Browse everything the Journal has featured — by category, not by issue.
SubscribeArmenian-owned and Armenian-founded businesses featured across issues.
An Armenian fashion label whose name means “Free Man,” founded in 2018 by Garen Tchobanian to carry Armenian heritage onto the global stage through modern design. Collections like Khachkar and a collaboration with Balian Armenian Ceramics wear their roots openly, and the brand became the first Armenian fashion label in Bloomingdale's, where its Los Angeles debut sold out in six weeks. It also runs a flagship store in Armenia.
AZAT MARD →A Los Angeles candy brand built around sweet, sour, and spicy all at once. Founded during the COVID-19 pandemic by best friends Vicken Kejejian and Shant Reganyan — Armenian-American alumni of Ferrahian High School — Chili Chews built a loyal following for its chili-coated fruit candies and has since rolled out nationwide at Target, where its fan-favorite Strawberry Bites are stocked in all 1,890 stores.
Zartonk Media →A family-owned, California-based business bringing gourmet, handmade chocolates from Armenia to customers across the U.S. As the exclusive importer for Gourmet Dourmé, one of Armenia's well-known chocolate makers, the company boxes and ships confections straight from Armenian production to American doorsteps.
ArmenianChocolates →An Armenian fashion brand — part clothing line, part cultural project — turning the shapes of the Armenian alphabet into wearable pieces. Founded by an Armenian designer with a boutique in Yerevan, its collections use the alphabet's letterforms as a recurring motif across shirts, jewelry, and accessories, helping preserve and spread Armenian cultural heritage.
SirQochar →A female-owned, handmade jewelry brand out of Los Angeles built on beaded necklaces, bracelets, and unapologetically maximalist accessories. Its name plays on founder Lisa Sahakian's Armenian surname, and its real signature is customization — one-of-a-kind necklaces built from photos, initials, and keepsakes — which has landed the brand celebrity clients and its own shop at Rockefeller Center.
Ian Charms →A Los Angeles-based streetwear and art brand reimagining Armenian culture through a modern, urban lens. Its shop features graphic tees, hoodies, and art prints celebrating everything from Sayat Nova and Harout Pamboukjian to Bourj Hammoud and Armenian architecture, alongside community events and gallery collaborations that make it as much a creative platform as a clothing line.
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A Los Angeles-based candle company crafting hand-poured, small-batch soy candles inspired by travel and cherished moments. Since 2020, this Armenian-owned brand has made its candles with quality fragrance oils, soy wax, and cotton wicks, keeping them vegan, cruelty-free, and free of harmful chemicals. Its standout Armenia Collection draws on Yerevan, Goris, and Artsakh, including a fan-favorite Artsakh candle scented with pomegranate and pear.
momecandles.com →
An Armenian natural skincare brand crafting small-batch, plant-based products rooted in the botanical richness of the Armenian Highlands. Founded by a husband-and-wife science team, the brand grows over 70% of its ingredients on its own eco-farm in the Kotayk region — Damask rose, calendula, sea buckthorn, apricot — then formulates them on-site, free of synthetics and artificial dyes.
nairian.com →
A women-owned, Armenian-American mother-daughter beverage company creating premium non-alcoholic mocktails inspired by classic cocktails. Named after their special MOther + DAughter bond, the Hachigian family blends bold flavors and real fruit juice into sophisticated alcohol-free drinks that celebrate connection, wellness, and inclusivity.
modamocktails.com →
A family-owned Armenian coffee roastery in San Francisco hand-roasting coffee since 1965. Founded by Armenian immigrant Henry Kalebjian, now led by the second and third generations of the Kalebjian family, the business blends generations of Armenian coffee tradition with specialty coffee craftsmanship.
henryshouseofcoffee.com →
An Armenian-founded food brand offering modern, on-the-go salad dressings inspired by traditional Armenian flavors — pomegranate, za'atar, tahini — in convenient, clean, dairy-free, gluten-free single-serve packets.
dresslav.com →A Los Angeles–based jewelry and watch brand known for bold, personalized designs — watches, necklaces, bracelets, and gifts — including an Armenian-inspired collection celebrating cultural heritage, shipping worldwide.
icelinkwatch.com →Films, music, theater, and visual art celebrating Armenian stories and identity.
