Abstract

The Levant, traditionally a refuge for persecuted religious groups, has proved a safe haven for all three Armenian denominations – the Apostolic, the Catholic and the Evangelical. Their continued viability despite the turmoil of the Lebanese Civil War and the subsequent continuing political instability presents interesting questions for research. The present lecture is both historical and contemporary in nature. On the one hand, it traces the historical development of the “Armenian religions’” presence in Lebanon. On the other, it identifies the percentages of Lebanese citizens who belong to each of the three denominations, and describes the spatial location of their churches and affiliated institutions. The final section of the lecture is devoted to a discussion of the situation of the Armenian religions vis-à-vis the broader context of Lebanon’s “confessionalist” political system, and presents some conclusions regarding the community’s continued survival over the long-term. The research for this project was based on a close reading of written sources and on a series of semi-structured interviews conducted in Beirut and its environs over the course of the spring and summer of 2013.  

Bio

Irina du Quenoy (Papkova) is a Research Fellow at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs. She is based in Beirut, Lebanon, currently carrying out research on the religious dynamics of the Arab Spring. Most specifically, she is interested in the contemporary situation of Lebanon’s Christian communities. She has published prolifically on the subject of the Russian Orthodox Church in post-Soviet Russia, most notably publishing a monograph titled “The Orthodox Church and Russian Politics” with Oxford University Press in 2011. From 2008 to 2012 she was an Assistant Professor of International Relations and European Studies at Central European University in Budapest. Papkova holds a doctorate in Government from Georgetown University (2007), as well as an MA in Russian and East European Studies from the same university (2003).  

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