Belmont Citizen-Herald, MA
Oct 21 2004

Scholar to discuss Armenian immigration to America

Visiting scholar Dr. Knarik Avakian of the Institute of History,
National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, will speak on “Armenian
Immigration to the U.S.: Evidence From the Constantinople
Patriarchate” tonight (Thursday) at 8 p.m. at the Center and
Headquarters of the National Association for Armenian Studies and
Research (NAASR), 395 Concord Ave., Belmont.

Avakian has conducted a thorough study of the origins and
development of the largest and most organized Armenian diasporan
community, that of the United States of America. The author of the
Armenian-language “History of the Armenian Community of the United
States of America (From the beginning to 1924),” published in Yerevan
in 2000, she is also the author of over 50 articles on the Armenian
Diaspora, especially immigration to the United States.

Under various historical circumstances, the Armenians were
compelled to leave their native lands and immigrate to the United
States for individual, educational, economic, political, cultural,
religious and other purposes. These Armenian emigrants, who came
primarily from the Armenian-inhabited regions of Turkey and Western
Armenia, maintained their relations with the Armenian Patriarchate of
Constantinople, regarding it as their permanent spiritual, moral, and
practical bulwark. This fact is testified to by the extremely
valuable documents kept up to the present day at the Archives of the
Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople (founded in 1461).

Avakian was educated at Yerevan State University, where she
received a master’s degree in history, and completed a Ph.D. at the
Institute of History, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of
Armenia. She has taught history at the university level in Armenia
and currently serves as senior researcher at the Institute of
History, senior editor at the Armenian Encyclopedia, and is head of
the Young Scientists’ Council at the Institute of History.

Admission to the event is free (donations appreciated). The
NAASR bookstore will open at 7:30 p.m. The NAASR Center and
Headquarters is located opposite the First Armenian Church and next
to the U.S. Post Office. Ample parking is available around the
building and in adjacent areas.

For more information about the lecture call 617-489-1610, or
e-mail hq@naasr.org.