Yerevan /Mediamax/. Historian and former chief advisor to Armenia’s first president, Gerard Libaridian, has described the Armenian Diaspora as "a complex, living, and continuously developing phenomenon.”

He said this during his lecture “How to Think About the Diaspora” at the National Library of Armenia.

 

The National Library’s news release about the lecture, in particular, states:

“Gerard Libaridian has noted that the formation of the Armenian Diaspora has been shaped by both voluntary and artificial factors. In the Middle Ages and later periods, merchants, artisans, and scholars migrated in search of economic opportunities and new intellectual and cultural environments.

More tragic chapters of Diaspora formation, are linked to persecutions, wars, and state policies that forced large populations to leave their ancestral homes. The massacres of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Armenian Genocide, and subsequent waves of repression triggered massive deportations and displacement.

 

According to Gerard Libaridian, the issue of Armenian identity – its preservation and evolution –has always been central to Diaspora life and will remain so. He highlighted the fact that Armenia’s independence and international recognition have significantly transformed and, in some ways alleviated the issues of the identity crisis for new generations. 

Diaspora communities follow different trajectories: some grow, specialize, and strengthen, while others gradually fade. This, according to Libaridian, is a natural process driven by language loss, assimilation, social integration, and demographic change.

 

As an example, he presented the Armenian community in Cuba. In the 1920s, it was a relatively large and active Armenian-speaking community. Over time, however, due to natural decline and emigration, only about ten families remained a decade ago, and today it is likely that no Armenian-speaking families are left. This case, he explained, demonstrates how some Diaspora centers gradually disappear without upheaval, while others thrive, evolve, and acquire new forms and roles.

The historian said that the Diaspora should not be viewed as a “completed” historical fact, but as a dynamic system, living in an environment of different cultures, languages, and state structures. This reality implies simultaneous ups and downs, creation and destruction, consolidation and dissolution, which, according to Libaridian, is natural for such a polycentric and open structure.”