my armenia essay

Not all of our memories give us the feeling that they have to do with our past. Some seem to come up from a chasm that is deeper and vaster than our past; they seem to come from before we were born. But this isn’t so strange. These memories that seem so difficult to locate come from that period of our early childhood when ideas and concepts haven’t as yet achieved the scope and coherence they one day will have, when they will give us at once a world and an idea of ourselves. During the period I’m thinking of, we are as yet outside of what one day we will be able to recognize and identify as our individual lives. We perceive things, people, events; we are struck by them, but without being able to analyze them with the tools of the adult; they are simply there before us, silent, without a before or after and without any relation to the reality around us: they are pure presences, though each is closed upon itself and full of enigma. And this is why today if we remember them, it is as though they are both outside the past and a part of our beginnings.

I’m thinking of an image that sometimes suddenly surges up in me from that kind of memory that dwells beneath the more usual one: between two windowless walls of naked stone, and covered with tall wild grass, there is a deep and narrow courtyard beneath what seems to be a summer sky. The place is empty, abandoned. It is like a memory, and perhaps it has some connection to my real life at some fleeting moment of years long past, but I know that I will never recover its path. It is as though it existed outside the world.

But we also have memories that we can place with precision as well as with certainty, except that, strangely enough, they too have no possible place in our past and are therefore related to that kind of absolute elsewhere I am talking about.

It was just this kind of memory that suddenly took hold of me when I first discovered the churches of Armenia in photographs taken at the end of the 1940s, but with the conviction that I had long before seen their facades, their apses, and their huge, uneven, sometimes sculpted stones, and the horizon beyond, not just in these images, but in my real life, at a moment I had completely forgotten until that very instant.

I saw these photographs in historical treatises on the first centuries of Eastern Christian architecture, books that had appeared in English, German, and French at the beginning of the twentieth century. And it’s easy to know why I was so captivated by these evocations. In the first place, these are extremely beautiful buildings that bring real satisfaction to the mind. Their proportions are so simple and harmonious that one cannot but be aware of the asceticism of the masters who conceived them, an asceticism that governed both their thinking and their lives. The lesson of stone, the eternity scattered on the mountain slopes or bathed in the fresh water of the ravines, this lesson has been heard and transmuted into form.

But it wasn’t this beauty that struck me most at the moment of discovery; it was rather the feeling of déjà vu , of something I had known before. And since some of my books are now appearing in Armenian translation, it seems appropriate to reflect upon this kind of illusory reminiscence that for a very long while troubled my relation to so many things and may still affect me.

The most general reason for this pseudo-memory, for that hand I suddenly felt on my shoulder, I think I now understand as well. Those illustrations in the books from the beginning of the twentieth century weren’t in color, as would be the case a few decades later when there would also be a great deal of commentary on the various aspects of the places and things in question, so that viewers can enter into the images without needing to dissociate themselves from their own lives, or from the ways of thinking and feeling that their lives inspire.

No, the reproductions in my books were in black and white, with very few details, and even, given the mediocrity and age of the paper, something grayish in the light. You can enter these images only by breaking with the place you are living in and the person you are on a daily basis. And so you are at a level where, in the suspension of ordinary preoccupations, it is easier and perhaps even necessary to ask questions that are fundamental, the ones that have to do with our being in the world. The black and white makes us think about the meaning one should assign to life, and wonder if one is simple nothingness or if one can pretend to being. Black and white creates a cosa mentale , an experience in which aspirations of a metaphysical nature begin to take shape.

This characteristic of the illustrations in these old books means that one can see them in a way that connects them to the “absolute” memories I mentioned a moment ago, the ones that come from before our conceptual networks gave us a world and allowed us to construct a past. But it also explains why they can create the illusion of a previous life. Because, to say it briefly, the status of the object in these black and white photographs is about being and not about things; we are called upon to see in what is evoked in these pictures not things to make use of, as we would in our normal adult life, but being, the presence of being, as during those moments of childhood that have remained in our minds. We are drawn to the same sort of experience as the one that haunts those memories of pseudo-childhood, and we find ourselves in the same kind of “background of memory” that gives us the sense of something lived outside our lives and yet within them as well.

In short, I had the feeling that I had already been to those churches in the mountains, because the black and white created a continuity with the unlocatable place of certain memories that come from les années profondes , the deep years: with that “before us” that such a feeling causes us to recognize in ourselves. And why did the images of Armenia, and not so many others I saw at around the same time, give me this impression? Because the beauty of the architecture was already a visible manifestation of that unity, of that absolute I had felt in the epiphanies from before.

Now, I don’t pretend to have correctly or adequately analyzed this experience of déjà vu , of something already lived. But precisely because the analysis that might dissipate the illusion is difficult, the illusion maintains its force, and I have to admit that for many years I have lived under its spell. After seeing the photographs, did I really think that I had lived “over there” at some different time? Of course not. But I did begin to wonder if our perception of the world, which is limited today by so much abstraction in the way we look at things, isn’t perhaps, for this very reason, false and blind to certain obvious things that could be beneficial to us. Perhaps another way of looking at the world has created a truer experience somewhere other than here where we are. This is the dream of a kind of hidden world that once existed and may have continued to exist on the margins of our present societies, and where what is most human in us once lived in its original lucidity, which today is obscured and even forgotten, except at those moments of sudden recovery when one rediscovers it in the depths of our perceptions, when by chance some aspect of this “absolute elsewhere,” this “back country,” is placed before our eyes. I described this phenomenon a long time ago in a little book of mine called L’Arrière-pays ( The Hinterland ). I won’t go back into it here. But it allows me to return to what I would like to better understand, that is, my relation to Armenia, and the feeling I always have when I think of this land so far from France.

I have to say that this sort of dreaming is dangerous. It does have a kind of essential truth in that it preserves the memory of a reality that is one, indivisible, and that exists beyond the grasp of conceptual thought—an immediacy I need to know how to recognize, since it is what we meet with, in this case almost directly, in those feelings of affection we experience most strongly and that motivate the important choices that determine our lives. When we truly love, our attachment goes toward beings that are rich in their own being, not toward the representations that analytical thinking substitutes for them. The memories we cannot situate are thus an allusive designation of what we still are today without fully realizing it: beings who live in a specific place, and for only a moment.

In order to lead our adult lives in a serious way, we have to recognize these “illusions” for what they are and turn their nebulous “elsewhere” into the key to a return to here, even if they are made up of dreams about some other place or time outside our own existence. It is easy, as I’ve just shown by example, to live them through what is distant and mysterious about them, and to create from them the kind of dreams that allow us to escape, if only for a moment, from the task of incarnation. To dream that one lived as a child on Armenian soil is perhaps first of all to dream of becoming a child once more, before the task of incarnation becomes an obligation.

And it’s here that I come back to my “memories” of Armenia, and to the photographs in general, the old photographs. How easy it is to dream through images of this kind, to imagine civilizations we know almost nothing about to be places where the mind and spirit are not subject, as we are here, to irremediable constraints! And to get the better of these delusions, how important it is to undertake a critical examination of the lure that is inherent in every image, and to commit oneself in particular to the work that needs to be done on every specific image that has had power over us, by finding beneath what it offers in a speciously schematic way the more complete and ordinary reality of that thing it is supposed to show us, as for instance in photography!

I have often been under the spell of images. But I have resisted this spell by acquiring, as much as I have been able, the kind of knowledge that art history or the history of civilizations and religions and myths allow us to deepen—in other words, that ensemble of precise knowledge that relocates the distant object in its continuity with every other object in a world without dual dimensions, and that has its center right where we are. I am not a historian, but rather someone concerned with poetry, which denounces dreams and, in the labyrinth into which metaphysical imagination can lead, seeks help from historical research.

It was with this objective in mind that I began the study of Italian art. The idea of a society with a clarity of mind we are incapable of also came to me through my rather imperfect knowledge of the villages and little cities of certain regions in Umbria or Tuscany that, in the middle of the last century when I was exploring them, were still rather difficult to get to. With the resources of an amateur, I set about to learn more about this art, one of the fundamental characteristics of which is that it was the first to yield, sometimes consciously, to snares of the same sort. By studying this art, one discovers artists who, however inflamed with dreams they are, teach us how to live where we are by bringing us into their experience, which is sometimes a deliverance, and an example of successful incarnation. I spent a great deal of time in the company of Piero della Francesca, Bellini, and Bernini. And in Poussin, who came to Italy with ideas, it seems to me, not unlike my own, I recognized a guide along the path toward an acceptance of finitude.

But Armenia! The Armenia of my memories of another life! On the edges of that call from the depths of Italy, and even a bit before, this more ancient Christian civilization was the origin of my idea of the “back country.” It was pictures of churches like those in T’alin, Achtarak, and Odzun, perched in their solitude, that riveted me to this dream, and it was thanks to them that this dream spread out to other regions of this part of the world. And so it was Armenian architecture more than any other art that I should have sought to integrate into ordinary reality, by studying it more seriously and by deepening and diversifying my knowledge of a culture and its artists.

But I never made this effort, and there are good reasons why not. Italian art was easy for me to study, because the books that dealt with it were for the most part in English, French, or Italian, and the Italian had the added advantage of giving me access to its poets, who helped me to enrich my understanding of the works of art in Tuscany, or the Marches, or Rome. From Italy, little by little the field of my interests was only to grow larger and extend to other parts of Europe, which made for more objects of study than I could handle. Armenia, on the other hand, didn’t come to me as Italy did, with words one knows the meanings of, and even their etymologies, which allows one to have some sense of the foundations of thoughts as well as works, and to gauge whether the motivations and intuitions at work in them are still the same for us. My approach to the kingdoms of Armenia was blocked by my ignorance of the language, which I knew I couldn’t even think of learning.

And yet I also know that an unknown language—one draped furthermore in an impenetrable alphabet—can easily rekindle the dream of a transcendental elsewhere, the place, far off, where signs and the absolute fuse. I’m even ready to believe that if I never really tried to study Armenian civilization seriously, it is because some part of me refuses to let go of a kind of dreaming that I have known ever since I began my wanderings in writing, and that may even perhaps be necessary. Poetry, to which I try to remain faithful, means surpassing, deconstructing, the always more or less illusory representations that burden poems but remain a necessary first step in poetic ambition, which can attach itself, as is only natural, to what it will eventually have to combat.

Armenia still troubles me. I realize that she is simply—if I can put it this way—one of the great civilizations of the real world, a place I could go to and meet real people and discuss with them the same problems that exist everywhere else in the world. But I cannot prevent myself from keeping a halo around what I know of her, as if she were the figure of a saint in an icon.

And now I’m being translated into Armenian! My writing, some of the aspects of which Armenia played a role in determining, will be tested by a language that cannot make my dreams its own, unless it can find in them connections to other dreams of a similar sort. A good reason to imagine, therefore, that I cannot be well translated except by someone who is capable, intuitively, of this kind of imagining that is encouraged, then restrained, along the paths of poetry, which can never be followed to their ends. But this intuitive quality is just what makes for the richness of Chouchanik Thamrazian. I will never be able to read in Armenian the translation she has so generously and courageously done of one of my books, but I have confidence in it because I know from firsthand experience that this young writer is a true poet. I found proof through our meetings and letters that her attention is focused on what is—on what is written, and on what is searching within her. That fundamental impatience that sets poetry against so many counterfeit forms of feeling and sensibility is central to her way of looking at things and is at the heart of her magnificent rigor. Her affection both for her own country and for France is obviously operative in all those places between illusion and reality that poetry has an obligation to explore. I thank my translator! Thanks for allowing me to establish with Armenia, which is dear to me, as she is to so many others in France, a relationship that this time is fully real.

I have never been a child on the banks of Lake Van, as someone in me has never stopped telling me I was. I will never be able to visit those churches I saw and continue to see in photographs, though I am convinced they belong at the highest point of artistic possibility. And yet thanks to this translation I can be with you at least a little bit, friends of poetry on Armenian soil.

Yves Bonnefoy (1923–2016) is often acclaimed as one of France’s greatest poets. He published ten major collections of verse, several books of tales, and numerous studies of literature and art, and was a celebrated translator of Shakespeare, Yeats, Keats, and Leopardi. His work has been translated into scores of languages, and he earned many honors, including the European Prize for Poetry (2006) and the Kafka Prize (2007). He succeeded Roland Barthes in the Chair of Comparative Poetics at the Collège de France.

Armenia’s existential moment

• December 5, 2023

Thomas de Waal

• Themes: Geopolitics

Armenia is facing its most precarious moment in three decades. The loss of Karabakh, a region with a centuries-old history of Armenian habitation and heritage, will reverberate for generations.

Many people in the West are looking out on the global landscape with a grim sensation that the international order has broken down, conflicts are flaring up unchecked and we have arrived in a multi-polar world of a brutal kind.

In the South Caucasus many would say that this is the world they live in already. When the Soviet Union came to an end in 1992, a post-Cold War peace never properly arrived in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The region was torn apart by three ethno-territorial conflicts. In 2020 the biggest dispute of the three, the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorny Karabakh , resumed after a 26-year pause, with Azerbaijan winning a military victory.

On 19 September Azerbaijan launched a new lightning operation to seize the Armenian-run region of Nagorny Karabakh, which it last administered in the late Soviet era. The entire Armenian population — more than 100,000 people — fled their homes. On 15 October, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, delivered a victory speech, dressed in camouflage fatigues, in an empty city, Karabakh’s local capital, Stepanakert, renamed Khankendi by Azerbaijan. ‘Today, all the people of Azerbaijan are genuinely rejoicing. All the people of Azerbaijan are praising Allah,’ said Aliyev , belying by omission the prospect that Karabakh Christian Armenians could be citizens of Azerbaijan.

Aliyev’s speech was one of personal redemption, made on the 20 th anniversary of his first inauguration as president in 2003. The whole visit to the deserted city was a one-man show, with the president filmed alone, walking around the empty office of the Karabakh Armenian administration and, like a triumphant Roman victor, trampling over their flag.

The symbolism was all about national rebirth and revanchism. Aliyev’s speech was made in the same square in which Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan had told crowds in August 2019, ‘Artsakh [the Armenian name for Nagorny Karabakh] is Armenia, full stop.’ Aliyev’s main reference point was to 1994, the year when Azerbaijan suffered a bitter defeat in the first Karabakh war of the 1990s, the culmination of many rounds of ethnic cleansing and mass displacement by both Armenians and Azerbaijanis, in which Azerbaijan ultimately paid the heaviest price. Years of humiliation, both personal and national, were being expunged.

The Azerbaijani leader was actually reaching further back, to the 1920s. Having once promised the Karabakh Armenians high levels of territorial autonomy, he has now declared ‘Nagorny (Mountainous) Karabakh’ abolished as both a name and as an Armenian-led autonomous region. He has thereby cancelled an arrangement first created by the Bolsheviks in 1921, and declared it an act of sabotage against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is busy rewriting a whole century-old script.

The years 1917-21 were the formative era for the South Caucasus, in which the modern political contours of the region were first drawn, and it was a theatre of inter-ethnic and proxy conflict. Much of what happened then – and seemed to be settled – is being revisited again.

The lessons of that era are set out in the classic history The Struggle for Transcaucasia , written by Firuz Kazemzadeh and published in 1951. His story begins in 1917, at a moment that rhymes with the present: Russian power collapsed in the Caucasus along with the end of the tsarist empire, allowing Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Georgians to declare independence. It ends in 1920-1 with a turn of events which is much less likely: a Russian reconquest at the hands of the Bolshevik 11 th Army, which overturned the newly independent republics of Azerbaijan, then Armenia and finally Georgia in less than a year.

The story in between is of almost uninterrupted conflict across the entire region. Feckless local leaders won pieces of territory but weakened their new national projects in the process. The Bolsheviks’ eventual appeal to the population, such as it was, was as a strongman arbiter, who pacified the region and ended these fratricidal conflicts.

The Western powers promised more than they delivered. The European powers recognised the independence of the three Caucasus states only when it was too late. The British made empty reassurances that border disputes would be settled at the Paris Peace Conference, only to pull out of the region in 1921 with a few statements of regret. ‘British policy toward the new states lacked consistency, and was determined by the exigencies of the moment rather than any long-term plans,’ writes Kazemzadeh.

