What we do

Ovenk.com is a photo site launched in 2013 to allow people to search for Armenian relatives, Armenian ancestors, places of origin. You can add your Armenian pictures to tell your family story, the story of your region/city/village, and increase the chance of finding relatives.

None of this could have happened without the efforts of the heroic Genocide survivors and their descendants, who were faced with tremendous difficulties in the host countries starting in the 1920s to connect with each other (no internet, the Armenian society had collapsed), find and collect photographs (which a large part was destroyed or lost), publish them (without the help of the host countries nor the Armenian Republic).

The very existence of such pictures was threatened many times, and this personal work and collective efforts of the Armenian survivors in the host countries to preserve these pictures with very modest means should never be taken for granted.

From 1976, many of these photographs, books, newspapers, postal cards were collected by the CRDA, a non-profit organization co-founded by Jean-Claude Kebabdjian. The CRDA mission was to raise awareness of Armenian memory and Armenian Genocide within France and other European countries. It wanted to show the past life of Armenians to the public. Starting from 2013, the Armenian Memory Institute (AMI) digitalized and integrated part of the CRDA archives.

In 2020, the Armenian Memory Institute became Armenian Diaspora Memory and Innovation (ADMIN).

Armenian Diaspora Memory and Innovation (ADMIN) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserve the memory and dignity of the Armenians, and promote the Armenian culture.

88% of the pictures currently displayed on OVENK.COM come from the Armenian Diaspora Memory and Innovation (ADMIN) collection and digitalization.

Please note that quality of the displayed pictures may vary depending on the quality of the original source. If you are looking for higher resolution version of a specific picture, we will ask for a donation to help us pursue our work and develop the OVENK of the future.

Pictures on OVENK.COM that come from the Armenian Diaspora Memory and Innovation collection are tagged “Armenian Diaspora Memory and Innovation collection”, whereas those from contributors are tagged with the name of these contributors.

All content on this web site, such as text, graphics, logos, button icons and images is protected by copyright.

Find out more about using OVENK.COM in FAQ.