The 'Temple of Non-Being' at Tsitsernakaberd and remembrance of the Armenian genocide: an interpretation

Authors

• Serafim Seppälä University of Eastern Finland

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.67589

Keywords:

Armenian genocide, architecture, memorial, Tsitsernakaberd, pilgrimage

Abstract

This paper discusses and analyses the memor­ial complex of Tsitsernakaberd in Yerevan as an architectural and symbolic entity in relation to Armenian national identity in the aftermath of the Armenian genocide of 1915. How does this Soviet-era structure fulfil its role as a genocide memorial today, including its function as a forced substitute for the hundreds of holy places and the culture and life connected with them? On the one hand, this is only a small inquiry into the function of one building complex. Yet on the other hand, the topic is more essential than perhaps anything in history: the genocide memorial crystallises a set of profound questions, serious problems and agonising processes. An entire national existence can be crushed in a genocide and subsequently debased through its denial, resulting in existential problems such as, on the one hand, a pressure of assimilation for the diaspora,  and on the other, severe socio-economic and geopolitical-military crises in present-day Armenia.