2025 Theses Master's

Strategies of Fragmental Preservation Among Displaced Armenian Communities

Danielyan, Jacqueline

Throughout history and in current times, Armenians and Armenian heritage have been threatened by deliberate destruction, mainly through the hands of Turkey and Azerbaijan. From the Armenian Genocide in 1915 to the current forced displacement of Artsakh Armenians, the Armenian community has been displaced numerous times, with their culture, identity, and heritage being at risk.

This thesis will focus on how destruction leads to displacement, and how the Armenian community has resisted this oppression while preserving their memories and destruction, through intangible fragments. The research will include looking back at history, including the Armenian Genocide committed by Turkey, as well as the exodus of Artsakh, where the same tactics were used by Azerbaijan with the help of Turkey, but its main goal will focus on collecting and presenting information on the preservation initiatives throughout the diaspora; in Artsakh, Syria, Lebanon, America, and Armenia. It is crucial to revisit the past efforts of erasure and emphasize the Armenian community's resilience from the past to the present. It is because of history that the Armenian community finds strategies within themselves to preserve, as difficult as it is to prepare for what can happen.

Fragments have been commonly used in preservation to identify and link loss, destruction, and history. This thesis focuses on fragmental preservation as a methodology, but it will be viewed as a more community-based and unidentified approach. It will define how fragments are used as powerful objects to recognize existence and resilience and re-create memories and spaces that are no longer accessible. The Armenian community kept fragments of destruction, forming connections to draw back memories, and to identify their displaced locations. Fragments are used to create a roadmap of displacement, tracing the movement of the community, from one place to the next, telling difficult histories.

As our world is so accustomed to viewing fragments in public, fragments are also used in secrecy. This thesis also researches how displaced Armenian communities commemorate the intangible and preserve their identity through fragmental preservation, as well as the role of preservationists in this matter, where fragmental preservation is done in secrecy.

Fragments and fragmental preservation suggest not only the preservation of tactile destroyed elements alone, but rather how the pieces rely heavily on community involvement, through collection and protection. Fragments indicate culture, history, pain, fear, joy, loss, hope, resilience, and resistance. These collections are formed to represent a sense of continuity, and the Armenian community has held onto this constant perception for over a century. Facing deliberate destruction from Turkey and Azerbaijan, the Armenian community did not get much protection for their cultural heritage, which led to their hope of resilience through fragmental preservation, by whatever means they could.