Jews in Armenia: The Hidden Diaspora

Vartan Akchyan

While the territory of Armenia has shrunk consistently, the Armenian map of the world has widened and now encompasses almost every single continent. A piece of Armenian culture lives and thrives in the most remote areas of the world, while Armenia itself only houses approximately 30 percent of the global Armenian population. This dispersion gives birth to quests for personal identity among many Armenians in the Diaspora.

Although Armenians are usually thought of as a single group, similar to the Jews, there are several subgroups that make up the greater Armenian ethnicity. Western Armenians are comprised of the Diaspora while Eastern Armenians are comprised of Armenians in the Republic of Armenia. These two groups, in turn, include smaller communities of Armenians living throughout the world, such as North and South American Armenians, Australian Armenians, Iranian Armenians, etc. While these communities have shared traits that are distinctively Armenian, there still exist important differences, which can be used as identity markers to distinguish among the various subgroups. This creates syntheses of identity based on national, religious, territorial, and ethnic characteristics. Is a person living in the United States with an Armenian grandfather really an Armenian? Who decides? Much about the Armenian identity, both at home and abroad, remains unclear. . .

Vartan Akchyan is associated with Georgetown University's Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship. He directed a documentary film on Jews in Armenia, which premiered in New York City in June 2002.