Hyeroums (or Airums) are an Azeri-speaking nomadic tribe engaged in seasonal migrations between plains and mountains of northern Artsakh. Their ethno-name derives from words “Hye” (meaning “Armenian” in Armenian) and “Roum” (meaning “Greek” in Old Armenian). Once the inhabitants of the Armenian principality of Gardman-Parisos (today’s northwestern part of Azerbaijan i.e. northern Artsakh), Hyeroums were re-converted from the Armenian into the Chalcedonian ("Greek") version of Orthodox Christianity by the rival Byzantine missionaries in the Middle Ages; hence, their current name as Hyeroums. Thus, alienated from the Armenian Church — pillar of identity of medieval Armenians — they later gradually assimilated with the Turkic nomads, when the latter arrived to the Caucasus from the Central Asia. The example of Hyeroums is not unique in Armenian history. In similar fashion, many Armenians living in the province of Taik (now in Turkey) and in Georgia's districts of Meskheti and Javakheti were assimilated into Turkic culture some ages after they had been converted into Greek Orthodoxy, becoming “Turks” and “Meskhetian Turks,” respectively. It is believed, that in a larger sense, a great majority of people who today call themselves "Azeris" or "Azerbaijanis" originated from Armenians who — like Bosnian Muslims or Meskhetian Turks — converted into Islam after the Arabic conquest of the Greater Armenia's province of Paitakaran (southeastern part of contemporary Republic of Azerbaijan). They continued speaking Armenian until the 11th century; however, influenced by the Seljuk Turk migrants from the Central Asia, became Turkophone, altogether losing an explicit cultural connection to their Armenian Christian ancestors. The mentioned facts allowed some historians to speculate that the Karabakh conflict may well be endowed with what they vaguely referred to as "fratricidal overtones."