It is also a tale of collusion between the two former imperial powers in the region,Russia and Turkey, who both dared to put troops on the ground. Mustafa Kemal’s nascent Turkish Republic helped facilitate the Bolshevik takeover. Kemal’s actions sold out the young Turkic kin-state of Azerbaijan, fatally weakened Armenia and adopted ‘benevolent neutrality’, which allowed the Red Army to capture independent Georgia. In return, Turkey got to sign an agreement with Russia, the Treaty of Kars, in October 1921, which allowed it to keep the territorial conquests it had taken from Armenia.

Aliyev’s military operation in September in Karabakh was something right out of The Struggle for Transcaucasia . He seized the moment to achieve something Azerbaijan had tried and failed to do in 1918-20 and 1991-2: drive out the Armenians and make Karabakh a fully Azerbaijani territory.

The calculation was that Russia and Turkey are still the key outside powers and you get things done by cutting deals with them. Despite their overt rivalry, Russia and Turkey have shared interests in the South Caucasus. Seçkin Köstem (before the latest developments) called the relationship one of ‘ managed regional rivalry ’. As Vladimir Lenin and Mustafa Kemal before them, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan disagree on much, but both feel a resentment towards Western hegemony, which positions them as what Fiona Hill and Omer Taspinar have called the ‘ axis of the excluded ’.

The war in Ukraine has strengthened Turkey’s bargaining power. Turkey is playing different sides, giving military support to Kyiv,  throwing an economic lifeline to Moscow and making its case as the indispensable East-West hub. For its part, Russia is weakened by its war to the point where it decided to abandon its traditional role as the main arbiter of the Karabakh conflict as leverage over Armenia and Azerbaijan. In September 2023, for the first time in its post-Soviet history, it stood down the peacekeeping force it had sent to Karabakh in 2020, and allowed the Azerbaijani military to attack, unimpeded. Those who celebrate this as a defeat for Russia in the Caucasus are probably getting ahead of themselves. Laurence Broers calls Moscow’s pivot to Azerbaijan and abandonment of Karabakh and Armenia ‘managed decline’, in which it is redefining its goals in the region in order to stay in the game.

Azerbaijan’s bet was also that, as in 1920, the West is a paper tiger, when the soldiers start marching. Since the end of 2021 Azerbaijan and Armenia have been engaged in a diplomatic process, led first by the European Union and then jointly by Brussels and Washington, to finalise a ‘peace agreement,’ a bilateral treaty normalising their relations, demarcating the border and opening closed road and rail routes. A lot of progress was made, but the future of Armenian-populated Karabakh inevitably hung over the whole process. The Armenian government recognised that Karabakh would be part of Azerbaijan so long as the ‘rights and security’ of its Armenian residents would be respected. As Azerbaijan tightened its grip on the enclave, the European and US mediators, urged restraint and tried to facilitate direct talks between the Karabakh Armenian leaders and Baku.

We will probably never know how serious Aliyev was about this Western diplomatic track, or whether he was just keeping his options open until he was able to cut a better deal with the Russians. In any case, he launched his blitzkrieg in September, after reportedly making many reassurances to senior Western officials, such as EU Council President Charles Michel that he would not resort to force. (The Azerbaijanis arrested six of the local Armenians leaders they were supposed to be talking to. They are now in jail in Baku.)

Negotiations over a ‘peace agreement’ between Baku and Yerevan continue even though the Western-mediated process has not yet resumed. The Azerbaijanis pulled out of scheduled talks in Washington, alleging that the US is biased against them. Azerbaijan says there should just be a bilateral agreement without outside mediators; the Armenians say they are not against this but, in circumstances where they are much weaker, they want international guarantees on its implementation.

The cooling towards the West is also about the contrast between Armenia’s (imperfect) democracy, now turning West for support, and Azerbaijan’s Russia-style single-party autocracy. Aliyev’s regime is becoming even more repressive . It has arrested several dissident voices and journalists, and accused the US embassy of recruiting American-educated Azerbaijanis as spies.

In a vacuum that opens up if Western diplomacy stalls, several candidates are keen to step in. Iran, the third big regional neighbour, is trying to assert a role it has lacked in the South Caucasus since the end of the Soviet Union. The Iranians are talking up a so-called ‘3+3 format’, a mechanism devised by the three big neighbours to discuss the future of the region.

In substance, 3 + 3 is more accurately a 3 + 2. Georgia refuses to participate in a format that includes Russia. Armenia is very lukewarm, leaving Azerbaijan as the only one of the regional three to express any enthusiasm, talking of ‘regional solutions to regional problems’.

On 23 October, the Iranians hosted a meeting of five foreign ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Turkey in Tehran. The shared agenda was explicit. The format was supposed to supersede now-moribund engagement by multilateral organisations, such as the OSCE and UN and in particular by the West. Iranian Foreign Minister Hosein Amir Abdolahian said , ‘The presence of outsiders in the region will not only not solve any problems but will also complicate the situation further.’ Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed Russia’s special role and disparaged Western mediation efforts. ‘ Let them try their luck ,’ was his summation of European Union diplomacy on demarcation of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. The most authoritative maps of the border were Soviet-era ones, he said, in the hands of the Russians.

How far can we push the 1920s analogy? It has some limits.

For one thing the European Union is now present in the South Caucasus, if not as a strongman, as a regional power that offers ordinary citizens much that neither Iran, Russia or Turkey can: a path to democracy and potential economic integration, investment in technology and infrastructure and visa-free travel. On 8 November – the same day as Azerbaijan’s militarist parade in Karabakh – the European Commission recommended that, with many conditions attached – Georgia should have EU candidate status and a path to accession. The way forward for Georgia under the increasingly illiberal Georgian Dream government is very uncertain but the EU is an absolutely key player there.

Thankfully, also, no one is challenging the independence of the three Caucasus nation-states – or not directly. After what it has done in Ukraine, Russia is capable of anything, but Russia’s failures in Ukraine have weakened it to the point that no one is anticipating a Bolshevik-style invasion of the South Caucasus any time soon.

The violent seizure of Nagorny Karabakh does, however, refocus attention on the two other protracted unresolved conflicts in the region, in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Like Karabakh, they fought ‘wars of the Soviet succession’ 30 years ago, with help from Russians, and de facto seceded from Georgia. Unlike Nagorny Karabakh, they were recognised as independent by Russia in 2008, which has effectively made them (whether they like it or not) into Russian protectorates.

The way the Karabakh conflict ended sets a precedent for the unfreezing of these two conflicts in the future. The key variables here are what happens with Russia’s war in Ukraine and the international choices Georgia makes. If Russia is more successful in its aggression against Ukraine and Georgia turns more to the West, a full-scale Russian annexation of the two territories is conceivable. If Russia gets weaker, there is the possibility of a Georgian revanchist attempt to take them by force.

A a third scenario – one that Abkhaz and Ossetians fear – would have been unthinkable only a year ago but is worth considering. This is one of collusion between Moscow and Tbilisi in which, as in Karabakh, Russian forces stand aside and the Georgian military ‘liberates’ the two territories it last controlled in Soviet times. Russia would have to get something substantial in return, presumably Georgia renouncing its Euro-Atlantic ambitions and re-aligning with Russia.

Far-fetched? Yes, but parts of the Georgian public might go for it. In a survey commissioned by Carnegie Europe in 2020, Georgians were asked, ‘If you had to choose between regaining control over Abkhazia and South Ossetia or membership in NATO and the EU, which would you choose?’ A big majority, 78 per cent, chose regaining control over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and only 13 per cent preferred membership of NATO and the EU. Despite the country’s European aspirations, ethno-nationalism is still a potent force in Georgia that should not be discounted.

Armenia is the country that has most reason to be afraid and remember the 1920s. The country is facing its most precarious moment in three decades. The loss of Karabakh, a region with a centuries-old history of Armenian habitation and heritage, will reverberate for generations and is the biggest trauma for Armenians since the fall of Kars to the Turks in 1920.

Moscow’s failure to protect the Karabakh Armenians dramatically speeded up a process which was already underway: a breakdown in relations between Armenia and Russia, its supposed main ally and security patron. In recent months, the ties that held the two countries together have started to unravel.

Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan now publicly questions the utility of the Russian alliance. He has declared the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Russian-led security pact of which Armenia is a member, to be unfit for purpose. He is going against the international grain and declaring that he wants to enlist in the the Euro-Atlantic liberal order. Armenia has now acceded to the Rome Statute and joined the International Criminal Court (meaning that Vladimir Putin could technically be arrested if he sets foot on Armenian soil). Pashinyan sent his wife to a meeting in Kyiv and publicly met Ukrainian president, Volodomyr Zelensky, at a European summit in Spain.

The Russians have drawn their own conclusions, condemning Pashinyan as reckless and ungrateful. Armenia faces a difficult winter. It gets more than 80 per cent of its gas and 90 per cent of its wheat from Russia and still has thousands of Russian troops and border guards stationed on its territory. Russia will try to mobilise discontent from many constituencies who blame Pashinyan for having surrendered Karabakh to Azerbaijan. What insulates the prime minister and his government from popular anger – though not something more sudden and violent – is that Russia and its allies in Armenia are even more unpopular with the Armenian public than he is.

Russia’s South Caucasus pivot away from Armenia to Azerbaijan is part of a big structural re-invention of its foreign relations. Encircled by the West’s economic war against it, Russia is shifting its trade and energy policy from the west to the south and east. That makes Georgia more important to the Russian economy but Azerbaijan even more so. It is the only country in the South Caucasus to which Russia is connected by rail and a link to Russia’s big Middle Eastern ally, Iran, as well as Turkey, the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. Cargo freight volumes on Russia’s railway to Azerbaijan doubled and the land customs point started operating on a 24-hour basis in 2023.

This is where 21 st- century global trade meets regional power politics and the political geography drawn in haste by the Bolsheviks in 1921. In the early 20 th century three provinces with a mixed population were disputed by force between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Karabakh, which kept its mixed population throughout the 20 th century, was the only one whose status was still contested.

The other two provinces, Nakhchivan and Zangezur, also had mixed Armenian-Azerbaijani populations and were fought over in the early 20 th century. Fighting in 1918-20 brought Nakhchivan under Azerbaijani control while the Armenians took possession of Zangezur. In 1921 the Bolsheviks ratified these conquests. Nakhchivan was allocated to Soviet Azerbaijan but as an exclave, without a land border to the rest of Azerbaijan, while also receiving, thanks to Turkish intercessions, a 17-km border with Turkey. Zangezur, bordering Iran, was confirmed as part of Soviet Armenia, thus becoming a territory that bordered (or divided) Azerbaijani territory on two sides. By late Soviet times the two regions had become fully Azerbaijani and Armenian and effectively ‘ethnically cleansed’ of the other nationality.

In the Soviet Union there was at least free communication between all these regions, but from 1990, the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict closed borders and shut down roads and railway lines. Nakhchivan was isolated from the rest of Azerbaijan and southern Armenia lost its railway connections beyond its borders.

In November 2020 the Russian-mediated ceasefire statement that ended the ’44-Day’ Armenian-Azerbaijani war declared that all transport routes would be re-opened and named in particular the restoration of a road and rail link across southern Armenia (Syunik/ Zangezur) to Nakhchivan.

Restoring and rehabilitating these routes and turning them into international connections should have been a win-win. Instead, ‘connectivity’ fell hostage first to enduring Armenian-Azerbaijani rivalry, then to the new Great Power politics accompanying the Ukraine war.

At issue is a 43-km stretch of disused railway across Armenia that connects Nakhchivan with the rest of Azerbaijan. Armenia says it would be happy to see this route re-opened for Azerbaijani traffic so long as it retains sovereign control of the route, and as part of a bigger scheme it calls the ‘Crossroads of Peace’, in which all transport routes across Armenia are re-opened. Azerbaijan and Turkey focussed on the Nakhchivan route to the exclusion of all others and pressed for minimal Armenian control of traffic across it.

President Aliyev named the route the ‘Zangezur Corridor’ and linked it provocatively to Azerbaijanis’ former historic presence in the region. This rhetorical escalation continued with the creation of a so-called ‘West Azerbaijani’ community, who demanded the right of return to Armenia. In April 2021 Aliyev said , ‘We are implementing the Zangazur [sic] corridor, whether Armenia likes it or not. If they do, it will be easier for us to implement, if not, we will enforce it… Thus, the Azerbaijani people will return to Zangazur, which was taken away from us 101 years ago.’

Since the Ukraine war began this little stretch of railway has become the focus of two competing visions of international connectivity.

The war has revived Western interest in the so-called ‘Middle Corridor’ as an alternative East-West rail route for freight traffic between China and Turkey via Central Asia and the South Caucasus, bypassing Russia and its ‘Northern Route’ across Siberia. Freight volumes have already increased substantially (from a low base) and could be tripled by 2030 if trends continue.

The corridor already runs via Georgia but a new route across Armenia would be very attractive. Both Armenia and eastern Turkey would stand to benefit from it if it continued and crossed the (now closed) Armenia-Turkey border.

Western actors thus aspire to an old-fashioned liberal outcome, in which Armenia is de-isolated along with Nakhchivan and trade promotes peace, regional security and East-West connectivity. This is also the one area where the West, allied with major funding institutions such as the World Bank, has leverage. It can promise money and expertise to make it happen. Indeed in Brussels they already thought they had a deal: EU negotiators believed they had designed a compromise deal as early as last summer, which involved electronic checks, speedy transit and Western funding. But the documents they thought they had agreed in Brussels got queried in Moscow.

Russia views it differently. For Moscow the ‘Zangezur Corridor’ is part of its escape route to the south. The railway junction at Julfa in Nakhchivan was once the major crossing-point between the Soviet Union and Iran, but has stood idle for 30 years since the Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict began; revive it and Moscow and Tehran are linked by rail again. One Russian Caucasus commentator wrote in 2022, ‘As for the role of the Zangezur Corridor in the development of the North-South international transport artery, then it very much resembles the role of transit to Iran for the Soviet Union in the years of the Second World War.’

A corollary of this is that Russia wants to be the one to guard the route across southern Armenia. The November 2020 statement stipulates that it will be done by Russian FSB border-guards, a condition that Azerbaijan still insists on but Armenia rejects.

The worry in Western capitals is that Azerbaijan now aligns itself with the Russian agenda and will support a Russian security presence to the exclusion of Armenia. The regional plot thickens further with Turkey, which currently supports Azerbaijan’s view but is suspicious of Iran, and Iran which has its own even more complex agenda. The Iranian Supreme Leader has warned against a corridor that seals off its northern border with Armenia – and onward connections to the Black Sea and Russia. Yet Iran is also dead set against a Western-run corridor there as well.

So Zangezur is back and Great Power politics has suddenly made Armenia’s sleepy and sparsely population Syunik region a geopolitical location once again. In early 2023 the European Union deployed a civilian monitoring mission there, EUMA, after Azerbaijani incursions across the border. The little town of Kapan (population 40,000) now has the flags of Russia, the EU and Iran (which has opened a consulate there) fluttering through it.

Threatening statements by Azerbaijani officials, the ‘West Azerbaijan’ discourse and the shared Russian-Azerbaijani-Turkey interest in the ‘Zangezur Corridor’ have convinced Armenians – and not only them – that Azerbaijan’s next move will be to seize a land bridge in southern Armenia and impose its Zangezur Corridor by force. Talk to almost any ordinary Armenian nowadays and they will tell you that they expect that Azerbaijan, with the tacit support of Russia and Turkey,  will invade tomorrow. Azerbaijani officials play all this down, saying that they merely expect Armenia to do what is required and agree to the corridor.

Azerbaijan certainly knows what a risky step this would be. A big military operation to seize sovereign Armenian territory would be a huge escalation that would put Azerbaijan in Armenia in the same category of aggressor as Russia in Ukraine. Besides, it is hard to plan construction of a major international railway route on territory that you occupy by force. For those reasons, it is more likely that Azerbaijan will use all coercive tactics it can short of outright military intervention in order to get Armenia to agree to its plans. It is hard to blame the Armenians for being nervous. In the new-old world of South Caucasus contestation, more volatile than at any time in the last century, the wisest bet at the moment is to prepare for worst-case scenarios.

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For Better and for Worse: The Joy and Pain of Life in Armenia

Just as Armenia’s geography varies vastly with its sweeping mountains and valleys, the same can be said about the visceral range of emotions of living in this country. My first 2 months here have offered me the highest highs and the lowest lows that I can remember experiencing, which has dramatically altered the course of my life.