Gorky — born Vosdanig Adoian near Lake Van — became a founding figure of American Abstract Expressionism, but his most haunting work is this portrait, based on a 1912 photograph of the young artist beside his mother. She survived the 1915 death march with her children, only to die of starvation in 1919. Gorky worked on the canvas for about a decade, never copying the photo directly and leaving areas deliberately unfinished. Versions hang at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the National Gallery of Art.
Whitney Museum →
Vardges Sureniants (1860–1921) is considered the founder of Armenian historical painting — an artist trained in Moscow and Munich who spent his career bringing Armenian history, legend, and literature onto the canvas. In Salome he turns to a biblical subject with an ornamental, shimmering richness that reflects the Symbolist and Art Nouveau currents of turn-of-the-century Europe. Also a stage designer, illustrator, and translator, Sureniants brought a theatrical instinct to his work. The painting is held at the National Gallery of Armenia in Yerevan.
Wikipedia →This biblical scene shows Noah leading his family and the animals down Mount Ararat after the Flood, rendered with a warm, almost sacred glow. Held today at the National Gallery of Armenia, it carries deeper meaning than its subject alone: for Aivazovsky, born into an Armenian family in Crimea, Ararat wasn't just scripture — it was the mythic heart of his own heritage. Best known for his seascapes, Aivazovsky rarely turned inland, making this tender treatment of the homeland's most sacred mountain all the more striking.
Wikimedia →The Ninth Wave depicts shipwreck survivors clinging to floating, cross-shaped debris at dawn as the sea's largest, most feared wave bears down on them. Born Hovhannes Aivazian in Feodosia, Crimea to an Armenian family, Aivazovsky became one of history's greatest masters of marine art, and this remains his most celebrated work — a lasting symbol of resilience and a defining piece of Armenian artistic legacy on the world stage.
The Ninth Wave →Painted the year after Armenia became a Soviet republic, Ararat is an expressionist rendering of the biblical mountain's silhouette built from Saryan's signature bold color and simplified forms. Widely regarded as the founder of the modern Armenian national school of painting, Saryan — who lived through the Genocide — focused much of his work on capturing a homeland scarred by loss, and this piece helped define how Armenians would come to see Ararat depicted on canvas.
Ararat →A deeply personal photographic and film project exploring family, memory, and identity by internationally acclaimed Armenian-American artist Diana Markosian
Markosian left Russia for the United States with her mother and brother at age seven, leaving her father behind. Father revisits that rupture decades later, blending original photography with restaged scenes and archival material to reconstruct a childhood relationship interrupted by immigration.
A cinematic, large-scale reimagining of Armenian folk music by Lebanese-Armenian composer and producer Serouj Baghdassarian (C-Rouge)
More than a decade in the making, Symphonic Folk fuses traditional Armenian instruments — duduk, zurna, shvi, dhol — with the full Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, two choirs, and cinematic electronic production. Baghdassarian, raised in Lebanon with roots in Dikranagerd and Kesaria, built the project around reimagining beloved Armenian melodies for a new generation.
An award-winning cultural musical celebrating resilience, perseverance, and the power of community by Emily Simonian
A heartfelt portrait of one Armenian family's journey from their homeland to a new life in America, told through the eyes of young immigrant Aleck, moving between past and present as he pieces together his family's story.
A 2016 historical drama directed by Terry George that follows an Armenian medical student caught in a love triangle during the final years of the Ottoman Empire. Set against the backdrop of the Armenian Genocide, it brings global attention to an important chapter of Armenian history.
IMDb →
A 2022 Armenian film directed by Michael A. Goorjian telling the story of an Armenian-American man who returns to Soviet Armenia and is unjustly imprisoned — discovering hope, humor, and human connection through a small cell window.
IMDb →
One of the most well-known paintings by Armenian-American artist Arshile Gorky (Vostanik Adoyan), inspired by a photograph taken before the Armenian Genocide — a quiet, emotional portrait reflecting memory, loss, and longing for homeland.
