Taking into account their unusual last name, many have been intrigued to know the ancestry of the Kardashian family.
The Kardashians are of Armenian heritage. Father to the Kardashian children, Robert Kardashian, is third generation Armenian-American after his ancestors fled the country at the beginning of the 19th century.
Read more below about the Kardashian family’s heritage and the tragedy in Armenia that caused mass migration to America.
Migration To America From Armenia
Armenia is a landlocked country in Western Asia and is known for being one of the oldest wine producing countries in the world. Over the last century, many Armenians have fled the country because of violence and conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, whilst others have migrated to Europe and North America.
Mass migration from Armenia to America began in the 1890s. During this time Turkish nationalism led to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Christian Turkish Armenians. Between 1894 and 1895 an estimated 300,000 Armenians died due to religious-based disputes and during the First World War government-orchestrated genocide killed over a million. All in all, the violence left over 1.5 million dead.
Today, the memory of the events and the scars that they left behind are a constant presence in Armenia. Many memorial ceremonies and condolences for the centenary occurred throughout 2015 to 2020, as many, like every year, remembered the tragedy that took place.
Robert Kardashian’s Heritage
Father to all three, Robert Kardashian is third generation Armenian-American.
The, then Kardaschoffs (the Russian version of Kardashian), were fortunate enough to have escaped the American slaughter after Robert’s great grandfather, Hovhannes Miroyan, born in 1844, his wife Luciag Chorbajian, born in 1853, and their daughter Vartanoosh Mironyan, born in 1886, fled the country after supposedly being warned away by a prophet. The couple were both married in Erzurum, which is now in Turkey, and lived in Karakale village.
According to the Mail Online, a prophet warned the family that Armenia was headed for ‘terrible times’ and that war was coming. This led to them leaving their home village and boarding a boat to America in the early 20th century, not long to when the troubles began.
Vartanoosh then had a daughter, Haigoohi Arakelian, who was born in America in 1917, the same year that the Bolshevik Revolution rocked the Russian Empire, and finally, in 1944 Haigoohi would gave birth to the father of the Kardashian’s, Robert Kardashian. Robert, known for his role in O.J. Simpson’s 1995 murder trial, married Kris Jenner in 1978 and the couple had four children together.
The Kardashian siblings include Kourtney Kardashian, born 1979, Kim Kardashian, born 1980, Khloé Kardashian, born 1984, and Rob Kardashian, born 1987.
A Hundred Years On
The Kardashian’s are proud of their heritage and still suffer from the country’s losses. In 2015, a century on from when the WW1 genocide began, Kim, Khloé and two of Kim’s cousins took a trip to Armenia together to discover more about their ancestry and to pay their respects.
As well as this, on April 24 2019, the international Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, Kim Kardashian posted a picture of a purple forget me not flower on Twitter, along with the comment, “we made a promise we would never forget the Armenian genocide”. The day marked one hundred years since the first Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day and is a day that affects many Americans, and people all over the globe.
See more from Kim’s Twitter account below.
So, whilst mother Kris Jenner is of Dutch, English, Irish, German and Scottish descent, and her other children, Kendall Jenner, born 1995 and Kylie Jenner, born 1997, are not of Armenian descent, Kourtney, Kim, Khloé and Rob are all fathered by Robert Kardashian, who has his roots in Armenia, making the Kardashians of Armenian descent.
Take a look at GLAMOUR’s full explanation of the Kardashian-Jenner family tree below.https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/gallery/kardashian-family-tree