"Yerevan Rewrites Its Urban Memory: Historic Amiryan Street Renamed After King Pap" by Carlo Coppola
Questo articolo con il titolo "Yerevan 3-8 agosto 2026: workshop italo-armeno racconta il restauro come atto di civiltà" di Carlo Coppola è apparso in lingua italiana sul giornale "In Città Giovinezza" diretto da Papas Antonio Calisi al seguente link:
Walking through the heart of Yerevan means moving through a city where every street preserves a fragment of Armenia's national history. In recent weeks, however, one of the Armenian capital's best-known thoroughfares has acquired a new identity. On June 23, the Yerevan City Council — literally known in Armenian as the Council of Elders — approved the renaming of historic Amiryan Street, one of the main avenues connecting Republic Square with the Saryan district. The street is now dedicated to King Pap (Պապ թագավոր), the fourth-century ruler of Armenia.
The decision is part of a broader process of redefining Yerevan's urban memory that has unfolded in recent years, with the aim of replacing references to the Soviet era with figures drawn from Armenia's national history. The former name commemorated Arsen Amiryan (1881–1918), a journalist and Bolshevik revolutionary who was among the 26 Baku Commissars celebrated during the Soviet period but who is now considered by many to be less representative of Armenia's historical identity. His legacy is viewed negatively, particularly because of the ideology he embraced and the political consequences of his actions, which are seen by some as having contributed to the collapse of the First Republic of Armenia.
The decision has not been without controversy. Some city councillors called for a public debate with local residents before the change, but the majority led by Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan moved forward, arguing that it was time to give greater prominence to Armenia's millennia-old history.
The choice of King Pap was far from accidental. The son of King Arsaces II and Queen Parandzem, Pap ruled Armenia from 370 to 374 AD during one of the most turbulent periods in the country's history, caught between the Roman Empire and the Sasanian Persian Empire. He ascended the Armenian throne with Roman support and sought to restore central authority, reorganize the army and strengthen the kingdom. Together with the sparapet — the commander-in-chief of the Armenian army — Mushegh Mamikonian, he defeated Persian forces at the Battle of Dzirav, helping to restore stability to the kingdom.
A reforming monarch, King Pap attempted to strengthen royal authority by curbing the autonomy of the great noble families and reducing the political influence of the Armenian Church. This conflict contributed to his controversial image in ecclesiastical historiography. More recent interpretations, however, have viewed his policies as an attempt to build a stronger and more independent Armenian state.
His reign ended tragically with his assassination, probably ordered by the Roman Emperor Valens in 374 AD. His death opened a period of political instability that eventually contributed to the partition of Armenia between the Roman and Sasanian spheres of influence.
The renaming of Amiryan Street in Yerevan therefore goes far beyond a simple change of address. It reflects a country reclaiming historical figures associated with the ancient Armenian state and reaffirming, through the very geography of its capital, its connection with a national history that stretches back long before the Soviet era.
Among the Armenian public, some observers have also suggested that the choice of King Pap — remembered as a reformer who challenged both aristocratic oligarchy and the political power of the Church — could be interpreted as an indirect reference to the policies and political agenda of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The new name of Amiryan Street thus becomes part of a larger conversation about Armenian identity, historical memory and the symbolic transformation of Yerevan. In today's Armenia, changing the name of a street can also mean changing the historical narrative that a city chooses to place at the centre of its public space.
