The Article "Fidelity to Choice — Patrick Donabedian's Account"

This article is devoted to an interview with the head of the Armenian Studies Department at the University of Provence (France), in which the scholar speaks about his atypical path into Armenian studies, his diplomatic career, and the state of French Armenology.

Introduction and Biographical Context

Patrick Donabedian represents an atypical example within the French Armenian community: the son of an Armenian Protestant from Cilician Adana, raised in Tunisia outside an Armenian environment, without knowledge of the language, yet with a strong inner attraction to Armenian heritage. His path into scholarship began with a scholarship to the USSR, where he studied medieval Armenian art in Yerevan and Leningrad under the guidance of V. Harutyunyan and K. Yuzbashyan.

Diplomacy and Return to Scholarship

The author traces a complex trajectory between scholarship and diplomatic service:

• teaching French in Yerevan and Moscow;
• work at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nigeria;
• the post of cultural counselor at the French Embassy in Yerevan (1992–1996) during the harshest post-Soviet crisis;
• a similar position in Lithuania, work in Kyiv and at the Foreign Ministry in Paris.

It was precisely at this stage that Donabedian defended his third dissertation, which opened the way to an academic chair at the University of Provence.

Armenian Studies in France

A separate section is devoted to the institutional landscape of French Armenology: the historic center at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris, and the sole university chair of Armenian studies — at the University of Provence near Marseille, where the country's largest Armenian community (80–100 thousand people) is concentrated. The article notes the high level of book publishing on Armenian topics, comparable to that in the United States, and the achievements of individual researchers (A. Martirosyan and others).

A View on Armenian Architecture

A key position of the author concerns the necessity of studying Armenian Christian architecture within a broad regional context — Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia — as well as in connection with the Islamic world, overcoming an isolationist approach and the taboo against acknowledging cultural parallels with Muslim traditions.

Tasks and Prospects

The concluding section outlines practical tasks for the development of Armenian studies: attracting students, achieving institutional recognition for the discipline, introducing Western Armenian and Grabar (Classical Armenian), and the question of criteria for determining the size of the Armenian community in France (estimates range upward from 400 thousand people).

The article's key conclusion is that the successful development of Armenian studies requires the creation of a solid documentary base, the institutional integration of the discipline, and an open, contextual approach to studying Armenian cultural heritage in its connections with surrounding civilizations.