Whitney Museum →Literature featured across issues, from novels to picture books.
A 2012 novel by Armenian-American author Chris Bohjalian that moves between two timelines: in 1915, Boston volunteer nurse Elizabeth Endicott travels to Aleppo to aid Armenian refugees and grows close to Armen, an engineer who has lost his wife and daughter; in the present day, New York novelist Laura Petrosian uncovers a family secret buried for nearly a century. Equal parts love story and historical reckoning, it brought the Genocide to a wide mainstream readership.
The Genocide Education Project →
First published in 1979, The Road from Home tells the true story of the author's mother, Veron Dumehjian, who was eight years old when the Genocide tore her from her childhood in Azizya. The only one of her immediate family to survive the deportations, she was displaced again by the Greco-Turkish War and forced to flee the Great Fire of Smyrna before finally reaching the United States. Told in Veron's own voice, it has become one of the most widely read accounts of the Genocide among American middle-school students.
Amazon →Michael J. Arlen grew up in America barely knowing what "Armenian" meant, the son of a famous Anglo-Armenian novelist who'd spent his life trying to forget it. Passage to Ararat is his attempt to close that gap — a trip to Soviet Armenia in the early 1970s that becomes both a personal reckoning with his father and an unflinching account of a people who survived attempted extermination. It won the 1976 National Book Award.
Amazon →Growing up in a tight-knit New Jersey Armenian community, Toumani was raised to see Turkey as the enemy — until, as a journalist, she moved to Istanbul to challenge that inherited hatred herself. The result is a clear-eyed, nuanced memoir asking what it costs a diaspora to hold onto grievance as identity. A National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.
Amazon →A memoir of an all-American 1950s and '60s New Jersey childhood slowly giving way to the discovery of a darker family history. Balakian charts his awakening to his family's history and the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide, moving fluidly between lyrical memoir and historical reckoning. Written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet; won the PEN/Albrand Award and named a New York Times Notable Book.
Amazon →The true story of a small, unlikely group of Armenian Genocide survivors who banded together in 1921 to hunt down and assassinate the Ottoman leaders responsible for the genocide. Meticulously researched over seven years, it reads with the tension of a thriller while wrestling honestly with questions of justice, vengeance, and what it costs to seek retribution.
Amazon →
Follows a young Armenian writer on a whirlwind 54-day journey across every country on the African continent, one day, one story, one encounter at a time — an adventure that turns a continent-spanning journey into something intimate and deeply personal.
A lyrical, life-affirming novel set in a tiny, disappearing Armenian mountain village, woven through with warmth, humor, and a touch of magical realism — a celebration of ordinary Armenian village life rather than another genocide memoir.
Amazon →
A classic collection of interconnected short stories that captures the humor, warmth, and resilience of Armenian immigrant life in California's San Joaquin Valley, told through the eyes of a young Armenian boy.
Amazon →
A contemporary novel blending romance, food, and cultural identity through an Armenian-American woman reconnecting with her roots, set between Los Angeles and Armenia.
Amazon →
A picture book inspired by the true story of the author's great-grandmother, following young Dzovinar as she survives the Armenian Genocide and journeys from blooming Armenian apricot orchards across desert and ocean to France and eventually America.
Amazon →Organizations turning diaspora support into direct impact for Armenia.
Founded in 2002 by filmmaker Ruben Khachatryan and zoologist Hrach Ghazaryan, FPWC created the Caucasus Wildlife Refuge in 2011 — the first privately protected area in the South Caucasus, built on land leased from communities in Ararat and Vayots Dzor. It now helps safeguard more than 26,000 hectares, where camera traps have captured the rare Caucasian leopard, and runs Armenia's first native tree nursery, a Wildlife Rescue Center, and local ranger teams.