MY EARLY CONNECTION WITH ARMENIA

Having grown up and lived for 24 years in Montreal, Canada, I’ve always valued my connection with my Armenian identity through my love of our music, dance, food, traditions, and history. Nevertheless, my perceived concept of Armenia was often associated with ancient tales of kingdoms and empires, with the defining moment of our nation being the genocide that seemingly brought an end to our glorious history. It’s easy to get stuck in the past , which is exasperated by spending hours gazing at old maps of the larger Armenian homeland and longing for all that’s been lost.

The war in 2020 was a rude awakening for many Armenians worldwide, myself included. Up until that point, I had paid little attention to the developments taking place in the Republic of Armenia, a place far away that seemed to only exist idly in my head. Suddenly, I was made deeply aware that the universal history book of the Armenian people was not simply restricted to the past, and that a new significant chapter was being written .

ARRIVING IN ARMENIA

After graduating this year with a Bachelor’s in Aerospace Engineering, I arrived in Armenia as a Birthright  volunteer with the intention of no longer feeling disconnected with the modern-day Armenian state. I’m incredibly grateful for the amazing welcome that the Birthright Armenia staff and volunteers offered to me, which allowed me to create friendships with people from all around the world that I could never have met otherwise. During my first weeks of living here, there were a lot of foreign things to adjust to but somehow all of these novelties came with a sense of familiarity. Naturally, all aspects of Armenian culture that I’ve experienced in the diaspora are elevated to a whole other level here: music, dance, food, hospitality, historical sites, landscapes, and mountains. All of these contributed to my daily awe and wonder of this country, but the most powerful thing I experienced was the warmth of the people and the intimacy in common interactions .

I soon began my internship with  Sarvia Tech where I’ve been working on drafting technical drawings of mechanical assemblies. Meanwhile, I started reaching out to many people involved in the local aerospace industry in order to learn about any recent developments for my own personal interest and curiosity. I was thoroughly impressed with what has been achieved so far and the scale of several projects still in the works. This led me to receiving an email one day from someone I didn’t know about a potential offer for a full-time position in an Armenian aerospace company. It was a shock since the possibility of moving here permanently was something I could've only imagined happening further on in the future when I was "ready", but all of a sudden a realistic opportunity had presented itself. As I walked out of the interview on September 19, I was filled with excitement and my mind was racing about all the potential scenarios that this decision could lead to. My excitement ran out once I started seeing reports of some very troubling news.

ARTSAKH GENOCIDE

Mentally frozen, emotionally numb and depleted of energy sums up my state of mind for the first week after the start of the full invasion of Artsakh. It was impossible to focus on work or anything at all while my mind would constantly become distracted and keep my eyes glued to the news. It was an eerie feeling knowing that all this was happening just 200km away, and you were stuck with nothing you could do. As soon as people started flooding past the border, there was suddenly a huge need of volunteers to act quickly to provide aid and basic necessities. I didn’t think twice before heading south and joining  All For Armenia , with the hope to do what little I could to somehow diminish the pain and suffering of people who had lost almost everything they’ve ever known, many times over. The sight of countless families with only a handful of belongings left to their name was unnerving to witness firsthand. In spite of the many faces of anguish, what struck me the most and stayed with me the longest were the smiles of kids getting sweets for the first time in months, the laughter of children playing in makeshift playgrounds, the newfound comfort of families finding a small moment of peace and safety, and the solidarity between all Armenians to help their fellow brothers and sisters.

Compared to what it was like to follow the 2020 war from the diaspora, seeing what was happening from Armenia was much harder to deal with initially since the events were happening so close and it was directly affecting people that I’d met here. However, the fact that I was here allowed me to make a small difference and to slightly ease my mind, knowing that I was able to do something productive in the face of immense difficulties for our nation. So in that way, I’d say that the weeks following the invasion were easier to deal with here than in the diaspora, where I had felt the most helpless for not being able to contribute anything concrete, and isolated by having to carry on working in an environment of people that were oblivious to what was happening.

MOVING FORWARD

Looking back, my 2 months in Armenia felt as though they were packed with a whole year of life experience, but seemed to have passed by in a week. Recently, I officially received the offer to join a company here and I accepted with much thought and consideration. Despite the unimaginable loss that this country suffered, I continue to be filled with hope for the future after seeing the monumental changes that have been made in the past years by many people who are silently and diligently working to make this a better place. I can see so many things to look forward to for our nation and I wholeheartedly want to be part of the effort that transforms this state into a strong, resilient, prosperous homeland that’s worthy of its people. There are plenty of pages of history left to write, and the pen is in our hands .

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hello stranger

Stories on adventure, and travel, and real life, armenia essays.

I started Peace Corps Armenia as a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) volunteer in March 2019, and was there until we were evacuated due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

While I was there, I wrote. A lot.

About learning a language, about culture shock, about what we can learn from each other, and about leaving suddenly and unexpectedly. I changed a lot too, from beginning to end. I hope I can share a bit of what that experience was like with you.

Peace Corps Armenia Essays

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Peace Corps Armenia: Pre-departure Part Two

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Pre-Service Training Choose Your Own Adventure

Peace Corps Armenia: with dust in my hair

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Peace Corps Armenia: GLOW meghri

Peace Corps Armenia: blink and you’ll miss it

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Peace Corps Armenia: patience 

Peace Corps Armenia: for example

Peace Corps Armenia: like it is

Peace Corps Armenia: how should i say?

Peace Corps Armenia: already winter

Peace Corps Armenia: berlin, dresden, home

Peace Corps Armenia: stories to keep you warm

Peace Corps Armenia: things i thought i knew

Peace Corps Armenia: the bees came back, and we’re waiting

Peace Corps Armenia: Evacuation 

Mount Ararat, from the road I ran down almost every night.

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Homemade Armenian bread (Photo by Sossi Madzounian, My Armenia Program)

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• Countries and Their Cultures
• Culture of Armenia

Culture Name

Alternative names.

Hayastan/Hayasdan; Haygagan/Haykakan/Haigagan; Haikakan

Orientation

Identification. The designation "Armenia" applies to different entities: a "historical" Armenia, the Armenian plateau, the 1918–1920 U.S. State Department map of an Armenia, and the current republic of Armenia. The notion "Armenian culture" implies not just the culture of Armenia but that of the Armenian people, the majority of whom live outside the current boundaries of the republic of Armenia.

Armenians call themselves hay and identify their homeland not by the term "Armenia" but as Hayastan or Hayasdan. The origins of these words can be traced to the Hittites, among whose historical documents is a reference to the Hayasa. In the Bible, the area designated as Armenia is referred to as Ararat, which the Assyrians referred to as Urartu. Armenians also identify themselves as the people of Ararat/Urartu and of Nairi, and their habitat as nairian ashkharh or yergir nairian . Armenians have called themselves Torkomian or Torgomian . They also call themselves Haigi serount or Haiki seround , descendants of Haig/Haik.

Location and Geography. Armenia has been identified with the mountainous Armenian plateau since pre-Roman times. The plateau is bordered on the east by Iran, on the west by Asia Minor, on the north by the Transcaucasian plains, and on the south by the Mesopotamian plains. The plateau consists of a complex set of mountain ranges, volcanic peaks, valleys, lakes, and rivers. It is also the main water reservoir of the Middle East, as two great rivers—the Euphrates and the Tigris— originate in its high mountains. The mean altitude of the Armenian plateau is 5,600 feet (1,700 meter) above sea level.

Present-day Armenia—the republic of Armenia—is a small mountainous republic that gained its independence in 1991, after seven decades of Soviet rule. It constitutes one-tenth of the historical Armenian plateau. Surrounding Lake Sevan, it has an area of approximately 11,600 square miles (30,000 square kilometers). Its border countries are Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan-Naxçivan, the Republic of Georgia, Iran, and Turkey. Its climate is highland continental, with hot summers and cold winters. Despite its small size, it was one of the most densely populated republics of the Soviet Union. Half of its inhabitants live in the Ararat plain, which constitutes only 10 percent of its territory and includes the capital city of Yerevan. Yerevan houses one-third of the country's population.

Armenia is a rugged, volcanic country with rich mineral resources. It is highly prone to earthquakes and occasional droughts.

Demography. Approximately 3 million people live in the republic of Armenia. Another 3 million Armenians live in various countries of the ex-Soviet Union—mainly in Russia. One and a half million Armenians are dispersed in the Americas. About one million Armenians live in various European countries, and half a million Armenians live in the Middle East and Africa. The ethnic composition of Armenia's population is 93.3 percent Armenian; 1.5 percent Russian; 1.7 percent Kurdish; and 3.5 percent Assyrian, Greek, and other.

Symbolism. Mount Ararat has had symbolic significance for all Armenians. Today it lies outside the boundaries of Armenia. It may be seen on the horizon from Yerevan, but like a mirage it remains inaccessible to Armenians. Ancient manuscripts depicting the history of Armenia are housed in the national library, Madenataran, and are valued national and historical treasures. Particularly significant symbols of Armenian culture include the statue of Mother Armenia; Dsidsernagabert, a shrine with an ever-burning fire in memory of the Armenian victims of the 1915 genocide; the ruined ancient monasteries; khatchkars engraved stone burial crosses; the ruins of Ani, the last capital of historic Armenia, which fell in 1045; and the emblem of the 1918 first republic of Armenia, its tricolor flag.

History and Ethnic Relations

Emergence of The Nation. Many prehistoric sites have been unearthed in and around Armenia, showing the existence of civilizations with advanced notions in agriculture, metallurgy, and industrial production, with diverse standardized manufacturing processes and pottery.

The origins of the Armenians have long been subject to debate among historians, linguists, and archaeologists. In the 1980s, linguists drew attention to the existence of many similarities between the Indo-European and Semitic languages. The only way to explain the linguistic similarities between these two linguistic groups would be to geographically move the cradle of the Indo-European linguistic groups farther east, to the Armenian plateau.

The Armenians and their plateau have been subject to various invasions. They witnessed Alexander the Great's expeditions toward the east. They fought the Roman legions and the Sassanid Persians, and in most cases lost. They stopped the Arabian expansion toward the north and provided emperors to the Byzantine throne. Having lost their own kingdom in the eleventh century to the invading Tartars and Seljuks, they managed to create a new kingdom farther south and west, in Cilicia, that flourished until 1375, playing a significant role during the Crusades. Then, they lost their last monarchy to the emerging Ottoman Empire, after the latter's westward expansion was stopped at the gates of Vienna. For more than two centuries, Armenia was devastated by the wars between two empires: the Iranian and the Ottoman. Starting at the end of the eighteenth century, the Russian empire also gained a foothold south of the Caucasus Mountains, defeating the Iranians and the Ottomans in a series of wars. The Armenian plateau thus became subject to the advances of three empires.

In late 1917 the Russian empire collapsed and its armies withdrew from the Caucasus front. Eastern or Russian Armenia was left unprotected and by the spring of the next year, the Turkish army was advancing toward the east, trying to reach the oil fields of Baku, on the Caspian Sea. Only a last-ditch effort at the gates of Yerevan saved the Armenians of the east (in Russian Armenia) from the fate of their western compatriots (in Turkey). After the victorious battles of Sardarapat and Bash-Aparan, the Turkish onslaught was contained and reversed, and Armenia declared its independence on 28 May 1918.

Independence, however, was short-lived. After two years, due to the increasing pressure of, on the one hand, advancing Kemalist Turkish forces, and on the other, the Bolsheviks, the small landlocked republic of Armenia was forced to sign treaties that led to the loss of its territories and to its becoming a Soviet republic. Soviet rule lasted seventy years.

Having essentially followed the same path as most other nations under Soviet rule, the Armenians welcomed the dawn of the glasnost era, proclaimed by the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, as a means to correct the decades-old injustices imposed upon them.

Armenians believed in glasnost, and framed their demands in its rhetoric. In February 1988 there were impressive demonstrations in Yerevan and Stepanakert (the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan) requesting the reunification of Karabakh with Armenia on the basis of self-determination rights. Following these demonstrations, on 28 May 1988, the seventeenth anniversary of the independence of Armenia was celebrated for the first time since Soviet rule. During the summer of 1988, mass demonstrations continued, followed by general strikes. In November 1988, Armenians were subjected to further massacres in Azerbaijan, leading to massive refugee problems. Emergency measures were established in both republics and Azerbaijan began a blockade of Armenia. The disastrous earthquake in Armenia on 7 December 1988 added to the existing refugee and economic problems. On 12 January 1989, a special commission to administer the Karabakh region, under the direct control of Moscow, was established. On 28 May 1989, the Soviet Armenian government recognized 28 May as the official anniversary of the republic of Armenia. During the summer of 1989, the Armenian National Movement acquired legal status, and held its first congress in November 1989. In January 1990, further Armenian massacres were reported in Baku and Kirovabad. During the spring elections, members of the Karabakh Committee, Soviet dissidents, came to power in parliamentary elections. The republic of Armenia gained its independence on 21 September 1991.

National Identity. The Armenian national identity is essentially a cultural one. From the historical depths of its culture and the dispersion of its bearers, it has acquired a richness and diversity rarely achieved within a single national entity, while keeping many fundamental elements that ensure its unity. Its bearers exhibit a strong sense of national identity that sometimes even clashes with the modern concept of the nation-state. It is an identity strongly influenced by the historical experiences of the Armenians. Events such as the adoption of Christianity as a state religion in 301 C.E. , the invention of the Armenian alphabet in 406 C.E. , and the excessively severe treatment at the hands of foreign powers at various times in its history have had a major impact.

Ethnic Relations. The republic of Armenia has thus far escaped the ethnic turmoil characterizing life in the post-Soviet republics. Minority rights are protected by law.

Urbanism, Architecture, and the Use of Space

The great majority of Armenians in Armenia and in the Diaspora are urbanites. In the republic of Armenia, 68 percent live in urban areas with a population density of 286 persons per square mile (110.5 per square kilometer).

Food and Economy

Food in Daily Life. Staple foods are bread and salt. Harissa a traditional meal, consists of wheat grain and lamb cooked over low heat. Armenians everywhere love barbecued meats and vegetables. The pomegranate, with its symbolic association with fertility, is the national fruit. Armenia is also vine and grape country. When speaking of friendship, Armenians say "we have bread and salt among us." In the state protocol, when dignitaries are welcomed, bread and salt are presented.

Breakfasts on nonworking days are sometimes major get-together events. In huge pots khash is prepared, cattle legs are boiled and served with spices and garlic and consumed with Armenian brandy.

Basic Economy. Since its independence from the Soviet Union, Armenia has been focusing on small-scale agriculture. In 1992, the state-run industries, including agriculture, were immediately privatized as Armenia adopted a Western-style economic system.

Major Industries. During Soviet rule, Armenia began to develop and concentrate on computer-based high technology, alongside a manufacturing sphere, the production of brandy, heavy industry, and mining. The 1991 blockade of the country by Azerbaijan led to a fuel shortage that often left its industries at a standstill. Nuclear energy was shut down after the 1988 earthquake as well, but production was resumed after a few years for lack of other reliable sources of energy. The current trend in industrial development is toward small volume/high-value products such as diamond cutting and electronic components, since transportation is still a major problem for the landlocked republic.

Trade. Armenia has been subject to an economic blockade since the early 1990s by its neighboring countries, with the exception of Iran and Georgia. Trade relations are newly developing. Armenia exports woven and knit apparel; beverages, including brandy; preserved fruits; art and handicrafts; books; precious stones; metals; and electrical machinery.

Social Stratification

Classes and Castes. For several centuries until the end of monarchic historical Armenia in 1045 and Cilicia in 1375, there were aristocratic noble houses with their respective court-related responsibilities. Afterwards, the notion of a generalized middle class emerged. Most Armenians were peasants until the turn of the twentieth century. During the Soviet era, class was de-emphasized. A new elite had emerged, however, based on the nomenclature or system that prevailed during Soviet rule.

Political Life

Government. The republic of Armenia is a democratic constitutional state. A constitution was adopted by national referendum in July 1995. Parliamentary elections were held in July 1995 and May 1999. Presidential elections were held in March 1998.

In 1999, fifteen parties and six political blocs took part in parliamentary elections.

Leadership and Political Officials. Robert Kocharian was the second president elected in the republic of Armenia since its independence. There is an elected national assembly ( Azgayin Joghov ), or parliament. The cabinet is formed by a prime minister designated by the president.

Social Problems and Control. During Soviet rule, Armenia had followed Soviet criminal and civil law. Since independence, a new autonomous legal system has been developing. The post independence period has also witnessed a rise in awareness in the media of organized crime and sex service rings.

