In Memoriam: Armen Aroyan
LOS ANGELES — Armen Aroyan passed away on January 13, 2026. He was born in 1943 in Cairo, Egypt, Armen was one of four children, alongside his siblings Nubar, Zabel, and Hasmig. His parents, Albert and Lucy Aroyan, both traced their roots to the region surrounding Aintab.
Armen emigrated to the United States in 1962, settling in Pasadena, California. He earned degrees in engineering from the University of Southern California. He was actively involved in the Armenian Cilicia Congregational Church in Pasadena where he served as choir director for approximately 40 years. He was also an avid collector and preserver of the Protestant Armenian musical tradition.
A brief but transformative visit to Istanbul in 1984 challenged long-held perceptions and sparked a deeper exploration of historic Armenian lands. Beginning in 1987, Armen traveled repeatedly to provincial Turkey, returning in 1988 and 1989.
In 1991, Armen led his first group trip to Eastern Turkey with seven participants. The journey included visits to historic Armenian sites and meetings with local Armenians still living in the region. Armen carefully curated each trip based on the ancestral origins of the participants, helping them reconnect with their villages and hometowns. Many of those who traveled with him were scholars, whose firsthand experiences later informed their academic research and publications.
Armen frequently visited his grandfather’s village of Jibin en route to Aintab and made countless pilgrimages to the ruins of Ani. Over a span of 25 years, from 1991 to 2016, he organized approximately 100 trips across Turkey, traveling with nearly 1,450 participants—whom he affectionately referred to as “pilgrims.” He meticulously documented nearly every journey on videotape.
Throughout his travels, Armen made it a priority to meet and interview the region’s dwindling Armenian population—a task that became increasingly difficult with time. Local Armenians often guided him and his pilgrims from one Armenian home or shop to another, fostering relationships that deepened with each return visit.
In 2018, Armen donated approximately 400 videotapes from these journeys to the USC Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies for digitization, with the goal of making them accessible for research and education. In 2025, following the discovery of additional tapes, the digitization process was completed, and integration of the collection into the USC Digital Library began.
The resulting Armen Aroyan Collection is a singular contribution to the study of inherited memory and diasporic return. It offers rare visual documentation of historical sites where traces of Armenian life and presence continue to endure. The USC Institute of Armenian Studies also conducted a brief oral history interview with Armen, now preserved as part of the California History Through Armenian Experiences archive.
