“Homeland vs. Home: When a Call to Return to the Homeland is Not Answered”

FRESNO, Calif. — On Friday, November 14, 2025, Kevork Oflazian will present a talk on “Homeland vs. Home: When a Call to Return to the Homeland is Not Answered” at 7:00 p.m. at Fresno State in the University Business Center (5245 N. Backer Ave.), Alice Peters Auditorium.

Oflazian’s presentation is part of the Armenian Studies Program Fall 2025 Lecture Series and is supported by the Ralph Shabazian Armenian Memorial Fund. The lecture is free and open to the public.

When an invitation to repatriate to a homeland was made, why did some diasporic Armenians accept the invitation and migrate to Armenia, and some did not? This presentation aims to answer that question. The research is focused on Anjar, a town in Lebanon, populated almost entirely by immigrants originally from Musa Dagh, a group of villages in Eastern Turkey. Research methodology includes oral interviews with townspeople, published and unpublished memoirs, contemporary newspaper articles and secondary sources such as conference papers, scholarly articles and dissertations. 

The historiography of the Armenian repatriation of 1946 is minimal, especially regarding the majority of diasporan Armenians who chose not to repatriate. By using oral histories as the main source for this thesis, Oflazian will be adding to the historiography with new and hitherto unpublished information. Oflazian argues that a return to a homeland, or repatriation, as the historiography calls it, is a complex decision with many factors unique to both subaltern groups within a population, to individuals. 

For the Armenians of Anjar, political ideology, party affiliation, religious denomination, material conditions, familial ties and perceptions or imaginings of homeland all played a part in this complex decision. The episode of the repatriation, or “Nerkakht,” took place during rising Cold War tensions in the late 1940s. This East-West confrontation, with its ideological polarization and attendant intense propaganda, also played an important role in the decisions made by the townspeople.

Kevork Oflazian was born in Beirut, Lebanon. After graduating from Melkonian High School and the American University of Beirut, he immigrated to the United States to continue his higher education, pursuing an MBA at Fresno State University. Oflazian worked in the finance and banking industry for over 35 years. Prior to retirement, he completed a master’s degree in history from Fresno State to pursue a potential second career in researching, writing and teaching history, which has been a lifelong passion. He has been involved in the community by serving on the boards of various organizations, including Charlie Keyan Armenian Community School, the Fresno Philharmonic, AGBU, the Rotary Club and the Knights of Vartan.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Free parking is available in Fresno State Lot P6 or P5, near the University Business Center. Permits are not required for Friday night lectures.

The presentation will also be live-streamed on YouTube at: https://bit.ly/armenianstudiesyoutube. 

For information about upcoming Armenian Studies Program presentations, please follow @ArmenianStudiesFresnoState on Facebook or their program website at https://fresnostate.edu/armenianstudies.