Military Activity. Gradually, an autonomous army and defense system are being developed. Armenia joined the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in March 1992 and signed the CIS Defense Treaty in May 1992.

Social Welfare and Change Programs

During the Soviet period, there was a well-established welfare system. Since then, the social welfare system has been affected by the economic crisis. Although the old age security system or pension is still in place, the amount of funding designated as monthly payment is not sufficient to maintain a subsistence living.

Nongovernmental Organizations and Other Associations

The number of organizations registered as of 31 December 1998 broke down as follows: seventy-six political parties, 1,938 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and 905 Media Outlets. The number of NGOs registered with the NGO Training and Resource Center totaled seven hundred.

Gender Roles and Statuses

Division of Labor by Gender. Armenian culture has historically stressed a division of domains among the sexes. The home/household is a woman's domain. The grandmother/mother-in-law was the manager of the household. Women and men both worked outside the home. In the domestic sphere, women had no choice when it came to the chores. It was their duty and responsibility to maintain the household.

The Relative Status of Women and Men. During the first republic of Armenia (1918–1920), women enjoyed equal voting and election rights. Four women were elected to the national parliament and one woman, Diana Apgar, became the ambassador to Japan. During the Soviet period, in spite of the legislation that stressed women's equality at all levels, women found it difficult to get into the higher decision-making processes. In 1991, during the first democratic elections in the newly independent republic of Armenia, women candidates won in only nine constituencies out of 240, representing only 3.6 percent of the parliament membership. None of the permanent parliamentary committees include any female members.

Marriage, Family, and Kinship

Marriage. Armenians are monogamous. In some cases, marriages are arranged. The accepted practice is to avoid marriage with close kin (of up to seven kin-distances). Because of housing shortages in Soviet Armenia, the new couple resided with the groom's family (patrilocality). The preference, however, has been and continues to be for neolocality, that is, the new couple forming a new household.

Domestic Unit. The married couple and their offspring constitute the domestic unit. During Soviet rule, the domestic unit consisted of a multi generational family. Often paternal grandparents, their married offspring, and unmarried aunts and uncles resided together. In pre-Soviet times, each region had its own preference. The most common domestic unit, however, was a patrilocal multi generational family.

Inheritance. Although inheritance laws have undergone changes and reforms over the years, historically, men and women have been treated equally. Diaspora Armenian communities follow the inheritance laws of their respective countries.

Kin Groups. Kin relations are bilateral. Descent, however, is determined by the patrilineal line.

Socialization

Child Rearing and Education. Women are considered to be the bearers and transmitters of culture, customs, and tradition and are seen as responsible for child rearing. Children are highly valued and they occupy the center of attention in households until they reach puberty. At puberty they are disciplined and are expected to take on responsibilities. Education is valued and is given great weight as an agent of socialization. In Armenia throughout the twentieth century, education was free and accessible to all. Because of privatization trends in the post reindependence period, however, there are fears that education may not remain accessible to all.

Higher Education. Armenia has stressed free access to education. A national policy directed at the elimination of illiteracy began in the first republic (1918–1920) and continued in Soviet times, resulting in a nearly 100 percent literacy rate. Women enjoy equal rights at all levels of education. A private higher education system was introduced in 1992. Although there is no discrimination on the basis of sex, some fields have become labeled "female." Of the students in the health-care field, 90 percent are women. In arts and education women constitute 78 percent of the students, in economics the number drops to 44.7 percent, for agriculture, 41 percent, and for industry, transportation, and communications, 40 percent.

Armenians put great emphasis on hospitality and generosity. There is also an emphasis on respect for guests.

Religious Beliefs. Christianity has been the state religion in Armenia since 301. During Soviet rule, religious expression was not encouraged. The emphasis was on atheism. Armenians had continued to attend church, however, in particular for life-crisis events and rites of passage. The majority of Armenians adhere to the Armenian Apostolic Church. There are also adherents to Catholic, Evangelical, and Protestant denominations.

The church has been a symbol of national culture. It has been seen as the home of Armenians and the bearer of Armenian culture.

Religious Practitioners. The Armenian Apostolic Church has two catholicosate sees: the Catholicos of All Armenians at Etchmiadzin, Armenia, and Cilicia, in Antelias, Lebanon. The two sees are organized differently. Each has its own educational system and hierarchy of priests. Among the Armenians there are celibate and married priests. There are also two patriarchates: one in Istanbul and another in Jerusalem. Women are not ordained into priest-hood. There is only one women's order: the Kalfayian sisters.

Death and the Afterlife. Most Armenians believe in the Christian vision of death and afterlife. The Apostolic Church, unlike some Christian institutions, does not put emphasis on sin and redemption. Likewise the notion of purgatory is absent. Armenians pay special attention to remembering the dead. After every mass, or badarak , there is a memorial service for the dead. The seventh day after death, the fortieth day, and annual remembrance are the accepted way of respecting the dead. Cemeteries are well kept. The communion between the living and the dead is seen in the frequent visits to the graves of loved ones. Food and brandy are served to the dead. The birthdays of dead loved ones are also celebrated.

Medicine and Health Care

Western medical practices are followed in the health sector. Until recently, medicine and health care were universal and state run. The introduction of a private health sector has been discussed. There are already a number of private clinics operating in the republic of Armenia. In addition, a few clinics operate under the sponsorship of Diaspora voluntary associations, such as the Armenian General Benevolent Union and the Armenian Relief Society.

Secular Celebrations

New Year's Eve (or Amanor, Nor Dari, or Gaghant/Kaghand) is a secular holiday. Other secular holidays include: Women's Day 7 April; the commemoration of the 1915 genocide of the Armenians 24 April; the Independence day of the first Armenian republic of 1918, and 28 May; the Independence Day of the current republic of Armenia, 21 September.

The Arts and Humanities

Support for the Arts. In the republic of Armenia, following the policies put forth during the pre-Soviet and Soviet eras, the state has been supporting the arts and humanities. In recent years, because of economic difficulties, there has been a privatization trend. State support is diminishing. In the Diaspora, the arts and humanities rely on local fund-raising efforts, Armenian organizations, and the initiative of individuals. In the republic of Armenia, artists are engaged full time in their respective arts. In the Diaspora, however, artists are rarely self-supporting and rarely make a living through their art.

Literature. Armenians have a rich history of oral and written literature. Parts of the early oral literature was recorded by M. Khorenatsi, a fourth-century historian. During the nineteenth century, under the influence of a European interest in folklore and oral literature, a new movement started that led to the collection of oral epic poems, songs, myths, and stories.

The written literature has been divided into five main epochs: the fifth century golden age, or vosgetar following the adoption of the alphabet; the Middle Ages; the Armenian Renaissance (in the nineteenth century); modern literature of Armenia and Constantinople (Istanbul) at the turn of the twentieth century; and contemporary literature of Armenia and the Diaspora. The fifth century has been recognized internationally as a highly productive epoch. It was also known for its translations of various works, including the Bible. In fact, the clergy have been the main producers of Armenian literary works. One of the most well-known early works is Gregory Narekatzi's Lamentations . During medieval times, a tradition of popular literature and poetry gradually emerged. By the nineteenth century, the vernacular of eastern (Russian and Iranian) Armenia became the literary language of the east, and the vernacular of Istanbul and western (Ottoman Turkish) Armenia became the basis of the literary rebirth for Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire.

Armenian literature has been influenced by European literary styles and movements. It also reflects the tragic history of its people. The 1915 genocide led to the death of the great majority of the Armenian writers of the time. The period immediately after the genocide was marked by a silence. Eventually there emerged a Diaspora literature with centers in Paris, Aleppo, and Beirut. In Soviet Armenia, the literary tradition followed the trends in Russia with a recognizable Armenian voice. Literature received the support of the Soviet state. A writers union was established. At the time of glasnost and perestroika, the emerging leaders belonged to the writers union.

Graphic Arts. Historically, Armenian art has been associated with architecture, bas-reliefs, stone engravings, steles, illuminated manuscripts, and tapestry. Since the Armenian Renaissance during the nineteenth century, interest in drawing, painting, sculpture, textiles, pottery, needlework, and lace has intensified. During the Soviet period, graphic arts were particularly encouraged. A new Armenian style of bright colors emerged in painting. An interest in landscape painting, rustic images, a focus on rural life, and ethnographic genre paintings were noticeable in Soviet Armenia. A national art gallery houses the works of Sarian, M. Avedissian, Hagopian, Soureniantz, and other artists of the Soviet epoch. In the current republic, there are outdoor exhibits of newly emerging painters, and new private initiatives are being made.

Performance Arts. Armenia has a long tradition of musical art, dating back to prehistoric times, and Armenian musicians played a fundamental role in the modernization of oriental music during the nineteenth century. Armenian traditional music differs from its oriental counterparts by its sobriety.

The republic of Armenia has thus far continued the trend set in Soviet years. The opera house, the theaters, and the concert halls are the pride of Armenians and have remained highly accessible to the general public. Armenian folk, classic, and religious music, as well as its composers, such as Komitas and A. Khatchadourian, have been known throughout the world. The folk-dance ensembles have also been participating in various international festivals.

The State of Physical and Social Sciences

In the republic of Armenia, as in Soviet Armenia, as well as in the Armenian republic of 1918, the state has been the main support system for the physical and social sciences. There is a well-established Academy of Sciences, where the social sciences and humanities have been and are represented. In recent years Armenia has been experiencing a dramatic financial crisis. The state is unable to continue its support of research and development. There have been calls for Diaspora fund-raising support. International foundations have also been approached to provide financing.

Bibliography

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Aprahamian, S. "Armenian Identity: Memory, Ethnoscapes, Narratives of Belonging in the Context of the Recent Emerging Notions of Globalization and Its Effect on Time and Space." Feminist Studies in Aotearoa Journal 60 , 1999.

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Bauer-Manndorff, Elisabeth. Armenia, past and present. Translated by Frederick A. Leist, 1981.

Berndt, Jerry. Armenia: Portraits of Survival, 1994.

Bjorklund, Ulf. "Armenia Remembered and Remade: Evolving Issues in a Diaspora." Ethnos 58: 3-4, 335-360, 1993.

Cox, Caroline, and John Eibner. Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: War in Nagorno Karabakh, 1993.

Der Manuelian, Lucy, and Murray L. Eiland. Weavers, Merchants, and Kings: The Inscribed Rugs of Armenia. Edited by Emily J. Sano, 1984.

Der Nersessian, Sirarpie. The Armenians, 1969.

Hamalian, Arpi. The Armenians: Intermediaries for the European Trading Companies, 1976.

Hovannisian, Richard G. Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918, 1967.

——. The Republic of Armenia. Berkeley: (In six volumes). 1971.

——, ed. The Armenian genocide in perspective, 1986.

——, ed. Remembrance and Denial: The Case of the Armenian Genocide, 1998.

Kasbarian, Lucine. Armenia: A Rugged Land, an Enduring People, 1998.

Kazandjian, Sirvart. Les origines de la musique Arménienne, 1984.

Khorenatsi, Moses. History of the Armenians. Translated by Robert W. Thomson, 1978.

Lang, David Marshall. Armenia: Cradle of Civilization, 1970.

——. The Armenians, a People in Exile, 1981.

Libaridian, J. Gerard, ed. Armenia at the Crossroads: Democracy and Nationhood in the Post-Soviet Era, 1991.

Lynch, H. F. B. Armenia, Travels and Studies, 2 vols., 1901.

Mandelstam, Osip. Journey to Armenia, Translated by Clarence Brown, 1980.

Marashlian, Levon. Politics and Demography: Armenians, Turks and Kurds in the Ottoman Empire, 1991.

Marsden, Philip. The Crossing Place: A Journey among the Armenians, 2nd ed., 1995.

Mouradian, Claire. De Staline à Gorbatchev: Histoire d'une republique sovietique: l'Arménie, 1990.

Nersessian, Vrej Nerses, comp. Armenia, 1993.

Oshagan, Vahe, special ed. Armenia, 1984.

Samuelian, Thomas J., ed. Classical Armenian Culture: Influences and Creativity, 1981.

——, and Michael E. Stone, eds. Medieval Armenian Culture, 1984.

Somakian, Manoug Joseph. Empires in Conflict: Armenia and the Great Powers, 1895-1920, 1995.

Tashjian, Nouvart. Armenian Lace, Edited by Jules and Kaethe Kliot, 1982.

Thierry, Jean-Michel. Armenian Art. Translated by Celestine Dars, 1989.

Toriguian, Shavarsh. The Armenian Question and International Law, 1973.

Utudjian, Edouard. Armenian Architecture, 4th to 17th century. Translated by Geoffrey Capner. 1968.

Vassilian, Hamo B., ed. The Armenians: A Colossal Bibliographic Guide to Books Published in the English Language, 1993.

Walker, Christopher J. Armenia, the Survival of a Nation, rev. ed., 1990.

—S IMA A PRAHAMIAN WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF V IKEN A PRAHAMIAN

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American Armenians’ History, Culture, Religion Essay

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One of the ethnic communities in the US with its own history and a set of cultural and religious traditions is the Armenian community. This paper’s objective is to examine the peculiarities of the cultural and religious background of the Armenian ethnic minority, history of its development, and features of the cultural events inside the community. The paper is also to analyze the preconceptions and biases associated with the community on the basis of the interview with a community member.

Contextual background: demographics and history

American Armenians represent a strong ethnic minority community in the US. The distribution of the families with the Armenian ancestry is not even around the different states. In total, there are nearly a million of people of Armenian ethnicity in America. However, despite the fact that the approximate number of the American citizens with the Armenian ancestry in Arizona is nearly 2,500 households the community manages to preserve its historical, cultural, and religious identity (Griffiths, 2008). Considering the history of the Armenian nation, it may be the overcoming the hardship that helped this ethnic community to protect their national and cultural values and beliefs while integrating into the American society.

For the immigrant communities in the US and their descendants, there are a number of issues concerning the assimilation to the society while trying to preserve the cultural identity and traditions of their ethnic roots. The socialization and affiliating with the American most common lifestyle, as well as functioning in the society with the different cultural values imposes some boundaries on the process of recognition of the cultural heritage. That often concerns the background of preserving unity in terms of religious, linguistic and customary aspects. Also, the cultural identity of the ethnic or immigrant groups can often be lost because of their uneven geographical spread, or lack of geographical unity, when their local communities are too small to keep them together. In this respect, the communities of the American Armenians represent an interesting example of the geographical integration.

Usually, the immigrants of the Armenian ancestry in the US tend to settle near the groups of their ethnicity. Thus, the diaspora is unevenly represented throughout different states, but they have powerful communities in the places where they settle. Perhaps, the tendency of forming the little communities where they can sustain the traditional cultural environment is one of the main distinctions of the cultural group of American Armenians. It also helps them to promote their culture among the descendants of the Armenian ancestry and to organize work of getting the general public more familiar with their culture.

Thus, the important issue, in this respect, is the Armenian cultural heritage and historical background. Originally, the homeland of Armenians, today the Republic of Armenia, is situated in Asia Minor, just in-between two historical regions of Europe and the Middle East. Culturally, it has been influenced by its different neighbors because the country is small in size and, therefore, was many times throughout history under the impact of more powerful political bodies. The identity of the country was formed before around either 7th or 6th century BC from the tribes that inhabited the area. Thus, the Armenian civilization has developed its culture and history for a long time, and being invaded by the different other historical states and civilizations; it has adopted some cultural features from Romans, Greeks, Persians, Macedonians, Byzantine and Ottoman Empire. The most important of those cultural influences was, of course, the Christian religion (Takooshian, 2015).

Christianity as the national religion of the kingdom of Armenia was adopted in the year 301, even before the existence of the Byzantine Empire and Emperor Constantine. Over the years, various influences in the spheres of cultural and religious life tried to diminish the significance of this event. For example, during the invasions by Persians, the national identity and practice of the Christianity were suppressed. Whereas during the reign of the sultans of the Ottoman Empire in Armenia, the national culture and religion prospered, the Soviet governance of the country reduced the role of the national culture in the public life again. The Armenian Apostolic Church that was formed in the county and is recognized as belonging to the Oriental Orthodox branch of Christianity (Griffiths, 2008).

It remains today an important component of the national beliefs and values, together with those notions that were acquired in the process of interacting with the other culture, different assimilations. In the case of the American Armenians, the cultural concept formed among the descendants of the Armenian ancestry molded in the course of immigration and adapting to another culture.

