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| Poster by Naeema Zarif |
Ninety-seven years since, the Armenian Genocide is still a topic that
hits a raw nerve with Armenians worldwide.
Today, April 24, commemorates the Armenian Genocide committed in
1915-1916 by the Ottoman Empire’s “Young Turk” government.
Roughly half the Ottoman Empire’s 2,500,000 Armenians were killed during
the Armenian Genocide through wholesale massacres and deportations by dint of
forced marches.
Armenians around the globe commemorate the tragedy on April 24, the day
in 1915 when 250-300 Armenian leaders, writers, thinkers and professionals in
Constantinople -- present-day Istanbul -- were rounded up, deported and killed.
The Ottoman military at that time uprooted Armenians from their homes and
forced them to march for hundreds of miles, without food or water, to the
desert of what is now Syria.
Since then, the pomegranate was adopted as
a symbol for Armenians. The narrative is that during the 1915 Genocide and
exodus, pomegranate was the only food mothers could find to feed their offspring.
Those marching could also count the days with the pomegranate seeds. It is that
each fruit, however big or small, holds 365 seeds!
As I did last year, I asked two Armenian friends -- Shant Demirdjian and
Sareen Akharjalian, who both live in Beirut, Lebanon -- to contribute their thoughts
on the day for Mich Café:
Which Genocide?
By Shant Demirdjian*
Let me be a bit more precise,
which Armenian Genocide? No, no… It’s not just one; it’s not two or even three
or four!! Which one should I talk about?
Murdering an Armenian
journalist who dares to be “Armenian”?
Or should I write about the
uprooting of more than two million Armenians from their homeland and the massacre
of some 1.5 million in the deserts of Syria?
Need I dwell on disallowing the
placement of the Holy Cross on a “restored” Armenian church in Van? Or
even worse, turning churches into caves, restaurants and farms?
Or what about the vandalism
of Armenian architecture -- churches, tombstones, Khatchkars (cross stone) --
over and over again, everywhere in Occupied Armenia, Nakhchivan and in all places “their” hand could reach?
[The Armenian Khatchar cross, often made in obsidian, has two
triple loops on each arm of the cross. It rarely has a crucifix but rather a
rosette or a solar disc below it and the remainder is filled with patterns of leaves,
grapes, pomegranates or abstracts. UNESCO last year declared the
Armenian Khatchkar an intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent
safeguarding.]
Which Genocide?
When people talk about the
Armenian Genocide they usually consider the latter, the one that started on the
night of April 24, 1915, with the capture, murder and deportation of the
Armenian elite -- teachers, writers, revolutionaries, who where the first to
“go.” The strategy was to make the Armenians “headless.”
But it didn’t stop there. It
didn’t stop even after the vast majority of Armenians were moved from their
homeland and driven to the deserts of Syria… just to let them perish there from
hunger, starvation and Ottoman brutality.
The sad thing is that the
outrage hasn’t stopped! The assassination of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and not allowing a cross to be erected on an Armenian Church… only
happened a few years ago.
The destruction of the
Armenian Heritage is still continuing as you read this! For me, this is the
“Armenian Genocide.”
Nonetheless, we survived. We
survived and doomed that brutal appetite of mass murder.
We survived and made others
talk about the “Armenian Genocide” in Turkey.
We survived and spread our
Heritage around the globe.
We survived and turned April
24 into the Day of Survival.
*Shant Demirdjian (@ShantDotMe) is a web developer and teacher.
He is a photographer in his
spare time and his work can be viewed at his blog, Shant.me – My Photo Blog.
Struggles and Triumphs
By Sareen Akharjalian*
When people ask me about the Armenian Genocide and what I know
about it, I don't usually talk about the massacres of entire Armenian
villages.
I don't usually talk about the starvation, the rape and the
murder Armenians had to face when forcibly evicted and marched into the harsh
deserts of Syria.
I don't talk about the massacres and brutal killings of
prominent Armenian figures on April 24, 1915.
I tell the story of my grandfather, Arsen Akharjalian.
My grandfather, God rest his soul, grew up in a village called Yozgat in Turkey. The sad thing is
there isn't really much he could tell us about his family in Turkey. You
see, his father and uncles were forced into battle and his mother
was killed while he was still a very young child -- barely old enough to
speak.
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| Dédé Arsen |
Arsen Akharjalian’s family at the time included 10 brothers and
sisters. In the confusion and utter chaos, the family was split up. Some
were sent to different parts of Turkey, others, including my grandfather, his
sister and older brother were saved by European missionaries and sent to
an orphanage in Syria. Their trip to Syria was long and harsh, with no
water, no food, and only stories of Armenian killings that had taken place
in Deir ez-Zor to go by. It's a wonder they survived.
They finally reached their destination: an orphanage in Aleppo. But
the orphanage was so overcrowded, the children had to be split up once
more. His older brother remained in Syria, and my grandfather and his
sister were sent to the famous Birds Nest Armenian Orphanage in Jbeil, Lebanon
-- which still operates to this day. There, Dédé Arsen learned
basic crafts. He became a shoe mender. And by some miracle, he was able to
overcome his hideous past and have a family and children.
How do I commemorate the Armenian Genocide?
By remembering my grandfather's immense struggles and triumphs
despite these dark times in history.
*Sareen Akharjalian (@sareen_ak) is a programmer and software developer by day and a cartoonist by
night. Her two-year-old webcomic, Ink on the Side, is awaited online every
Monday morning to brighten up the week.
Related post:
Armenian Genocide: A tear a day – 24
April 2011
