From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Armenians/Isabel Kaprielian-Churchill
Armenian ethnic commitment in Canada has remained intense because of loyalty to the homeland and a desire to hold together the remnant people in the diaspora and educate the young about their heritage. The collapse of Armenian communities in the homeland, resettlement in countries of exile, and subsequent uprooting a generation or two later from countries of refuge have created both a sense of insecurity and a determination to survive as Armenians: “It is the fear of dying which keeps us alive. It is just that fear that keeps us Armenian. If we lose the fear of extinction, then we will not survive. It is that fear which brings us together and leads us to build schools, churches, and cultural centres.”
For Armenians, history is one of the most powerful forces of group identity and cohesion. The events of 1915–23 galvanized opinion in the community, in favour either of the irredentists or of Soviet Armenia. Such polemics, while divisive, kept Armenian issues at the forefront of daily life. Since the 1920s Armenians have commemorated Martyrs’ Day (24 April) each year. They teach young people about it in their schools lest it be forgotten. Turkey’s denial of the Genocide has rallied Armenians in a common cause, and desire for recognition has mobilized them against a common foe.
In the past, immigrants consolidated their family and social networks to give the community a strong foundation. Partly by choice and partly from pressure, endogamy remained relatively common until the late 1950s. It persists in the third wave, though exogamy is increasing, despite family and community opposition. For example, 1981 and 1991 census data for Quebec reveal an increase from 14 percent to 18 percent of Armenians reporting multiple ethnic origins.
The Armenian neighbourhood was the locus of social integration and community activities. As inhabitants died or drifted away, the working-class areas in Brantford, Hamilton, and St Catharines declined; the Hunchag and Tashnag halls in Brantford were sold and not replaced. In cities where community life continued, changes in transportation and communications rendered the neighbourhood obsolete. The Tashnags in St Catharines and more recently those in Hamilton sold the halls and built new structures in the suburbs. Such community centres offer many services and facilities, allow for cultural, political, and religious expressions, and create opportunities for leadership within the community. The one notable exception to suburban drift is St Gregory’s Apostolic Church in St Catharines. Built in 1930 near the General Motors plant, in the heart of the Armenian neighbourhood, it continues to attract parishioners, both oldtimers and newcomers. Under the direction of the Reverend Shenork Souin, a Canadian-born Armenian, it recently marked its sixty-fifth anniversary with a project to expand church facilities on the same site.
As a minority in the Ottoman Empire and later in Middle Eastern countries, Armenians were conscious of their distinctiveness. They entered Canada as members of a collectivity, fully aware of their group identity. Early in this century, they set up two constituencies in Canada, which have sustained community life and provided leadership. For almost one hundred years, the Tashnag party and the Apostolic Church, with their ancillary subgroups, have translated Armenian aspirations and discontent into collective action and shaped Armenian identity in Canada. Following recent immigration, other Armenian agencies (notably, the AGBU), language schools, communications networks, and cultural activities have spurred ethnic revival. Seventy-five years ago Armenians tried to maintain a bond with each other through their newspapers and field workers. When Mourad (Hampartsoum) Boyajian, a noted Hunchag, and Agnouni Khachadour Malumian, a prominent Tashnag, visited southern Ontario before 1914, they brought the little settlements into the sphere of Armenian international life. Globalism marks community life even more today, because each grouping has intra- and international counterparts in the diaspora.
Modern technology facilitates quick and inexpensive communication among networks and individuals; developments overseas affect Armenian communities in Canada. The fall of the Communist regime brought an end to the pro– and anti–Soviet Armenia polarization in Canada and enhanced group solidarity with the free republics of Armenia and Karabakh. Events in the Caucasus mobilized Armenians in Canada to raise funds, ship supplies, and visit and work in the republics. Medical associations, for example, have sent supplies and expertise, and business organizations have begun joint-venture programs in Armenia. Under the sponsorship of Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, young people travel to Armenia every summer to help in reconstruction (Canadian Youth Mission to Armenia, or CYMA). The political crisis between the Tashnag party and the present regime highlights the relationship between a political party-in-exile and the homeland’s nation-state. In this case, the newly reconstituted state has claimed the powerful symbols of the first republic – flag, anthem, and insignia – at the same time that its regime has expelled the political party that sought creation of the free nation-state. The bonds of loyalty to party and to state are blurring. The current situation has also generated debate in Canada about the mutual expectations of the homeland and the diaspora, the responsibilities of the diaspora as part of the Armenian nation, and the diaspora’s existence as an autonomous entity with a life, history, and mission of its own.
During more than a century in Canada, Armenians have displayed three characteristics: ethnopatriotism, or a profound and engrossing attachment to the homeland and its causes; ethnoversion, or a strong emphasis on retaining their ethnic identity; and loyalty to Canada, a country that has given them peace and safety at last.