Thus, another important aspect is the history of the immigration of Armenians to the United States. There are numerous diasporas of Armenians around the world, but the beginning of their immigration to the United States dates back to the end of the 19th century. It was the phase of the violent nationalistic times in Turkey, where many Turkish Armenians lived, during the period after the Ottoman Empire began to lose its power and influence.

The Armenian minorities were perceived as the non-Muslim infidels because of their Orthodox Christian faith, which resulted in massacres on the ethnic and religious grounds, and the genocide of a million Armenians during the World War I. During those times, Turkish Armenians united and formed a republican state in the northeast direction to Turkey. Since the newly formed country, who just lost thousands of Armenians, was threatened by the Turkish nationalistic army, they accepted the protection of the Soviet Russia. The latter became a significant political influence in Armenia for the major part of the 20th century. All of those events combined became the reason for the massive immigration of Armenians to the United States of America and worldwide (Takooshian, 2015).

Nevertheless, the Armenian immigration to the US had certain stages and was determined by a number of factors that influenced the formation of the Armenian descendants cultural values. This process can be divided into three main waves: the first one consisted of Turkish Americans who left the Ottoman Empire before WWI, the second one took place after the massacres of 1915-1920 when the short period more than 30,000 Armenians, including professionals and skilled workers, fled their homeland (Mead, 1978).

The third wave was the longest, and it represents the most complicated case. It started after the World War II, as the result of Armenian minorities forced out of Turkey initially into the Middle East. Then because of tendencies of nationalism and Islamic fundamentalism in Arab countries, many Armenians were driven away “first from Egypt, then Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Iran” (Takooshian, 2015).

This wave of immigration took the longest time and brought to the asylum in the United States most of the Armenian-ancestry population. Because Armenia was always a small county, and among some other nations the Armenians were suppressed, the immigrants settled in the US unevenly, choosing such cities as Los-Angeles and Philadelphia as their primary destination. Nevertheless, in the course of time, some of the Armenian immigrants’ descendants moved deeper into the country, including local communities in Arizona.

However, we cannot still suggest that the third wave of immigration is over. There are signs of the constant increase of the American Armenians in different communities around the US. The reason for that lies in the political and cultural background, as well as the unstable situation in the region. However, it is all the more important to analyze the principles of cultural assimilation of the ethnic community of American Armenians and to analyze the challenges and issues that the society faces in this case.

Contextual background: values and religious beliefs

The Armenian Apostolic Church that was formed in the county and is recognized as belonging to the Oriental Orthodox branch of Christianity. It is one of the oldest branches amongst the Christian communities. Its founders were apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus. It has been quite influential in the area of its origin, even though it was surrounded mostly by the countries with Islam as their major religion.

That is the reason why the religious beliefs are one of the grounds for the unity of the ethnic Armenians and the Armenian immigrants descendants throughout the world. In Arizona, the religious community of the Armenian Apostolic Church attends St. Apkar Armenian Apostolic Church of Arizona. Apart from being the major cultural symbol of Armenians in the state, this church also organizes various cultural events for everyone who wants to attend them, is engaged in the charity work, and helps the community to celebrate different religious and mundane holidays. The activities of the St. Apkar Armenian Apostolic Church include opening the sanctuary in Scottsdale, and different fundraising events for various charity initiatives (Griffiths, 2008).

The role of the St. Apkar Armenian Apostolic Church for the American Armenians of Arizona cannot be overlooked. 80 per cent of the Armenians practicing religion belong the Orthodox Church. The church was chosen as a place for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the formation of an Armenian community in the state (Griffiths, 2008).

It is one of the means to preserve the cultural identity of the community, and it provides a great insight into the Armenian culture and the shared beliefs for those who wants to find out more about it. Furthermore, and most importantly, the St. Apkar Armenian Apostolic Church, as well as other Armenian Orthodox Churches, does not impose any major restrictions and dogmas concerning the lifestyle and social issues of its followers, including their sexuality or birth control, and it certainly does not portend to make an impact on non-Armenians.

Nevertheless, the life of the Armenian community in America could not be possible without socialization and cultural assimilation in some aspects. The important nuance here is that the general cultural background of the Christian values, as well as being the immigrants because of the political and religious reasons provides the Armenian community with the system of beliefs and values that resonate with the American culture.

In this respect, it is important that there are no reasons for any cultural conflicts or misunderstandings. Moreover, the boundaries that separate such smaller communities are mostly imposed by their members. In fact, there substantial differences throughout the Armenian population in the US concerning their perception of their own social status, including the division between people of different ethnicities. Those boundaries can only appear because of the Armenian historical heritage that formed some of their beliefs of the social worlds and interactions with other nations and cultures (Mead, 1978).

Historically speaking, many Armenians lived among the nations with the different religious backgrounds, mostly among the Muslims, in the Ottoman Empire, in Turkey, and alongside various Middle Eastern ethnicities. That fact formed the presupposition in the historical memory of the Armenian nation. Thus, the mental separation from some American cultural that can be occasionally observed in the Armenian community is a result of the externally imposed factors of the historical nature.

However, those tendencies are the prerogative of the elder generations of the American Armenians, mostly the immigrants of the second or the beginning of the third waves of immigration. The reason for the positive dynamics in the sphere of the cultural socialization is connected with the development and recognition of the national identity and freedom of the community, where the descendants of the Armenian ancestry can equally participate within and outside its borders (Bakalian, 1993).

Observations during the cultural event and associated preconceptions

The St. Apkar Armenian Apostolic Church is known to organize the events to the celebration of the various occasions, including the St. Valentine’s Day. This year, however, it was on the same day as the Feast of Candlemas, one of the religious holidays of the Orthodox Church. There were no events at the Armenian Educational and Social Center, but the evening service at the church itself provide deep insight into the perception of their cultural and religious heritage by the American Armenians. The event seemed more of a social gathering of the members of the community rather than mysterious religious service.

This fact immediately ruined the misconception about the way the services in the Armenian Orthodox Church take place. Since Armenia is located quite close to the Middle East, people unfamiliar with this culture would expect the ceremony to have more oriental hints. However, there was not a lot of oriental motives, and overall, the event seemed more celebratory than solemn or gloomy. However, because of the fact that, at the time, all the Orthodox Churches had the Great Lent, the ceremony was kept quite plain and undemanding.

The main preconception of the St. Apkar Armenian Apostolic Church as the place that would be unwelcoming to strangers was ruined as well. It may be a close ethnic minority community in terms of how its members usually settle in the same block and districts, but it is socially open to the outsiders of the ethnic group.

Talking about the social parameters of the people who attended the event, there were American Armenians of the entirely different backgrounds in terms of age, gender, and social status. It underlines the important aspect that American Armenian people, despite the social differences, preserve their culture. In many ways, it describes the psychology of the national identity. Because of the historical memory of the nation, the tragedy of the genocide, and the habit of living alongside the nations with the diverse religious and cultural backgrounds, the community of the American Armenians tends to stay close together, yet is not unfriendly to the strangers (Bakalian, 1993).

Another important observation concerned the fact that children at the event at the church seemed very respectful to the parents. However, from the point of view of an observer, it seemed not like the obedience when the child is, in some ways, suppressed by the adults authority or out of fear, but listening to the elders out of respect. The reason for such value system can also be found in the fact that nationalities, such as Armenian and Jewish represent the cultures, in which the children are less rebellious since they both has been at the edge of the extinction (Mead, 1978).

This fact also has the reflection on the workplace behavior and any other kinds of the social interactions that need the feeling of commitment and the ability to follow instructions. Due to this, despite a certain level of isolating the communities, the American Armenians are improving the situation in the education and social status of the community members. For example, more than 80 percent of the children with the Armenian ancestry plan to go to college, and a significant part of the community speak English not only in social situations but also at home, which was not previously a tendency.

Results of the interview revealed challenges, and considerations for the practical application

The interview revealed that there are some challenges concerning the perception of the community of American Armenians in the society. Alongside the already mentioned association with the Middle Eastern countries, the community is also often attributed a connection to the former Soviet countries and the values associated with the USSR. However, in the opinion of the interviewee, the identity of her group has nothing to do with the values of the neighboring countries of Armenia.

In spite of the fact that the interviewee admitted that the community of the American Armenians is quite diverse within itself, and people in her ethnic group have different everyday occupations, there are societal restrictions that challenge expressing the national identity. For example, the American Armenians of different social classes have different levels of freedom in expressing their cultural identity. The descendants of the second and third generation of the Armenian immigrants from the well-off families with a higher social are more proud of their cultural heritage (Bakalian, 1993).

The community is acculturated in Arizona, and there is a positive level of interaction with the other social groups, but some of the members of the ethnic group feel insecure in the social institutions or the workplace because of their ancestry. The reason for this problem lies in the misconceptions and lack of the cultural knowledge in the society. This problem requires special attention in the workplaces and at the schools with a high level of diversity.

The Armenian civilization developed its culture and history in the process of interaction with other nations, which reflected on the exceptional unity amongst the community of the American Armenians. Some of the important aspects of the system of values in this ethnic community come from the religious background since 80 % of all the Armenians practicing religion adhere the Armenian Apostolic Church, which is recognized as a branch of Orthodox Christianity.

The Armenian Orthodox Church does not impose guidance on its followers in questions concerning their lifestyle. Apart from religious influences, the life of the Armenian community in America would not be possible without socialization. Despite generally molding in with the majority of the population, there are some challenges for the American Armenians of different social classes since they have different levels of freedom in expressing their cultural identity.

The interview with the member of the community revealed that some of the members of the ethnic group feel insecure in the social institutions or the workplace because of their ancestry. Therefore, this issue needs to be addressed both from the inside the community and on the outside, in the workplaces and social institutions, where people of the different cultural ancestries interact.

Bakalian, A. (1993). Armenian-Americans . New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

Griffiths, L. (2008). Arizona’s Armenian Christian community turns 50. The East Valley Tribune . Web.

Mead, M. (1978). Culture and commitment: The new relationships between the generations in the 1970s . New York, NY: Anchor Press.

Takooshian, H. (2015). Armenian Americans . Web.

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What Cultural Genocide Looks Like for Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh

S eptember 2023 saw the tumultuous and traumatic departure of over 100,000 Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh . This mass exodus of an indigenous people from their homeland followed nine months of starvation-by-blockade , which culminated in a murderous military assault on Sept. 19.

These men, women, and children, terrified for their lives, left behind entire worlds: their schools and shops; their fields, flocks, and vineyards; the cemeteries of their ancestors. They also left behind the churches, large and small, ancient and more modern, magnificent and modest, where they had for centuries gathered together and prayed. They also left behind bridges, fortifications, early modern mansions, and Soviet-era monuments, such as the beloved “We are Our Mountains” statues. What will happen now to those places? There is no question, actually.

We know well what happened in Julfa , in Nakhichevan : a spectacular landscape of 16th-century Armenian tombstones was erased from the face the earth by Azerbaijan over a period of years. We know what happened to the Church of the Mother of God in Jebrayil and the Armenian cemetery in the village of Mets Tagher (or Böyük Taglar) —both were completely scrubbed from the landscape using earthmoving equipment like bulldozers. And we know what happened to the Cathedral of Ghazanchetsots in Shushi, which was, in turn, shelled, vandalized with graffiti, “restored” without its Armenian cupola, and now rebranded as a “Christian” temple. The brazenness of these actions, as journalist Joshua Kucera wrote in May 2021 , “suggests a growing confidence that [Baku] can remake their newly retaken territories in whatever image they want.”

The annihilation of millennia of Armenian life in Arstakh was enabled by the inaction and seeming indifference of those who might have prevented it. The United States and the European Union speak loftily of universal human rights, but did nothing for nine months while the people of Arstakh were denied food, medicine, fuel, and other vital supplies. They did nothing to enforce the order of the International Court of Justice demanding back in February 2023 that Azerbaijan end its blockade. That inaction clearly emboldened Azerbaijan to attack—just as it will encourage others to do the same elsewhere.

More From TIME

Read More: The U.S. Keeps Failing Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh

It’s important to understand the stakes of this kind of cultural erasure: These monuments and stones testify to the generations of Armenians who worshipped in and cared about them. To destroy them, is to erase not only a culture, but a people. As art historian Barry Flood observed in 2016 about the destruction of cultural heritage by the so-called Islamic state since 2014, “the physical destruction of communal connective tissues—the archives, artifacts, and monuments in which complex micro-histories were instantiated—means that there are now things about these pasts that cannot and never will be known.” The Julfa cemetery is a tragic example of such loss.

If history is any indication, ethnic cleansing tends to be followed by all kinds of cultural destruction, from vandalism to complete effacement from the landscape. The latter tactic will be used with smaller, lesser-known churches. It will be a sinister way to remove less famous Armenian monuments, which will serve the narrative that there were no Armenians there in the early modern period to begin with.

Falsification will also occur, in which Armenian monuments are provided with newly created histories and contexts. The 13 th - century monasteries of Dadivank (in the Kalbajar district) and Gandzasar (in the Martakert province), both magnificent and characteristic examples of medieval Armenian architecture, have already been rebranded as “ancient Caucasian Albanian temples.” Expect these and other sites to become venues for conferences and workshops to highlight “ancient Caucasian Albanian culture.” As for the countless Armenian inscriptions on these buildings, khachkars, and tombstones: these, as President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev announced in February 2021, are Armenian forgeries , and will be “restored” to their “original appearance” (presumably through gouging, sandblasting, or removing of Armenian inscribed stones, as was done in the 1980s).

Finally, there will be a celebration of the “multiculturalism” of Azerbaijan. “Come to Karabakh, home of ancient Christians,” people will say. “Please ignore the gouged-out letters on that stone wall, for it is not an Armenian inscription. There were never Armenians here!" Except for soldiers and invaders, like the ones depicted in a reprehensible museum in Baku, featuring waxen figures of dead Armenian soldiers —a sight so dehumanizing that an international human rights organizations, including Azerbaijani activists, cried out for its closure.

This is how cultural genocide plays out. A little more than 100 years ago was the Armenian Genocide waged by the Ottoman Empire, followed by largescale looting, vandalization, and destruction of Armenian sites across what is now modern-day Turkey. The prospect of a second cultural genocide is now on the table. Except now, Armenians will watch the spectacle unfold online, enduring the trauma site by site and monument by monument.

In 2020, Armenian activists called for international monitoring of vulnerable sites in Nagorno-Karabakh by UNESCO and other heritage organizations. Nothing happened. Now is the time for the world to protect what Armenian culture remains in Nagorno-Karabakh. If we don’t, what culture will be next to go?

Want more fresh perspectives? Sign up for TIME POV , our opinion newsletter .

The original version of this story misstated the president of Azerbaijan's name. It is Ilham Aliyev, not Ilhan Aliyev.

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Reasons to visit Yerevan, Armenia – one of my favorite cities

Last Updated on 15/05/2024 by kami

Yerevan is not a beautiful city. It is called “a Pink City” but don’t expect it to take your breath away or fall in love with it from the very first sight.

But if you decide to give Yerevan a chance and spend there more than only a few hours there’s a big possibility you’ll discover a true face of the Armenian capital and will want to return there as often as possible.

That was the story with me.

When I visited Yerevan for the first time in summer 2012 I liked it but didn’t go crazy for it.

Ever since leaving it I felt that I should go back there as soon as possible to dig in deeper and see how it really is (similar story happened to me with Sarajevo , Belgrade and Amman ).

When I finally saw some very cheap tickets to Armenia I didn’t think twice.

This time I spent almost two weeks in Yerevan and every day I was falling more and more for it, making it so hard to eventually leave.

So what makes Yerevan so special and why you should consider it as one of your next destinations?

Yerevan essentials

• Airport transfer: Pre-book the airport transfer from Yerevan airport to your accommodation in Yerevan here .
• Where to stay in Yerevan: Teryan Pushkin Apart Hotel (9.6/10) / R&R Hotel (9.1/10)
• Best Yerevan tour: Private sightseeing and walking tour in Yerevan
• Best day trip from Yerevan: Private 7-8 hour Trip to Garni – Geghard – Lake Sevan – Sevanavank from Yerevan
• Get insured for your trip to Armenia with SafetyWing

The cafe culture in Yerevan

First and most important is the amazing cafe culture!

It was one of the first things I’ve noticed in Yerevan during my first visit and now it struck me even more.

