Beirut’s Armenian Neighborhood Faces Another War

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The Armenian neighborhood in Beirut, Lebanon, has survived for over one hundred years, following masses of Armenians leaving their homeland in the aftermath of the genocide that killed some 1.2 million during World War 1. Lebanon was nearby, a cultural hub for Armenians, and protected under The French Mandate, which gave it some stability, as France has historically had close ties with Armenia. 

On the streets of the Armenian neighborhood called “Bourj Hammoud,” Armenian flags, with red, blue, and yellow stripes, waved from balconies and rooftops, graffiti drawing attention to the beginning of the genocide in April 1915 and disdain for Turkey and ally Azerbaijan were painted on walls. In a Christian community, portraits of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ were on display in storefronts, and Armenian pride was on full display. 

Some left for their homeland, while others have sought refuge in the U.S., which is home to an estimated one million Armenian-Americans, according to the Consulate General of Armenia in Los Angeles–of that number, approximately half reside in California. The largest cluster of Armenians in the U.S. live in Los Angeles. 

Armenians have spread throughout the world since the Armenian Genocide began on Apr 24, 1915. The genocide occurred during the First World War when Armenia was a Christian minority under the control of the Ottoman Empire. At the time, the Ottoman Empire had taken up arms with Germany, and Armenians were accused of siding with Russia, thus being deemed a threat to the state.

 In response, the Ottoman Empire began a mass deportation, starvation, and execution campaign in Armenia. There were 2,133,190 Armenians in the empire in 1914 and just around 387,800 by 1922. 

After the end of the genocide, Armenians left their homeland in masses, and many moved to Beirut, where they believed that they would be safer in the Middle Eastern country far from Turkey and Azerbaijan, which since the 1980s has engaged in three wars with the country over the disputed Nagorno-Karabkah region. Now, there are around 156,000 Armenian-Lebanese citizens in Lebanon, making up 4 percent of the population. 

When Armenians moved to Beirut after the end of the genocide, they sought refuge in Bourj Hammoud and made it their home. They built Armenian theates and businesses and kept their culture alive while in the Middle East. Over the years, the Armenian community in Lebanon has thrived and kept a tight-knit community where members marry one another and build lives based on their heritage as Armenians abroad. 

Since then, the Armenian population has survived through world wars, the rise and fall of the Soviet Union’s presence in Armenia, Lebanon’s civil war, the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, and the country’s economic crisis that began in 2019. 

Many have refused to leave their homes throughout the constant conflicts in The Middle East, but over the last year, the Armenians have begun to leave their homes, following the war in Gaza which began on Oct 7. 2023, and the conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah orginzation immediately after. 

But now, Lebanon has reached a critical point as Hezbollah launches attacks into Israel in response to the war in Gaza. Since Sept 23, there have been unprecedented Israeli attacks on the country since Sept 23 and killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an airstrike on Sept 27. 

In Bourj Hammoud, 49-year-old Viktor, sat alone at his small butchery shop. Viktor’s father opened the shop in 1958, and it has survived multiple conflicts in Lebanon, including the country’s civil war, which ravaged it for 15 years between 1975 and 1990. 

When Armenians moved to Beirut after the end of the genocide, they sought refuge in Bourj Hammoud and made it their home.

Viktor was born in Lebanon, and his father was too; recalling life in the neighborhood before the Civil War, he said, “Before, it was just not like this (with) buildings. They started to build shops and buildings and to live their life.” 

“Because before it was all Armenians. Now, we are mixed between the cultures. So they are starting to mix together. So it’s hard to keep (culture),” he added. 

The Armenian population dropped in size over the next few decades, and after the one-month-long war between the Israeli military and Lebanon in 2006, Viktor added, “We have a big population here, but now you don’t find that much.” Another factor in Armenians leaving Beirut was what Viktor describes as “the economic war,” which began in Lebanon in 2019 when the country’s currency collapsed. 

“We didn’t have this economic situation” in 2006, Viktor said. “But now we are in a very bad situation, and if a war comes, it’s catastrophic. Everything is struggle. It’s not simple to live here in this situation. But we are struggling. We don’t have another (option),” he added. 

Many Aremanin-Lebanese citizens have lived their entire lives in Beirut and speak no other language other than Arabic. Beirut is the only home they have ever known, but now, the country is at war. On Oct 1, Israel launched its ground invasion into southern Lebanon, and roughly one million people have been displaced, and over 2,000 killed as the war engulfs the country. 

Viktor’s family is unsure of where they will move next. He has two children, a 22-year-old and a 12-year-old, and Viktor said that not only is his youngest child scared, “Everybody is scared. Not only the children. The war is not like a toy or a game or something.” 

The streets are filled with activity, with children running around and men racing down the streets in their scooters. A wedding party cheers as they dance on the pavement next to their cars, and some sit on their balconies as they watch passersby. Graffiti painted on the walls of buildings read “Stop Turkish Products,” “Guilty Azerbaijan,” and “Together Against AzTurk Terrorism.” 

The wall near the first floor of one home reads “Terrorism sponsored by Turkey,” and an elderly woman stands on the stairs next to it. “Jesus is coming very soon,” she said plainly from the stairs.

Outside of a repair shop filled with miscellaneous items like locks, lamps, and umbrellas,  the owner, an elderly man named Nicolas Nagamme, and his friend Garo Seropian sat on small stools with a makeshift table near the ground. 

“Nobody likes war. War is very hard for the people, Armenians in America. Los Angeles. They know about Lebanon,” said Seropian in regards to the current situation in Lebanon. Nahmee echoed his friend’s statement, adding, “Nobody likes war. You lost everything you know. We need to live.”

Near where the two men spoke, in a small record shop filled with Armenian, Lebanese, and Western music, the owner, Daniel Sahakian, 86, sits in a chair inside. Daniel lives in Los Angeles, California, but takes trips to Beirut to his music store once a year. At his store, Sahakian said that people in Beirut are scared about the presumed war approaching. “Some people are poor; they have nowhere else to go,” he added. 

Sahakian has owned his record shop since 1956 and has become a local celebrity for some of the people who shop for vintage belongings, said one man as he stood near Viktor. “This man is a living legend,” said the man. Sahakian only lives in Beirut for a few months every year and spends the majority of the rest at his residency in Los Angeles, but his life has been surrounded by the music found in his record store. 

In the window display, Sahakian has records of Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson, along with albums of Armenian folk music and some that he produced with his record label “Voice of Stars.” Before the civil war, Armenians comprised a population between 250,000 and 300,000 in Lebanon, according to the Embassy of Armenia to Lebanon. 

Now, around 150,000 of that population remains. Now, some of the Armenians who have remained are unclear about their next plans should their homes become too dangerous. 

“There is no clear situation. So you can’t do any planning. You don’t know what’s going to happen after one hour,” said Sahakian. 

However, in Armenia, the future of that country is also uncertain because neighboring Azerbaijan already took control of Nagorno-Karabakh last September. In May this year, Armenia agreed to give Azerbaijan four villages of their territory. 

“In Armenia, Nobody knows what’s going to happen. Maybe there (Armenia), it is more clear, but here nothing is clear,” added Sahakian.