The Symbolic Significance of the Yerevan Blue Mosque: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Armenian-Iranian Relationship

Abstract

In what ways has the centuries-long friendly relationship between Armenians and Iranians been monumentalized in the Yerevan Blue Mosque located in Yerevan, Armenia? I argue that through each of its iterations, the Yerevan Blue Mosque, completed in 1765, has served as a locus for shared identities, nationalisms and ideological reinventions. The mosque has remained a symbol of historical friendship and religious tolerance between Armenians and Iranians and provides a site of interreligious, interethnic and international relations. This thesis investigates the mosque through the lenses of constructed memories, nationalisms and shifting identities over time. I examine the life of the mosque in four parts using government and literary sources, art historical features and information gathered at the mosque. The first time period examined here is 1600 through 1911, with a focus on Armenian participation in the Iranian Constitutional Revolutions. Next, I examine how the mosque survived the secular Soviet period as a meeting place for writers of the emerging socialist nationalist literature and as two museums. Third, I analyze the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict (1988-1994)—a yet unresolved dispute over the mountainous Karabakh territory located in Azerbaijan but populated by Armenians—using theories of social movement and realism to understand how the conflict served to strengthen the Armenian-Iranian relationship in the post-Soviet years. Finally, and with greater focus and detail, I examine the mosque complex from 1995 to 2019 and its place in modern Iranian-Armenian relations. I explore the complex's location in the city of Yerevan as well as its significance for tourists, various sects of Islam and the interests of the Islamic Republic.