What is an Armenian?

Learning the history of the Armenians means learning the history of the world, as it connects one way or another to all humans’ history. Whether one believes in evolution or not, one must understand how civilizations found their beginnings as nations.

The question of race classification comes into play when discussing this group of seemingly White Europeans/ AngloSaxons, when in reality their genetics have more in common with Eastern Europeans; this is because of multiple environmental factors and historical “coincidences”.

Armenian history tends to be hard to prove, with so many of our books being burnt and historical landmarks being torn, if not taken over by neighboring governments. The consensus amongst Armenian History experts is that the creation of this nation was the eventual result of an agreement amongst major indiginous tribes of the area, who no longer wished to be separate forces.

Somewhere in between that there were myths of dragons and heroes and then the nation became the first in the world to accept the religion of Christianity as a whole people (source: Dr. Garo Moumdjian, PhD). Historical wars and art happened, which ultimately brought us to the decades of evil leading up to and through the Armenian Genocide.

If your only experience with Armenians is the media, then you have probably imagined us to live like Kardashians. Though there is a decent proportion of Armenian success stories, they tend to be brushed under the rug as stories of “old money”. In reality, Armenians have been on the run since the genocide of (about) 1.5 million of them.

They initially fled to neighboring countries like Iran, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, the Americas and other European countries. Some even found refuge in the homes of compassionate Turks, who risked their own safety to protect these Armenian civilians from their own Turkish government, the Ottoman Empire. This began years before what is now known as Armenian Genocide Day (April 24); the genocide of the Armenians is only recognized in some cities and countries worldwide, and not by the United States of America as a nation (Only 48 of 50 states recognize the happenings).

The remembrance is of the lives of 10,000 artists and writers, who were slaughtered mostly on one day and the rest of the 1.5 million victims whose family trees were cut short. My grandmother Verjin (no known maiden name) describes the events as engrained in her by family members, “men were urinated on in front of their families before being beheaded… nipples were sliced off and put through skewers to humiliate the victims… War is between soldiers, not women and children.”

The best proof of the events executed by the Ottoman Empire is a famous speech by Hitler convincing his men to commit the Holocaust. He is quoted, “Who, after all, speaks now of the ANNIHILATION of the Armenians?”

The end of the massacres came in 1918, resulting in the founding of today’s ANCA, the Armenian National Committee of America. The website of the ANCA Western Region points to interesting facts and numbers, like how Armenia is only a small portion of its largest size in history. The greatest Armenian kingdom spanned 300,000 square kilometers before the genocide, eventually losing 90% of it over the years to current day.

Armenia was made part of Soviet Russia and only gained independence in 1992, when the Soviet Union was no more. This lead to many Armenians (about one third) being heavily influenced by Russians, with many speaking the language just as fluently as their own.

About another third is influenced by the Iranian/ Persian culture, speaking Farsi, and another third with Middle Eastern dialects because of the influence of the countries their families were able to find refuge in.

My family, for example, came from Beirut, Lebanon and Aleppo, Syria and can barely be traced back to Armenia, because of the lack of ancestral information; most Armenians have no written family tree, as many secrets died with the victims of the genocide.

On a brighter note, Armenians live off of a famous quote by American-Armenian novelist William Saroyan, when facing terrible circumstances as a reminder of better days:

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.”

Armenians are a proud people, yet learning the ways of their new homes, which speaks loudly considering about 75% of the global Armenian population lives outside of their homeland. This quote reinforces the Armenian mindstate that they can still keep their way of life, no matter who tries to take that away from them. That, even after a whole system of people planned to eliminate you, your family and everyone in between, you must keep faith that one day you will smile again.

You will laugh again and you must love again, so that the world no longer needs to speak of genocide again (defined as “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation” and barely coined as a term in the 1940’s).

Many Armenians believe the genocide could not have been prevented, but they do believe future ones can be. Not recognizing one genocide is allowing another. They were not just Armenians who were slaughtered, they were humans, women and children, sent to deserts to pray to their God as humilation for their beliefs and independent ways of life.

The greatest attraction of America (as well as other global Armenian hubs) to Armenians was this pursuit of freedom that was no longer available in their own country (until recent decades), with the emergence of technology and all.

Armenians respect the rights of others’ ways of life, whether they believe in them or not, and expect the reciprocal, for as long as “no harm, no foul”. This is a basic principle, amongst many, that Armenians hold when choosing a country to live, especially when the many of the countries they lived in before coming to the States were third-world.

Armenians have really come a long way in a short amount of time and it is in big thanks to those countries who accepted them in as their own citizens. They have not popped up much outside of Serj Tankian / System of a Down and star futbol player Henrikh Mkhitarian, but that is mostly because they have not had enough time in America to learn of all its opportunities, such as being an Editor for the school newspaper slash magazine.