The city is literally full of cafes! Every park, every square, most of the streets have them and no matter what time of the day they were always packed with people.

Since Armenians like their coffee to be good (and everywhere you can buy fresh coffee grains that are milled right at the spot) you can be sure that the quality of the drinks you order will be exceptional yet it won’t ruin your budget.

Another big advantage of most of the cafes in Yerevan was excellent free wifi (it is also available in some shops and in every metro station).

I spent two full days sitting in the cafe ( Achajour – highly recommended!) and did so much work it would normally take me weeks to finish.

If someone is looking for a base for freelance writing jobs then Yerevan is a top destination for this!

I could already picture myself living there and spending my days writing in the cafes!

Interesting urban planning

Yerevan is also a great example of the Soviet city, with the center planned as circular to resemble the sun.

It was designed by Alexander Tamanyan whose monument is standing proudly in the center of the city, next to the famous Cascade.

The main avenues and streets are wide, there are lots of green spaces with numerous benches to sit and relax, the pedestrian avenue – home to fancy shops and expensive apartments – connects two main squares (it was planned by Tamanyan already in 1924 but was built only in 2007).

When the center of Yerevan was planed the city was just a provincial town yet aimed to be a perfect Soviet metropolis with at least 200.000 inhabitants (these days it’s 5 times more). To achieve the greatness a lot of old, historical buildings were sadly destroyed.

Only one district of the old Yerevan – Kond – can be found almost in the center. Narrow streets, laundry hanging between old houses, public wells, everything kind of rusty – that’s how Kond is!

Yerevan is alive!

I could spend hours just randomly walking around in Yerevan or sitting on the bench and looking at the world around me going by.

The city is very lively and seems to be always full with people of all ages (well, ok, not at 9 in the morning).

I had a feeling that the main activity for most of the residents is to hang out in the center. Seeing all these people spending time outside brought back nice memories of childhood and reminded me of the good old times without shopping centers dominating our life.

Actually that’s how I found Yerevan, a lovely city that could be as well based in the 1990s.

Sadly things are slowly changing, two shopping centers were opened, but still parks are full of old merry-go-rounds (that are always full of kids) or the smell of freshly made popcorn, there are lights and sound shows in the Republic Square (with music from the 1990s!;)) people simply enjoy spending time together, outside in the cafe, park or on a walk.

Visit Yerevan to enjoy delicious Armenian food!

And the food in Armenia? So delicious!

As a vegetarian, I could pick up from many options and each of them was better than the previous!

I mostly dined in either a restaurant serving food from Caucasus (named – surprise, surprise – “Caucasus”) or the Syrian falafel place.

In the first one the service was terrible but the food was amazing and fairly cheap!

I always went just for the mix of starters (vegetarian dolma must have been one of them each time, it was love at first bite!) and after 2-3 hours in the restaurant (speaking of bad service…)

I was so full I hardly could walk. And the bill never was bigger than 5.500AMD (13,50$ / 10€ / 40zł) for two people, lots of food and some drink included!

It literally was a food paradise for me!

Visit Yerevan to enjoy some art!

Yerevan is also a city of art.

Not only the main attraction is a Cascade complex that serves as the Cafesjian Museum of Art – a place full of really interesting contemporary art from the collection of the founder.

But there’s no need to visit the Museum itself as lots of the pieces of the exhibition are located either in the park leading to the Cascade, in the stairs of the complex or inside, where the escalator is (entrance on the left side).

The city is also full of various monuments of famous Armenians or other random art installations.

But my favorite thing was how neatly painted most of the gates in the city are.

It was a project made by the student of Yerevan State Academy of Fine Arts (or at least that’s what I heard) and it really added up to the city’s look and charm! All the paintings were so good I literally couldn’t decide which was my favorite one!

Day trips from Yerevan

Due to its central location, Yerevan also makes a perfect base for numerous day trips in Armenia.

There’re so many incredible places to see in the country and the most faraway one – Tatev Monastery – is located 4 hours from the capital.

I’ve seen most of the important sights in the country yet I never stayed overnight outside of Yerevan.

You can use public transport to the main cities (like Gyumri) or go for organized tours (which are really cheap and just your best option in Armenia) – either way you’ll love what you will see outside of the capital too!

While visiting the capital of Armenia I did the following day trips:

• Lake Sevan, Garni, Geghard, Khor Virap, Etchmiadzin, Noravank
• Aragatsotn Region
• Lori Province
• Noravank, Tatev, Zorats Karer

The location and Mount Ararat

With all the greatness that Yerevan has the main reason why it stole my heart is Mount Ararat and the spectacular views of it.

On some days you can see it very clearly, on others you just feel it’s there.

I could spend hours sitting on the stairs of Cascade and just staring at it, thinking about the tragic history of Armenia and the importance of this very place.

Oh wait, I actually did that, many times…

Where to stay in Yerevan

If you’re still wondering if it’s worth visiting Armenia don’t hesitate too long and just go!

It’s one of the most fascinating countries you’ll ever visit and the memories from it will stay with you forever!

If you give Yerevan a chance and spend there more time, taking things easy and just trying to live the local life I guarantee you – it will become one of your favorite cities too!

And if you’re looking for a place to stay in Yerevan – I’ve picked the best hotels in Yerevan for you, from budget to luxury! Click here to see them all!

Further reading

I published many articles about Armenia that you might find useful when planning your trip there. Here are some of them:

• 18 Amazing Places to Visit in Armenia
• 27 Armenia Travel Tips – all you need to know about visiting Armenia
• Armenia Itinerary – what to see in Armenia in 3-14 days
• 31 Amazing Things to Do in Yerevan, Armenia
• Yerevan travel tips – all you need to know about visiting Yerevan, Armenia
• Guide to the Cascade in Yerevan – City’s Biggest Attraction
• Guide to Yerevan Soviet architecture
• How to get from Tbilisi to Yerevan (or Yerevan to Tbilisi) – a complete guide

If you are looking for articles about a specific destination – check out the map with all the articles I’ve published (and their locations). You can also join my Facebook group about traveling in the Caucasus and ask your questions there.

Travel Resources

You can find the best accommodation options at Booking . They have many discounts and excellent customer service. Click here to look for the place to stay in Yerevan

Never travel without travel insurance , you never know what might happen and better safe than sorry. You can check the insurance policy for Armenia here.

I recommend joining organized tours to get to know the place better and to visit more places during your trip. You can find a great selection of tours at Get Your Guide – click here .

For the end I left a few announcements that might interest you:

• If you don’t want to miss new posts and news from me click here to sign to my newsletter! You can also follow me on Bloglovin!
• Join my Facebook group about Eastern Europe, the Balkans and former USSR and connect with fellow travellers and enthusiasts of these regions – just click here!
• I’ve included a few handy links of services and products I personally like and use so you can plan your own trip to Armenia too. They are often affiliate links. This means I will get a small commission if you book/purchase anything through my links, at no extra costs for you. If you like what you are reading and seeing here and would like to support me and my blog please consider using those links. It would be like getting me a virtual drink that you don’t have to pay for! Thanks!

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46 Comments

“If someone is looking for a base for freelance writing jobs then Yerevan is a top destination for this!” Ach. Perfect news :D

are you planning to move to Yerevan :D ? you know I’d visit frequently then :D ?

Lee Hamilton

Wow amazing pictures of Yerevan.Yet another place I have not thought about. i need to think about Armenia and Mount Ararat is truly an awesome sight.

Armenia is really amazing and Yerevan might be not beautiful in the classical way but it surely has a soul! And Mount Ararat is just epic!

Natalia | nataliawatras.com

Kami, I’ve already told you before that Yerevan is not my city at all BUT I have to admit, the view on Mount Ararat is even more than spectacular. First (and only) time in Armenia I felt my heart is beating faster :)

you just need to give Yerevan a chance, I think it’s totally your kind of the city ;) After my first visit there I didn’t like it at all, and then I fell in love so much with it! Next time you just need to go with me ;) And I can look for hours at Ararat and it never gets boring!

The Picktures

Come back;))

Monika Kaliszewska

Na mnie zrobila dobre wrazenie energia Erywania, ale mnie nie porwal. Niektore miejsca bardzo mi sie w nim podobaly, inne wcale. Musze tam dotrzec jeszcze do matenadaran muzeum. Miasto pelne kontrastow, troche surreal… Do Kondu dotarlismy wieczorem i powiem szczerze, w ciemnosciach troche byl dla mnie przerazajacy :) Generalnie pokochalam Gruzje bardziej niz Armenie rowniez, z wylaczeniem moze Nagorno-Karabakh. Do Armenii musze wrocic do Aragats bo nie dotarlismy tam. A Batumi jak unikalam tak bede unikac :D

Kami and the rest of the world

no własnie, miasto nie musi być piękne, żebym je uwielbiała, i tak tez jest z Erywaniem. ba, to chyba jedna z brzydszych stolic w jakich byłam, ale dla mnie i tak najwspanialsza, własnie przez ta energie i atmosferę. Gruzja dla mnie zbyt turystyczna się zrobiła, tym bardziej jak mam porównanie do 2011r, a Armenia dalej daje radę! Do Karabachu jeszcze nie dotarłam, chociaz plany za każdym razem były, ale Erywań mnie zbytnio wciągał

Nie omijaj Karabachu, jedz, dam ci namiary na Saro, jest absolutnie wspanialym hostem w Shushi! Ja do Karabachu musze wrocic obejrzec wiecej regionu :) Ludzie na miejscu wspominali, ze od kilku lat na granicy bardziej niespokojnie sie zrobilo, wiec moze byc warto pojechac tam wczesniej niz pozniej.. A Georgia- Zugdidi/Samegrelo – zero turystow, jeden z najpiekniejszych rejonow :)

Bohemian Traveler

Armenia has been one of my favorite countries, but I don’t remember Yerevan standing out when I visited 8 yrs ago.

the first time I went there was in 2012 and didn’t like it all that much but I just needed to give it time, now I’m kind of crazy about it ;) you should go back to see how it’s now!

I will be visiting Armenia on the 3rd week of September! Excited to experience what you’ve experienced!

Ah, lucky you!! I hope you will like it half as much as I did! :)

My favorite place in Yerevan is the staircase in Cascade. I can sit there for hours and watch people and the city. The view is so perfect from above. You can read a book or just paint what you imagine.

I totally agree! It’s my fave place in Yerevan too and I can easily spend hours there, just looking at the view!!

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[…] Kami and the rest of the world  dorzuca do tego zestawu jeszcze jedną nieoczywistą stolicę. […]

Top Markets in Eastern Europe (Flea and Otherwise) - concrete and kitsch - offbeat destinations from an offbeat traveler

[…] time there.  Many of my favorite bloggers absolutely adore Yerevan – Megan Starr and Kami and the Rest of the World.  I’ll write about my time there sooner or later – suffice to say we found it […]

Góra Ararat i klasztor Chor Wirap. Niesamowita Armenia.

[…] Erewań ominęliśmy, więc podrzucam kilka zdjęć z wpisu Kamili. Tekst visit yerevan co prawda jest po angielsku, jednak zdjęcia są zrozumiałem dla każdego! […]

The whole warm of Yerevan is in Cascade. Here is the youth of the city.

Agree! It’s probably my favorite place in the whole city!

I was in Yerevan last weekend and I fell in love with this city. When I went to the dancing fountain show, and saw the Republic Square, and heard monumental classical music there – I was thrilled! And how alive the city was! I hope I will come back there.

I also hope you will come back there! Yerevan is amazing, too bad not many people can see that!

Magdalena Broda

Ja bym wróciła właśnie też do Erywania ;)

8 reasons you need to take a city trip to Yerevan - Lost With Purpose

[…] and forms, from little shawarma/kebab hole-in-the-wall snack bars to luxurious dining experiences. Food in Yerevan will keep you coming back for […]

Lili Drmeyan

Thank you so much Kami for your kind words and opinion! You’re always welcome here :)

Thank you! I can’t wait to be back next year! :)

Just saw a fare from $388 on Emirates today and stumbled into your blog, looks like a great gateway to Baku as well which I have also heard great things about!

Baku might be more tricky to get as Armenia and Azerbaijan aren’t in very friendly relations but the whole Caucasus region is really interesting and I can definitely recommend visiting it!

This is my first trip in the Caucasus. I’ve read Kamis blog a few times, as I believe she is a great source of information on the area. I’ve referenced it many times. However, on Yerevan, I’m not completely convinced.

I’m here now. I’m really finding it hard to love this city. I don’t dislike it. The people and food are lovely. I just find it underwhelming and it’s more expensive than Georgia and Azerbaijan. A Russian friend said the same as Kami. Give it time. Didn’t like it my first visit but now I love it and understand what’s it about. But why would I come again where there is Athens, Belgrade or Tbilisi. What would warrant me coming back? There is better places to spend your time I believe. I’ll be heading back to Tbilisis after I leave. One thing I will say – after 3 months in Romania, 2 weeks Moldova, a month Georgia and a week in Baku – thie parks here are in a pitiful state. Up with some of the worst I’ve seen in a city. Don’t get me wrong, the people are adorable gentle and very warm. The food is delightful. Maybe it will grow on me but it is not a place I would dream to return to. Armenia countryside and landscape is where the true beauty lies.

However, I’ve come here to give a tip to first time travellers to Caucasus – go to Yeravan first. For two reasons. Tbilisi and Baku are breathtakingly beautiful (with stunning parks) and coming to Yerevan after will undoubtedly leave you feeling deflated. Most importantly. I’m British with a bio metric passport. I was held at passport control for 50 mins with no explanation other than ‘we need to check your passport’. To add insult to injury, bus loads of Chinese, loads of Russians and every other cat and dog went sailing by. It must have been the Azerbaijan stamps. Before I left Azerbaijan, I asked passport control if I’d have a prob to come back with Armenian stamps ‘no problem!,’ he shouted and smiled. This is why I came here to comment. Also to commend Kami on her excellent blog.

Thank you for your kind words. And for the feedback, I really appreciate it! All the best!

Thank you for this article! I am hoping to visit in the fall.

I hope you will! Yerevan is really amazing and so beautiful in the fall!

Hi Kami, Nice to hear good things about Yerevan. It is very interesting place to be. I used to live there for about 10 years during very bad time for my people from 1989.Armenia is beautiful everywhere and people are very friendly and hospitable. I love Armenia! I see you are from Poland. My husband will work in Bydgoszcz for few years. What would you suggest to visit first in your country? I’ve traveled a lot in my life- Morocco, Tunis, Caribbean, of course Caucasus, Russia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia and etc. Thanks

Thank you for your comment Marina! Armenia is one of my favorite countries to visit as even if people went through a lot, especially recently, they are still among the friendliest and most hospitable I’ve ever met! As for Poland from Bydgoszcz the easiest trips would be Toruń and Poznań, then you can explore the rest of the country and as there are so many places to visit here! The good thing about Poland is how diverse the country is, it will keep you occupied for a while :)

Heide Kazandjian

My husband is of Armenian decent, and we visited Armenia for the first time in his life (He is now 62 years old). As a family we went there with our own ideas of how we THOUGHT it might be…..and then we arrived in Yerevan and within an hour …we were totally in love with this city…the people, the buildings, the food, the history…EVERYTHING. We spent 5 days in this stunningly beautiful country, and the day we left I cried. I left my heart in ARMENIA….and we will be back!

I so can understand you! Even if I don’t have any Armenian origins (although there’s some suspicion in my family) I adore this place, it’s such an incredible country! I really hope you will make it there soon and enjoy it even more!

Prashant Kumar

Hi Kami – I am looking to visit either Yerevan or Sarajevo for 5 days. Please suggest the better destimation to visit

it’s hard to compare them, both are great places so it all depends on your interests.

Natali Bayraktaryan

I’ve been in so many countries around the world. From Usa to Egypt. but Yerevan has its special place in my hearth and soul. I’m an armenian living out of armenia. But I’m still sure every human being would find something to LOVE about this city. I’m visiting every year. And each time I call my friends and say “when are we going?”. You may not understand if you are not familiar but I miss even the bilbilags (water springs all around he city) I hope every one visits and enjoys as I do. I’m writing this comment on my way to airport. We’ll meet again tonight Serov (with love in armenian)

Thank you for your comment. Have a wonderful time in Armenia again!

Kirsty McHattie

I devoured this! I listened to a radio programme earlier today about Yerevan and looking at flights for a trip early next year. Armenia intrigues me and I can’t wait to experience it.

