Recreating Kharpert in Massachusetts There is a special connection between Armenian-Americans of Massachusetts and the Ottoman province of Mamuret ul-Aziz which the Armenians called Kharpert, situated around the present-day city of Elazig. Armenian Kharpetsis began arriving in Massachusetts, particularly in the Worcester area, beginning in the mid-19th Century, though the bulk of the immigration resulted from the Hamidian massacres of the Armenians (1894-1896) and later the Armenian Genocide of 1915. The survivors of these horrific calamities faced the fact that there were no homes or homeland to go back to. To ease such dislocations, the survivors settled in Armenian communities in America where their fellow provincial compatriots had already laid down roots. Social life among this generation was largely confined to people from their own province. They played the music, danced to the songs, and prepared the foods that were distinctive to that area. Notably, in the summers, they would hold “Kharpertsi” picnics at a farm outside of the cities that a fellow Kharpertsi owned, where they attempted to recreate their village life and relax after what was often grueling factory work during the week. The American-born children of these immigrants grew up with multiple identities--they were Armenians and Americans, Kharpertsis, and descendants of a people from a particular village in Kharpert province. This paper aims to show how provincial identities from the former Ottoman Empire were so strong and durable for at least two generations in America, despite assimilation trends. Although other immigrant groups like Italians also maintained provincial identities, the thesis of this paper is that the Armenian case of retaining a provincial identity was even stronger than other ethnic groups. Having lost everything in their homeland—family members, homes, farms and businesses—they did their best to recreate Kharpert in Massachusetts as a coping mechanism for the trauma they endured in addition to helping them adjust to a strange new land and society. My paper will be based on population data, records of compatriotic unions, and interviews that I have conducted with the offspring of the early immigrant generation as well as secondary sources on the Armenian immigration experience. I will also incorporate in my paper family histories, as my own maternal grandparents were from Kharpert and settled in Massachusetts. The paper will hopefully make a contribution not only to immigrant studies but to the endurance of provincial cultural identities of Armenians from the Ottoman Empire.