowly created and become dear to them through the centuries. They sailed westward, seeking refuge in various harbors; in Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete, Smyrna and Constantinople, still under Byzantine rule. Many families went further still, to Venice, Leghorn, Rome, Milan, Naples, Genoa, Pisa and Marseille. Thirty-six Armenian hostelleries, with adjoining chapels, are known to exist in Italy. One of the streets of Marseille still bears the name "Rue des Arméniens."