Description
In this paper, we explore the role of the early 20th-century Armenian genocide and the unresolved Karabakh conflict of the 1990s in conceptions of identity among the new generation of Armenian diaspora - those who grew up after the establishment of the independent Armenian state in 1991. We draw on original interviews with Armenian diasporic youth in France, the United Kingdom, and Russia - the diasporas that were largely built in the aftermath of the genocide and the Karabakh war. Diaspora youth relate to these events through transmitted collective memories, but also reconnect with the distant homeland’s past and present in new ways. We explore how the new possibilities of digital communication and transnational mobility reinforce or challenge established identity narratives and memories transmitted through generations. Identity experiences of the diapora youth shed light on how the new generation of diasporic Armenians defines itself in relation to the past; how this past is (re)made present in their interpretations of the Karabakh conflict and in everyday behaviors; and how diasporic youth experience the dilemmas of “moving on” from traumatic narratives that for a long time have been seen as foundational to their identity.
