The speech discusses several stages of changes in the meaning of Yerevan as the capital of Soviet Armenia and then the Republic of Armenia. Yerevan’s master plan (1924) brings with it the idea of a modern city in contrast to “Eastern Yerevan”. It covers the modernizing society (the people). In the post-Stalin period and the first post-Soviet years, Yerevan experienced two phases of “nationalization”. Even today, it remains mainly the embodiment of the Soviet-Armenian identity, even if it is not perceived as such. However, it is gradually losing the certainty of that meaning.
HRACH BAYADYAN