World Land Trust →Founded in 1994 by philanthropist Carolyn Mugar during the hard years after independence — when an energy blockade drove families to cut down forests just to stay warm — Armenia Tree Project set out to reverse the damage one sapling at a time. It runs nurseries, plants fruit and forest trees in villages, schools, and communities, and pairs reforestation with environmental education and local jobs. In 2022 it passed the milestone of seven million trees planted.
armeniatree.org →Founded in 2013 by Larisa Hovannisian, a repatriate and Teach For America alum, Teach For Armenia recruits and trains exceptional graduates and professionals — "Teacher-Leaders" — to teach in underserved schools across Armenia and Artsakh for a minimum of two years. Part of the global Teach For All network, it has reached over 30,000 students in more than 80 rural communities.
teachforarmenia.org →Founded in 2012 to help diaspora Armenians make the leap from visiting to actually moving to Armenia for good. Rather than short-term volunteer stints, it handles the practical side of a permanent move — citizenship, housing, employment, business support, and language classes — and has worked with over a thousand applicants since founding.
Repat Armenia →A nonprofit STEM education program launched in 2011 by the Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises to introduce children ages 10 to 18 across Armenia to engineering through after-school classes, camps, and competitions. What began as a handful of labs has grown into more than 600 locations worldwide, including a U.S. lab that opened in Glendale, California, in 2023.
Armath →Founded in 2003 by Garo Armen to break the cycle of poverty in rural Armenia through community-led programs in education, healthcare, and economic development. Since launching in a single village, it has grown to reach over 100,000 people across 64 villages, renovating schools and clinics and building technology-rich "SMART Centers" for rural children.
COAF →Launched in 1999 by entrepreneur James Tufenkian to tackle Armenia's most pressing social, economic, cultural, and environmental challenges, spanning poverty relief, education, environmental protection, and resettlement support for displaced families.
tufenkian.org →Connects diaspora Armenians aged 20–32 with immersive volunteer experiences in Armenia, allowing them to live, work, and contribute to the country for an extended period — one of the most meaningful pathways for young diaspora Armenians to turn identity into action.
birthrightarmenia.org →Dedicated to supporting communities in Armenia through humanitarian aid, education, infrastructure development, and social impact programs, funding projects that create long-term opportunities for families and children.
parosfoundation.org →The TUMO Center for Creative Technologies offers free after-school learning for teenagers in animation, coding, filmmaking, and design. Founded in Yerevan in 2011, it prepares young Armenians for global opportunities.
tumo.org →Funds innovative projects to strengthen Armenia's future through sustainability, culture, and technology. Founded in 2012, it connects donors worldwide with grassroots initiatives in agriculture, tourism, renewable energy, and community development.
onearmenia.org →Words that carry more than their dictionary definition.
Placed after a name — Ani jan, Aram jan, Mayrik jan — jan means “dear,” but it comes from the Persian word for “soul” or “life,” so calling someone jan is a little like calling them “my dear soul.” Armenians use it with children and grandparents, friends and shopkeepers alike, and it softens everything it touches, from a hello to a gentle scolding.
Apres comes from aprel, "to live," and literally means "may you live." In everyday Armenian, though, it's how you say "well done," "bravo," or even "thank you" — to a child who finishes their homework, a friend who helps you move, or a stranger who holds the door. It tucks a quiet blessing inside ordinary praise: when someone does something good, the response is to wish them a long life.
Mayreni comes directly from mayr, "mother," and is the word Armenians use for their native tongue — literally, the language of one's mother. It's also the actual title given to Armenian-language textbooks in schools. For a diaspora scattered across dozens of countries, keeping mayreni alive has often mattered as much as any other marker of identity.
Azgaser breaks down plainly: "azg" (nation/people) plus "sեr" (love) — literally, one who loves their nation. In Armenian usage it isn't a passive label; it describes love that shows up as behavior — volunteering, donating, teaching the language to kids, keeping traditions alive far from Armenia's borders.
Barekam is usually translated as "friend," but break it down and you get "bari" (good) plus "kam" (relative or kin) — a friend, linguistically, is someone treated like family. Armenians don't reserve barekam for casual acquaintances, but for the people who show up without being asked.
Karod is usually translated as "longing," but that undersells it — the specific ache of missing something you can't simply return to, whether a person, a home, or a version of Armenia that now exists more in memory than on a map. More than sadness, karod is proof a connection never faded, no matter the distance.