You will love it for sure! Armenia is amazing, such a beautiful country full of history, delicious food and friendly people. I can’t wait to go back!

One of the best article about Yerevan with amazing pictures, well done, thanks!!

Thank you! Yerevan really is one of my favorite cities, I love returning there!

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Armenia , landlocked country of Transcaucasia , lying just south of the great mountain range of the Caucasus and fronting the northwestern extremity of Asia . To the north and east Armenia is bounded by Georgia and Azerbaijan , while its neighbours to the southeast and west are, respectively, Iran and Turkey . Naxçıvan , an exclave of Azerbaijan, borders Armenia to the southwest. The capital is Yerevan (Erevan).

Modern Armenia comprises only a small portion of ancient Armenia, one of the world’s oldest centres of civilization. At its height, Armenia extended from the south-central Black Sea coast to the Caspian Sea and from the Mediterranean Sea to Lake Urmia in present-day Iran. Ancient Armenia was subjected to constant foreign incursions, finally losing its autonomy in the 14th century ce . The centuries-long rule of Ottoman and Persian conquerors imperiled the very existence of the Armenian people. Eastern Armenia was annexed by Russia during the 19th century, while western Armenia remained under Ottoman rule, and in 1894–96 and 1915 the Ottoman government perpetrated systematic massacres and forced deportations of Armenians.

The portion of Armenia lying within the former Russian Empire declared independence on May 28, 1918, but in 1920 it was invaded by forces from Turkey and Soviet Russia. The Soviet Republic of Armenia was established on November 29, 1920; in 1922 Armenia became part of the Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic; and in 1936 this republic was dissolved and Armenia became a constituent (union) republic of the Soviet Union . Armenia declared sovereignty on August 23, 1990, and independence on September 23, 1991.

The status of Nagorno-Karabakh (also called Artsakh), an enclave of 1,700 square miles (4,400 square km) in southwestern Azerbaijan populated primarily by ethnic Armenians, was from 1988 the source of bitter conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. By the mid-1990s Karabakh Armenian forces had occupied much of southwestern Azerbaijan, but, after a devastating war in 2020, they were compelled to withdraw from most of that area.

Armenia is a mountainous country characterized by a great variety of scenery and geologic instability. The average elevation is 5,900 feet (1,800 metres) above sea level . There are no lowlands: half the territory lies at elevations of 3,300 to 6,600 feet; only about one-tenth lies below the 3,300-foot mark.

The northwestern part of the Armenian Highland—containing Mount Aragats (Alaghez), the highest peak (13,418 feet, or 4,090 metres) in the country—is a combination of lofty mountain ranges, deep river valleys, and lava plateaus dotted with extinct volcanoes. To the north and east, the Somkhet, Bazum, Pambak, Gugark, Areguni, Shakhdag, and Vardenis ranges of the Lesser Caucasus lie across the northern sector of Armenia. Elevated volcanic plateaus (Lory, Shirak, and others), cut by deep river valleys, lie amid these ranges.

In the eastern part of Armenia, the Sevan Basin, containing Lake Sevan (525 square miles) and hemmed in by ranges soaring as high as 11,800 feet, lies at an elevation of about 6,200 feet. In the southwest, a large depression—the Ararat Plain —lies at the foot of Mount Aragats and the Geghama Range; the Aras River cuts this important plain into halves, the northern half lying in Armenia and the southern in Turkey and Iran.

Armenia is subject to damaging earthquakes . On December 7, 1988, an earthquake destroyed the northwestern town of Spitak and caused severe damage to Leninakan (now Gyumri ), Armenia’s second most populous city. About 25,000 people were killed.

Of the total precipitation, some two-thirds is evaporated, and one-third percolates into the rocks, notably the volcanic rocks, which are porous and fissured . The many rivers in Armenia are short and turbulent with numerous rapids and waterfalls. The water level is highest when the snow melts in the spring and during the autumn rains. As a result of considerable difference in elevation along their length, some rivers have great hydroelectric potential.

Most of the rivers fall into the drainage area of the Aras (itself a tributary of the Kura River of the Caspian Basin), which, for 300 miles (480 kilometres), forms a natural boundary between Armenia and Turkey and Iran.

The Aras’ main left-bank tributaries, the Akhuryan (130 miles), the Hrazdan (90 miles), the Arpa (80 miles), and the Vorotan (Bargyushad; 111 miles), serve to irrigate most of Armenia. The tributaries of the Kura —the Debed (109 miles), the Aghstev (80 miles), and others—pass through Armenia’s northeastern regions. Lake Sevan , with a capacity in excess of 9 cubic miles (39 cubic kilometres) of water, is fed by dozens of rivers, but only the Hrazdan leaves its confines.

Armenia is rich in springs and wells, some of which possess medicinal properties.

More than 15 soil types occur in Armenia, including light brown alluvial soils found in the Aras River plain and the Ararat Plain, poor in humus but still intensively cultivated; rich brown soils, found at higher elevations in the hill country; and chernozem (black earth) soils, which cover much of the higher steppe region. Much of Armenia’s soil—formed partly by residues of volcanic lava—is rich in nitrogen, potash, and phosphates. The labour required to clear the surface stones and debris from the soil, however, has made farming in Armenia difficult.

Because of Armenia’s position in the deep interior of the northern part of the subtropical zone, enclosed by lofty ranges, its climate is dry and continental. Regional climatic variation is nevertheless considerable. Intense sunshine occurs on many days of the year. Summer, except in high-elevation areas, is long and hot, the average June and August temperature in the plain being 77° F (25° C); sometimes it rises to uncomfortable levels. Winter is generally not cold; the average January temperature in the plain and foothills is about 23° F (−5° C), whereas in the mountains it drops to 10° F (−12° C). Invasions of Arctic air sometimes cause the temperature to drop sharply: the record low is −51° F (−46° C). Winter is particularly inclement on the elevated, windswept plateaus. Autumn—long, mild, and sunny—is the most pleasant season.

The ranges of the Lesser Caucasus prevent humid air masses from reaching the inner regions of Armenia. On the mountain slopes, at elevations from 4,600 to 6,600 feet, yearly rainfall approaches 32 inches (800 millimetres), while the sheltered inland hollows and plains receive only 8 to 16 inches of rainfall a year.

The climate changes with elevation, ranging from the dry subtropical and dry continental types found in the plain and in the foothills up to a height of 3,000 to 4,600 feet, to the cold type above the 6,600-foot mark.

The broken relief of Armenia, together with the fact that its highland lies at the junction of various biogeographic regions, has produced a great variety of landscapes. Though a small country, Armenia boasts more plant species (in excess of 3,000) than the vast Russian Plain . There are five altitudinal vegetation zones: semidesert, steppe, forest, alpine meadow, and high-elevation tundra.

The semidesert landscape, ascending to an elevation of 4,300 to 4,600 feet, consists of a slightly rolling plain covered with scanty vegetation, mostly sagebrush. The vegetation includes drought-resisting plants such as juniper, sloe, dog rose, and honeysuckle. The boar, wildcat, jackal, adder, gurza (a venomous snake), scorpion, and, more rarely, the leopard inhabit this region.

Steppes predominate in Armenia. They start at elevations of 4,300 to 4,600 feet, and in the northeast they ascend to 6,200 to 6,600 feet. In the central region they reach 6,600 to 7,200 feet and in the south are found as high as 7,900 to 8,200 feet. In the lower elevations the steppes are covered with drought-resistant grasses, while the mountain slopes are overgrown with thorny bushes and juniper.

The forest zone lies in the southeast of Armenia, at elevations of 6,200 to 6,600 feet, where the humidity is considerable, and also in the northeast, at elevations of 7,200 to 7,900 feet. Occupying nearly one-tenth of Armenia, the northeastern forests are largely beech. Oak forests predominate in the southeastern regions, where the climate is drier, and in the lower part of the forest zone hackberry, pistachio, honeysuckle, and dogwood grow. The animal kingdom is represented by the Syrian bear, wildcat, lynx, and squirrel. Birds—woodcock, robin, warbler, titmouse, and woodpecker—are numerous.

The alpine zone lies above 6,600 feet, with stunted grass providing good summer pastures. The fauna is rich; the abundant birdlife includes the mountain turkey, horned lark, and bearded vulture , while the mountains also harbour the bezoar goat and the mountain sheep , or mouflon.

Finally, the alpine tundra, with its scant cushion plants, covers only limited mountain areas and solitary peaks.

Armenians constitute nearly all of the country’s population; they speak Armenian , a distinct branch of the Indo-European language family. The remainder of the population includes Kurds, Russians, and small numbers of Ukrainians, Assyrians, and other groups.

Armenia was converted to Christianity about 300 ce , becoming the first kingdom to adopt the religion after the Arsacid king Tiridates III was converted by St. Gregory the Illuminator . The Armenians have therefore maintained an ancient and rich liturgical and Christian literary tradition. Believing Armenians today belong mainly to the Armenian Apostolic (Orthodox) Church or the Armenian Catholic Church , in communion with Rome.

Opinion: How lies on paper enabled Azerbaijan’s destruction of an Armenian community

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My mother has two birth dates: the one on her passport, and then the real one. She was born in January in the late ’60s in Beirut, Lebanon. But because her birth was not registered for another 10 weeks, official documents give a date in March. With every phone call she places to the bank or prescription she picks up at the pharmacy, when she is asked for a date of birth to confirm her identity, she is forced to confirm a falsehood.

Immigrant families like mine understand that what’s on paper is not always the truth. Sometimes paper tells little fibs, like my mother’s birth date, and sometimes paper tells monstrous lies that affect millions of people.

For the last century, Turkey has employed the power of paper to deny the Armenian genocide. Turkish history textbooks teach young students that there was no genocide; rather, the Turks were victims of Armenian aggression, leaving them with no choice but to target the traitors conspiring against them. One Turkish textbook estimates a death toll of 57,000 Armenians. Although the real number will never be known, historians put it at around 1.5 million.

Opinion: Why no one should believe reports of Armenians’ ‘voluntary’ exodus from Artsakh

Azerbaijan’s talking points about the assault on the Artsakh republic are not credible. It’s vital to recognize what’s really happening in the South Caucuses.

Oct. 5, 2023

This history of violence is being repeated today. Yet many people know nothing about Azerbaijan’s recent attacks against Armenians in the Caucasus because, for the last four years, the limited coverage has often misrepresented the truth.

In 2020, with Turkey’s support, Azerbaijan began the latest genocidal campaign against the Armenians, this time in the territory of Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh. Although this autonomous region was inhabited and controlled by Armenians, who the land belonged to was contested on paper.

Claiming this land as theirs, Azerbaijan beheaded civilians . It blasted residential areas with cluster munitions. Even after a cease-fire was called in November 2020, attacks continued and tensions escalated. Then, starting in December 2022, Azerbaijan trapped and starved the men, women and children of Artsakh in an illegal blockade, cutting off access to food, medicine and humanitarian aid. In September, after nine months of psychological and physical torment, Azerbaijan launched a final attack that would force the region to surrender and its Armenian population to flee, in effect ethnically cleansing Artsakh of its people.

While the Armenians of Artsakh documented and shared the horrors of their mass exodus on social media, Armenians in the diaspora witnessed their suffering and watched — in real time — a modern reiteration of death marches our ancestors had trekked. Meanwhile, the international community failed to see beyond what they were told on paper.

Much of the little concurrent reporting done on this conflict — reporting that has largely vanished in the past year — would include some version of the misleading statement that Artsakh is internationally recognized as Azerbaijan . In other words, among the first facts often established by the media on Artsakh is that the land belongs to Azerbaijan on paper, establishing a sense of justification for their violence.

World & Nation

Armenia and Azerbaijan move closer to normalizing ties as the first border marker goes up

Armenia and Azerbaijan move toward normalizing relations after a bitter conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Armenians call Artsakh.

April 23, 2024

The statement is deceptive; it is true but it is not the truth. In the 1920s, although the population of Artsakh was 90% Armenian , the USSR debated which Soviet republic the region would be officially aligned with. Armenia was poor and faced a refugee crisis following the Armenian genocide, while Azerbaijan sat on vast reserves of oil. So the Soviets prioritized economy rather than autonomy.

For decades, Armenians petitioned to change the demarcation of these borders. More than 100,000 protested , demanding recognition of Artsakh as Armenia. They were denied changes due to fear of inciting other border adjustment demands by nations throughout the Soviet Union. When the USSR collapsed in 1991, war erupted in Artsakh between the majority ethnic Armenian population and Azerbaijan. The war went on for years, killing more than 30,000 people on both sides, until ultimately, Armenia won. Yet still, the borders did not change on paper. Despite being inhabited and controlled by Armenians, and operated as an unofficial extension of Armenia, Artsakh remained “internationally recognized as Azerbaijan.”

Since its military loss in the ‘90s, Azerbaijan has employed a state-sponsored campaign of cultural erasure resembling the tactics of Turkey. In Azerbaijani literature, positive references to Armenia or Armenians have been removed. It’s as if we cannot exist in Azerbaijan, not even as fictional characters.

And now, we can no longer exist in Artsakh. In September, a decree was signed stating that the region would dissolve itself and cease to exist starting Jan. 1, 2024. Today, the Armenian territory of Artsakh no longer exists on paper.

With Artsakh in its possession, Azerbaijan has come closer to achieving shared goals with Turkey. If you look at a map, you’ll see that the only thing standing between Azerbaijan and Turkey, on paper and land, is Armenia and, so, Armenians. Officials in these countries have described Turks and Azeris as “ one nation, two states, ” which explains their long-standing intention to connect their noncontiguous borders by constructing a transport corridor through Armenia . This would clearly violate Armenia’s territorial sovereignty; however, because of the media’s negligent reporting and the international community’s failure to condemn Azerbaijan’s violence, these allies have been emboldened to disregard the integrity of the Armenian people and nation .

But there’s something more concrete than paper. Armenians have lived, and died, on this land for millennia. The rocks and stones of thousand-year-old Armenian churches and monasteries are engraved with Armenian inscriptions. The tombstones of centuries-old cemeteries are etched with Armenian names. Why are these carved facts not presented alongside what we are told by a source as thin, transparent and fragile as paper?

Because we’ve failed to ask this question, this evidence — Armenians’ cultural heritage — is being actively destroyed by Azerbaijan, just like our presence is being erased from its books.

And we are all to blame. We are not taught to question paper. We don’t understand its limitations. If we don’t want our ignorance to be weaponized by those in power, we must be aware of whose interest paper serves. It is our responsibility to ask questions seeking the longer, deeper story that should be told.

Taleen Mardirossian is working on a collection of essays that document the violence of erasure committed against her ancestors. She teaches writing at Harvard University.

More to Read

Turkish, Armenian special envoys resume talks aimed at reconciliation, reopening border

July 30, 2024

Armenia and Azerbaijan exchange POWs, talk peace

Dec. 13, 2023

Israeli arms helped Azerbaijan retake Nagorno-Karabakh, to the dismay of Armenians

Oct. 6, 2023

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Quality of life comparison

If you lived in United States instead of Armenia, you would:

live 4.5 years longer

In Armenia, the average life expectancy is 76 years (73 years for men, 80 years for women) as of 2022. In United States, that number is 81 years (78 years for men, 83 years for women) as of 2022.

be 79.2% more likely to be obese

In Armenia, 20.2% of adults are obese as of 2016. In United States, that number is 36.2% of people as of 2016.

make 4.0 times more money

Armenia has a GDP per capita of $16,100 as of 2022, while in United States, the GDP per capita is $64,600 as of 2022.

be 57.5% less likely to be unemployed

In Armenia, 8.6% of adults are unemployed as of 2022. In United States, that number is 3.6% as of 2022.

be 43.0% less likely to live below the poverty line

In Armenia, 26.5% live below the poverty line as of 2021. In United States, however, that number is 15.1% as of 2010.

pay a 10.0% higher top tax rate

Armenia has a top tax rate of 36.0% as of 2016. In United States, the top tax rate is 39.6% as of 2016.

be 22.2% less likely to die during childbirth

In Armenia, approximately 27.0 women per 100,000 births die during labor as of 2020. In United States, 21.0 women do as of 2020.

be 57.6% less likely to die during infancy

In Armenia, approximately 12.2 children (per 1,000 live births) die before they reach the age of one as of 2022. In United States, on the other hand, 5.2 children do as of 2022.

have 16.2% more children

In Armenia, there are approximately 10.5 babies per 1,000 people as of 2024. In United States, there are 12.2 babies per 1,000 people as of 2024.

