April; April 24, 1915
This is what the memorial in Yerevan to the victims of the Armenian Genocide looks like every April 24th:
All day long people march to the monument. I don't think there's a single person in Yerevan who is able to go that doesn't. And of course there's always people from other places who come for this day. Footage from this year:
You know, having studied Armenian History in college this year, I've felt not just the usual grief at the topic of the genocide, but rage at the unfairness of the fate of the Armenians afterwards. It's like the universe was bent on kicking us out of existence. Did you know Turkey, the perpetrator, was the only loser country post-WWII to actually expand its terriotories? And guess what, 75% of those territories it expanded to were historic Armenian lands. I don't want to go into whys, but it was a combination of Russia (Lenin, of all people, did so much damage..), Transcaucasia, Europe and the US acting in their self-interests and Armenia having nothing to offer to invite protection against the Turks.
But you know what? I look back at all the incredible misfortunes Armenians have gone through, not just in the 20th century but the thousands of years before that, and I think, "Tough luck, universe. We're still here. We have our own indepenedent country. It may be pretty messed up but it's ours. And we're all over the world and we succeed everywhere we go and we're here to bloody stay."
Universe: 01, Armenians: 8,000,000.
All day long people march to the monument. I don't think there's a single person in Yerevan who is able to go that doesn't. And of course there's always people from other places who come for this day. Footage from this year:
Click to viewYou know, having studied Armenian History in college this year, I've felt not just the usual grief at the topic of the genocide, but rage at the unfairness of the fate of the Armenians afterwards. It's like the universe was bent on kicking us out of existence. Did you know Turkey, the perpetrator, was the only loser country post-WWII to actually expand its terriotories? And guess what, 75% of those territories it expanded to were historic Armenian lands. I don't want to go into whys, but it was a combination of Russia (Lenin, of all people, did so much damage..), Transcaucasia, Europe and the US acting in their self-interests and Armenia having nothing to offer to invite protection against the Turks.
But you know what? I look back at all the incredible misfortunes Armenians have gone through, not just in the 20th century but the thousands of years before that, and I think, "Tough luck, universe. We're still here. We have our own indepenedent country. It may be pretty messed up but it's ours. And we're all over the world and we succeed everywhere we go and we're here to bloody stay."
Universe: 01, Armenians: 8,000,000.