This book argues that Armenians around the world - in the face of the Genocide, and despite the absence of an independent nation-state after World War I - developed dynamic socio-political, cultural, ideological and ecclesiastical centres. And it focuses on one such centre, Beirut, in the postcolonial 1940s and 1950s. Tsolin Nalbantian explores Armenians' discursive re-positioning within the newly independent Lebanese nation-state; the political-cultural impact (in Lebanon as well as Syria) of the 1946-8 repatriation initiative to Soviet Armenia; the 1956 Catholicos election; and the 1957 Lebanese elections and 1958 mini-civil war. What emerges is a post-Genocide Armenian history of - principally - power, renewal and presence, rather than one of loss and absence.

This book argues that Armenians around the world - in the face of the Genocide, and despite the absence of an independent nation-state after World War I - developed dynamic socio-political, cultural, ideological and ecclesiastical centres. And it focuses on one such centre, Beirut, in the postcolonial 1940s and 1950s.Tsolin Nalbantian explores Armenians' discursive re-positioning within the newly independent Lebanese nation-state; the political-cultural impact (in Lebanon as well as Syria) of the 1946-8 repatriation initiative to Soviet Armenia; the 1956 Catholicos election; and the 1957 Lebanese elections and 1958 mini-civil war. What emerges is a post-Genocide Armenian history of - principally - power, renewal and presence, rather than one of loss and absence.

Essays included in this volume are: Armenian-North American literature and the possibility of a Diaspora culture; lost fathers and abandoned sons - the silence of generations in Armenian-North American literature; Armenia imagined - homeland and Diaspora in Armenian-North American literature; and exile, Diaspora and the Armenian writer in a multicultural Canada. The essays stand in relation to the late-20th-century events in the Community of Independent States, specifically the independence of the Republic of Armenia, represents late-1990s thinking on the Diaspora.

The Armenian Diaspora is a case study of the Armenian diaspora in Manchester, England. This study examines the complex social and political processes at play that maintain and shape Armenian identity. Professor Aghanian uses a comparative analysis in order to understand other Armenian communities throughout the world and other self-defined diaspora groups, locating similarities and differences between the various groups. Professor Aghanian introduces the study by her definition of diaspora and an examination of classic and contemporary theories of ethnicity while she outlines how we construct our sense of identity in different settings. The tone of the study lends itself to a narration of the long, rich, and often traumatic history of the Armenian people: their adoption of Christianity; the rise of Armenian nationalism; the dispersion of the Armenians throughout the world; and their eventual independence. The outcome of the study is a close look at how Armenians successfully balance lives rooted in a particular territory while sharing very different cultural and social spaces. Their experience emphasizes their ability to combine resources and networks from multiple locations (transnationally) in order to maximize their freedom and independence from the confines of any nation. Ethnic consciousness is experienced in a variety of ways, nevertheless, wherever and however they are living they feel Armenian.

This volume goes through the pertinent moments in Armenian history to prepare an understanding of perhaps the most important fact of Armenian life, the genocide of 1915 which gave rise to the Armenian Diaspora. It employs a theoretical approach developed by Jurgen Link called collective symbols.

This work approaches Armenian history and the 'Armenian question' in a new way and addresses topics that are not discussed elsewhere.