Hayrenik is the Armenian word for "homeland," but for a people shaped by displacement and diaspora, it carries far more than a place on a map. It roots the word hayrenasirutyun (patriotism) and echoes through anthems and poetry — homeland as something you belong to permanently, no matter how far you roam.
Bari is the Armenian word for "good," woven into daily life in a way that transforms it into something richer — appearing in greetings like bari luys ("good morning," literally "good light") — goodness as something actively offered to the world.
Karot describes a deep sense of longing or missing someone, someplace, or a moment in time. Often tied to family, homeland, and memory, it reflects the enduring connections Armenians hold to loved ones and home, no matter how near or far.
A cheerful, everyday expression used to invite someone along — carrying warmth, spontaneity, and togetherness, reflecting the joy of shared moments and the instinct to include others.
Armat symbolizes origin, foundation, and deep connection to heritage — the strength of knowing where you come from, and the resilience to grow even in new soil.
Dishes from the Armenian table, past and present.
A whole pumpkin hollowed out and filled with rice, dried apricots, raisins, walnuts, honey, butter, and cinnamon, then baked until soft and sweet and sliced along its ridges so it opens like a flower. Once reserved for feasts because nuts and dried fruit were costly, it remains a holiday centerpiece — traditionally greeted with clapping and a chorus of “Hey Jan Ghapama.”
Smithsonian Folklife Festival →
Tiny, boat-shaped dumplings filled with seasoned ground meat, left open at the top, and baked until crisp before being finished with broth and served under garlicky yogurt (matsun). Unlike their boiled cousins across Central Asia, Armenian manti are oven-baked, giving them a crunchy edge and a rich, soupy bottom — and making them is famously a group effort around the family kitchen table.
The Stuffed Grape Leaf →Sou boreg, or "water borek," is an Armenian noodle-and-cheese casserole made by boiling sheets of dough, layering them with a rich cheese filling, and baking until golden — giving it a soft, lasagna-like texture rather than flaky pastry crunch. A staple at Armenian gatherings and church events, it's comfort food built on patience and inherited knowledge.
Smithsonian →A simple, beloved Armenian dish of liver — usually beef, sometimes lamb, pork, or chicken — fried with plenty of onions until both turn tender and caramelized, seasoned with little more than salt and pepper. Its name is said to come from the hissing "tzh-vzh" sound the liver and onions make as they fry.
Kulinario →A soft, braided Armenian sweet bread, enriched with butter, eggs, milk, and sugar, and flavored with mahleb — an aromatic spice ground from sour cherry pits. Traditionally baked around Easter, choreg reportedly became a quiet way for Armenian women forced to hide their identities during the Genocide to recognize one another.
Mission Food →Armenia's iconic flatbread — thin, soft, and traditionally baked in a clay oven called a tonir, where it's slapped against the scorching walls to cook in seconds. Simple in ingredients but central to nearly every Armenian meal. In 2014, UNESCO recognized lavash-making as part of Armenia's Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Hilda's Kitchen →A traditional Armenian yogurt soup, made by gently cooking wheat berries and folding them into a tangy yogurt base thickened with egg and flour, finished with sautéed onions and herbs. Every Armenian family has its own version.
CuriousCuisiniere →A traditional Armenian lentil and dried fruit dish, made by simmering lentils with caramelized onions, raisins, and walnuts, finished with a splash of vinegar and warm spices. Often served during Lent and fasting periods.
Heghine →
A traditional flatbread from Artsakh filled with a finely chopped blend of 10–20 fresh herbs and greens, cooked on a hot griddle without oil or meat — a communal dish often prepared by hand in large batches.
Hermann →A flavorful twist on a classic Armenian breakfast — air-dried spiced beef lightly fried and mixed with whisked eggs, quick to make and full of flavor.
Heghine →
Often called "Armenian pizza," this thin, crisp flatbread is topped with ground beef or lamb, tomato, onion, parsley, and warm spices, baked golden at the edges — traditionally rolled up and enjoyed by hand.
Armenian Kitchen →