Basic Needs

be 19.5% more likely to have internet access

In Armenia, approximately 77.0% of the population has internet access as of 2022. In United States, about 92.0% do as of 2021.

Expenditures

spend 2.2 times more on education

Armenia spends 2.8% of its total GDP on education as of 2021. United States spends 6.1% of total GDP on education as of 2020.

spend 54.1% more on healthcare

Armenia spends 12.2% of its total GDP on healthcare as of 2020. In United States, that number is 18.8% of GDP as of 2020.

The statistics above were calculated using the following data sources: The World Factbook , Internal Revenue Service, Tax Service of Republic of Armenia.

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University of Notre Dame

Undergraduate Admissions

Tips from Counselors

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Tackling the Personal Essay: Tips from a Notre Dame Admissions Counselor

Published: August 30, 2024

Author: Zach Klonsinski

If you ask almost any admissions professional which part of reading applications is their favorite, it’s likely their answer will be a resounding, “The essays!” Essays are where we get to engage with students’ hopes, fears, dreams, life experiences (and more) in their authentic voice. We are humbled every year getting to “meet” all the incredible young people who are applying to Notre Dame through their essays!

Yet, writing an essay introducing yourself can be really hard. Maybe you’ve never done so before, or you haven’t for a really long time, and often it will seem really awkward. That’s OK!

It feels hard because it is–or at least it can be.

Don’t worry, though! I love sharing tips with applicants about the personal essay that will hopefully help you see it as an opportunity to learn more about yourself and then share that discernment with the colleges who will be fortunate enough to receive your application!

Getting started

The easiest way to get started is by simply brainstorming! I love using pen and paper (I’m anti-pencil, though I realize that may be a divisive opinion). The physical materials help me feel less constrained by technology, though you may find the technology comforting.

Use bulleted lists or short phrases to capture ideas, life experiences, values, and more. Every day, set aside five minutes to write about yourself or your college discernment process without stopping to think. Where does your mind lead you when you get out of your own way?

Ask your friends and family to help you identify values that are important to you or things that make you.. well… you! Often it’s easier to highlight and say nice things about someone else than it is ourselves, so lean on those who know you well!

Group these collective nuggets to see if any patterns or stories emerge. Do you see any prompts on your application that align with your brainstorming? The Common Application, for example, has seven to choose from, including a make your own prompt! Start writing on one that makes you pause, as that means you might have something to say! Don’t be afraid to go longer than your word count or to use an atypical form of writing.

While that specific level of chaos may not work for you, I always recommend staying away from sentences and avoiding constraining yourself while writing because…

Editing is more than spelling and grammar!

When we want to “edit” something, it can be tempting to start–and just as quickly end–with spell check. (Yes, your essay should have proper spelling and grammar, but please know we are not reading your essay with a red pen “grading” every single comma.)

What is far more important–though also far more intimidating–is your essay’s content.

What really improved my writing actually had nothing to do with me–rather, it was finding trusted editors to give me honest and constructive feedback. While it’s tempting to have your best friend or family member read your essay, I’ve found my best editors possess a strong rhetorical mind, ask thoughtful questions, and are not afraid to tell me when something isn’t working the way I think it is.

This may describe someone close to you, but maybe not. Maybe there’s a classmate or teacher who you have always admired, even if you don’t know them that well. Editing is an incredibly vulnerable process; don’t be afraid to lean into that vulnerability! I promise that a strong editor who works with your voice and style–rather than rewriting your essay how they would have–will help bring forth an authentic essay you didn’t even realize you could write!

Speaking of, authenticity will lead to your best essay

The best application essay is the one that helps us get to know you. Period. Full stop. Any topic can be a good topic, any topic can be a bad topic. At the end of the day, the topic you choose to write about is only a gateway to help us get to know you!

Let’s think of it another way. Say you printed out your essay at your school, without your name or other identifying information on it, and someone who knows you picked it up and read it. If they said, “I bet this is (your name)’s essay,” I can already tell you’re on the right track. There’s something truly you about it!

Where can I find more about writing application essays?

I’m so glad you asked! On our On-Demand Sessions webpage , you can find a number of helpful recorded sessions from our College Application Workshop series. One of them, co-presented by yours truly, is called “Crafting the Perfect College Essay”. My colleague Maria Finan and I present our own tips and tricks for about 20 minutes and then take questions from a virtual audience for the remainder of the 45 minute session. I invite you to check it out, as well as the other sessions we have recorded!

Ready to Write Your App Essays? Advice from an Admissions Counselor on the Notre Dame Supplement

Zach Klonsinski is a senior assistant director with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

He is the regional counselor for Minnesota, Missouri (Kansas City), Wisconsin, Rwanda, Kenya, France, Portugal, Spain, Andorra, Monaco, and China - Beijing

• Read Zach's profile.

My Demoralizing but Not Surprising Cancellation

About an hour before my first book event, I heard from my publicist that the bookstore had “concerns” about my conversation partner, Rabbi Andy Bachman, because he was a “Zionist.”

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Last Tuesday, I was supposed to have launched my first book, Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life , with an event at a bookstore in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Dumbo—a conversation between me and the well-known Reform rabbi Andy Bachman.

The event didn’t happen. About an hour before the intended start, I heard from my publicist that the bookstore had “concerns” about Rabbi Bachman because he was a “Zionist.” I received another call while in a car on the way to the store: The manager was now refusing to host the conversation with the rabbi. When I arrived, I asked her why she would not permit the event to go forward as planned. Her response: “We don’t want a Zionist onstage.”

I was taken aback. Rabbi Bachman is an outspoken social-justice advocate and a supporter of the establishment of a Palestinian state (and my former teacher). My book is a history of American Jewish life in the second half of the 20th century, and deals critically with Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Because of my analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as my reporting about and public opposition to Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and siege of Gaza, I had feared that synagogues would be reluctant (and surely some still are) to host events. I did not anticipate that the trouble would come from a bookstore in Brooklyn.

Adam Kirsch: The false narrative of settler colonialism

Then again, perhaps I should not have been surprised at all. Since October 7, the public discourse on Israel and Palestine has curdled. Some right-wing supporters of Israel have become cheerleaders for violence. In certain spaces that call themselves progressive, intolerance has become endemic and conspiratorial thinking is on the rise. The result across the board: Nuance has evaporated, and humanity is in short supply.

My would-be book launch also exemplified the bind that many progressive American Jews face. We are caught between parts of an activist left demanding that we disavow our communities, even our families, as an entrance ticket, and a mainstream Jewish institutional world that has long marginalized critics of Israeli policy. Indeed, Jews who are committed to the flourishing of Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora, and who are also outraged by Israel’s brutal war in Gaza, feel like we have little room to maneuver.

On the one hand, we can no more renounce our families, friends, and communities than we can ourselves, and the demand that we do so is wrong. It is straightforwardly anti-Semitic to ask, as the bookstore manager did with her blanket ban on Zionists, that Jews support Israel’s dismantling as a criterion for participation in intellectual life. This is a condition that most Jews, who when surveyed describe strong attachment to Israel, could not meet. And it is a kind of litmus test that should not be asked (and generally is not) of any other group of people.

On the other hand, we cannot ignore Israel’s devastation of the Gaza Strip, and should be fearful of shifting attention away from the human catastrophe unfolding in the territory. Friends on the left have warned me that making too much of last week’s deplatforming has already had this effect. I worry about bolstering tribalist thinking, which is precisely the mentality that for decades has blinded so many in mainstream Jewish institutions to the grinding, daily injustices of the occupation of the West Bank and siege of Gaza—and, more recently, inured them to the horrific fact that this war has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, most of them civilians .

But silence about the pitfalls of the left carries its own risks—including risks to the left itself. My experience last week was so demoralizing in part because such episodes make moving the mainstream Jewish community much harder. Every time a left-wing activist insists that the only way to truly participate in the fight for peace and justice is to support the dissolution of Israel, it reinforces the zero-sum (and morally repulsive) idea that opposing the status quo requires Israel’s destruction. Rhetorical extremism and dogmatism make it easier for right-wing Israel supporters to dismiss what should be legitimate demands—for instance, conditions on U.S. military aid—as beyond the pale.

The new left-wing norm that insists on one-state maximalism is not only a moral mistake. It is also a strategic one. If there is one thing that the past year of cease-fire activism has illustrated, it is that changing U.S. policy on Israel requires a broad coalition. That big tent must have room for those who believe in Jewish self-determination and are committed to Israel’s existence, even as they work to end its domination over Palestinians.

Many on the right, not just the far left, scoff at the possibility of such a coalition. For the past several days, my inbox has been filled with hateful crowing that the cancellation of my book launch is the bitter fruit that I and other left-wing Jews deserve. What did I expect? Hadn’t I written more than 100 articles documenting Israeli human-rights abuses and the occupation’s quotidian cruelty? Didn’t I advocate for policies, including boycotts, that would pressure Israel to change its policies? So how could I now complain that similar tactics were being used against me? The ejection of Zionists and Israelis from polite society was on my hands.

To these critics I must insist on a difference between boycotts of entire groups of people based on their identity or the ideas they are assumed to hold, and boycotts of goods produced in unlawfully occupied territories. The former are antithetical to democratic public life—as the owner of the bookstore argued in his statement apologizing for the cancellation. The latter, by contrast, are a staple of nonviolent resistance, crucial tools for achieving genuine democracy.

Arash Azizi: Is a new Palestinian movement being born?

No doubt, I regret certain sentences and even articles I’ve written about Israel in the past, which today I would phrase differently. The October 7 attacks painfully resensitized me to the reality of Israeli Jewish vulnerability, which exists despite the massive power imbalance between Israel and the Palestinians. I was too often willing to overlook this fact. Opening one’s eyes to the dehumanization of Palestinians does not require closing one’s eyes to the dehumanization of Israelis, and vice versa. If Rabbi Bachman and I had been able to have our conversation last week, we could have discussed what might be the one immutable truth about Israel and Palestine these days: Neither Israelis nor Palestinians are going anywhere, and both peoples have the right to equality, dignity, and self-determination. No movement that ignores this reality has any hope of success.

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Guest Essay

I’m a College President, and I Hope My Campus Is Even More Political This Year

By Michael S. Roth

Mr. Roth is the president of Wesleyan University.

Last year was a tough one on college campuses, so over the summer a lot of people asked me if I was hoping things would be less political this fall. Actually, I’m hoping they will be more political.

That’s not to say that I yearn for entrenched conflict or to once again hear chants telling me that I “can’t hide from genocide,” much less anything that might devolve into antisemitic or Islamophobic harassment or violence. But since at least the 1800s, colleges and universities in the United States have sought to help students develop character traits that would make them better citizens. That civic mission is only more relevant today. The last thing any university president should want is an apolitical campus.

College students have long played an important, even heroic role in American politics. Having defended the voting franchise during the civil rights movement and helped to end the Vietnam War, they have continued to work for change across a range of social issues. If you went to college in the past 50 years, there’s a good chance the mission statement of your school included language that emphasized the institution’s contribution to society. Like many others, my university’s founding documents speak of contributing to the good of the individual and the good of the world. Higher-education institutions have never been neutral .

The issue that matters most to many activists right now is the war in Gaza, and protesters will undoubtedly continue to make their voices heard. Last spring at Wesleyan, students built an encampment of up to about 100 tents to protest the war and to call for the university to divest from companies thought to be supporting it. Since the protest was nonviolent and the students in the encampment were careful not to disrupt normal university operations, we allowed it to continue because their right to nonviolent protest was more important than their modest violations of the rules.

I walked through the protest area daily, as did many faculty members, students and staff members. I also met with pro-Israel students, mostly Jewish, some of whom felt beleaguered by what their classmates were saying. I made clear that if any of them felt harassed, I would intervene. I also said that I could ensure their ability to pursue their education but that I could not protect them from being offended.

I disagreed with the protesters ’ tactics and some of their aims — and I was often the target of their anger — but I respected their strong desire to bear witness to the tragedy unfolding in Gaza. Before commencement, we reached an agreement with the students that they would clear the encampment and in turn be able to make their case to the board of trustees. They will do so this fall, as will pro-Israel students. I trust the experience will be a valuable lesson in how to communicate with people who may not share your views.

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From the Garden State to the Granite State

The move that brought me to live and work in this rural, sometimes remote area of new hampshire has shown me that courage comes in bits and opportunities..

“Do you keep my New Jersey license?” I asked the woman behind the window at the New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles in Concord.

But I already knew the answer. Still, I hoped.

“Yes,” she said that February morning. “We send it back to New Jersey.”

“It feels kind of weird,” I said, barely one month into living in the Granite State. “It’s been me. It’s been who I am.”

She looked me in the eye and said, “You’re very brave.”

She was not the first to call me brave. She was not the last to say it, to write it in a card. But I was on autopilot since I received an inviting job offer a few days before Christmas. There was much to do.

The pandemic, I quickly learned, transformed an affordable real estate market in the Granite State to the Wild West of home buying or renting an apartment — the same story as the rest of the country: no inventory and skyrocketing prices . Still, no match for Ginger, my high school friend who was like an English pointer, doggedly scouring housing websites for me for weeks, until she reached a breakthrough and found a new listing. I needed a decent place to land. Check. Pet-friendly. Check.

Over text, I was introduced to a future colleague who FaceTimed me during a walk-through so I could see the apartment. By Jan. 8, I was setting up the electric utility account for my apartment, situated between the Lakes Region and the gateway to the White Mountains.

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It took awhile before I understood what that meant, the beauty, the majesty, the isolation.

Dodging New Hampshire snowstorms, I moved in on Jan.12, with a job-start date of the 15th.

I left the Garden State with a friend who lovingly packed a 12-foot trailer with several pieces of furniture that would make this one-bedroom galley apartment home. I left my childhood home in the hands of friends who would caretake the last place where my family had been a family and help offset the cost of expenses. I left my neighborhood with the tears and hugs of neighbors. I knew this house. I knew this town, this state, these roads. Eventually, living in the day-to-day of New Hampshire, when the boxes were unpacked and the furniture shaped a home, I came to realize that I left familiarity, and recognizing that held its own kind of emptiness.

There are things that my small and unpretentious wardrobe never imagined, like fleece-lined pants or NASA-technology down jackets. Their warmth and comfort do not eclipse my sense of what it must feel like to be an astronaut wearing a diaper. And the boots. Oh, the many boots.

Adjusting to winter seemed frivolous compared to driving an hour to shop at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. Two hours to Costco was like Christmas. I was shopping for familiar comforts. Some days, just deciding which boots to wear and leaving the apartment and getting on roads without cell service seemed brave. For this suburban kid who has always lived a stone’s throw away from Manhattan, driving on dirt and densely wooded roads is not natural.

And when mud season arrived, like the day I found myself unintentionally off-roading — seriously, some people do this for recreation? — it was nothing short of terrifying. I have never seen mud tracks that were somewhere between six inches and “We’re sinking.”

Would the SOS button in my Subaru work? Would anyone find me if something happened? There was no place to turn. I understood one thing: Keep the car moving forward. It was time for X-mode, a feature that I had never before used but was willing to trust. It felt at once like I was an action figure clawing the earth and Captain Kirk commanding the Starship Enterprise. Oddly exhilarated and terrified, I steered the Subaru up over the mountain. Not bad for a flatlander. I felt something akin to courage.

As my days and months in New Hampshire pass — now just shy of eight months — there have been other mettle detectors, like the nine-hour drive home from what now plays like an adventure movie: Escape from the Eclipse. On the winding, wooded roads where I have learned to trust my companion, the British GPS man, my once-sheer panic is mostly a diluted nervousness. It lasts for a moment, while I mentally review whether I have water, coffee, or food in the car. But then I hear myself: We’re OK. Everything is OK. And I go back to listening to my book on tape. Or I see the sun filtering through the richly forested areas, the elegant, feathery ferns, the impressive rock walls, and I see the elements as the forces they are: self-assured, nonthreatening.

Through snow or mist, the mountains — set against the greening of the trees, the painted clouds, and big sky — carry a nobility. Breathing in the expansive landscapes that brim with possibilities, I cannot help but feel that too. And the move that brought me, a writer, to live and work in this rural, sometimes remote area of New Hampshire has shown me that courage comes in bits and opportunities.

“You’re very brave,” she said.

Yes. I now know what she means.

Mary Ann D’Urso is a freelance writer.

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