The master plan for the modern city of Yerevan consists of the centre (mainly within the borders of the city of 150,000 designed by A. Tamanyan) and the districts regularly laid out surrounding it that were mostly formed after 1925. The 1924 plan for Yerevan was designed with the expansion of the city in mind. At the same time, after the Sovietisation of Armenia, the goal of constructing new settlements for those Armenians wishing to relocate to Soviet Armenia was put in place. All the new districts meant for repatriates thus came about, some of which were later incorporated into Yerevan, leaving their own construction and architectural influence on the city. Given such an architectural environment with those original and unique districts, the Yerevan of the 1950s-1960s seemed as if it was a special scale model of Historical Armenia.

Between 1921 and 1973, some 200,000 Armenians moved to Soviet Armenia. There were three historical periods of mass repatration: the first repatriation of 1921-1938 (with over 60,000 individuals), the second or great repatriation of 1946-1948 (around 100,000), and the third repatriation of 1962-1973 (more than 26,000).

The mass repatriations that began in the 1920s and continued into the 1930s had as an immediate result the planning and construction of the districts of Nor Arabkir (1925), Nor Byutania (1925), Nor Yevdokia (1925), Nor Malatia (1927), Nubarashen (1930), Nor Tamarza (1931), Nor Keghi (1931), Nor Tigranakert (1934), Nor Kesaria (1934), and, after the war, also Nor Zeytun, Kamarak, Nor Marash, Nor Kilikia, Nor Aresh, and others. Some of those districts later had their names changed for some reason or other, but many still have their original names until today. And some districts have simply become neighbourhoods within larger districts (for example, Nor Sebastia includes Nor Keghi, Nor Tigranakert, and Nor Kesaria within its territory). Most of the districts were later incorporated within the boundaries of Yerevan, turning into sections of Yerevan (Nor Malatia, Nor Arabkir, etc.).

Having immigrated from the same place, keeping the ways of “the old country”, the repatriates created and maintained a certain atmosphere in the aforementioned districts. For some time, those districts bore a unique environment of the cities of Historical Armenia. Residential homes stood out in ways that reflected the architectural principles and forms of the houses in “the old country”(the best examples come from buildings preserved in Nor Arabkir).

 As a result of the urban planning policies that were later adopted, these districts gradually lost their original characters and environments. For this reason the specialised research and analysis of both the construction planning, the architectural styles of residential and public buildings, the construction tools, and the examples of specific architectural characteristics brought in from the historical homeland as represented within the districts and neighbourhoods of the repatriates is a very pressing issue. The traditional architecture of homes in particular – constructed with “genetic memory” in the homeland – is yet another testimony to the people and the cultural heritage they bear left behind in Western Armenia.