Sahagian: Your Armenians, Not Mine!

“You’re Armenian? Well, I know you fought Azerbaijan and won,” a Scandinavian girl told me when we were first introduced a few years ago. I did not comprehend the value of those words back then.

Never had a stranger brought up that war as the first term of reference; usually the genocide was the only historical sign post. But she knew nothing of the genocide, which made me question the quality of education in Europe.

But over the years, as I dug deeper into the essence and history of Armenians, a dissident voice within me whispered ever more quietly, so as not to cause a storm: “Maybe her not knowing about our darkest years was not such a bad thing after all… Maybe.”

For a long time now I have been lingering between the two narratives of Armenians: the ones who lost, and the ones who won. The world in general, though, has had virtually no interaction with the latter: the Armenian who stood his/her ground and fought.

That was made ever more clear a few nights ago, when a diverse group of people I was with playfully exchanged stereotypes: The Austrians were congratulated for somehow convincing the world that the dictator who almost destroyed Europe was a German. The Norwegians were diminished to being known simply for existing next to Sweden. The Serbians were warned not to go on a killing spree when encountering a Muslim. The Columbians were collectively tied to the cocaine industry. And the Armenians? Well, we were told to make an attempt to stay put at one place for more than two minutes, and not run away at the slightest sign of trouble. Resenting such stereotypes was natural, but later that night when a discussion flared up about the realities of Armenians, an Armenian friend reinforced a stereotype by constantly referring to the genocide.

A red line, for me, was crossed as he chained us to a never-ending cycle of national trauma, paranoia, and grief. And the audience bought into this assumption that the Armenian nation is cloaked in a blanket of eternal black sorrow.

Why do we allow ourselves and others to reduce our 6,000-year-old history to a mere 5 years of tragedy? A history filled with triumph, gains, enlightenment, and richness, side to side with loss, catastrophes, and faults. That basic common history is waived off in favor of a cowardice nation that walked into its own slaughter.

How do we expect to overcome the implications of the genocide if we do not go back before it, and onwards after it, to see that we are a nation with a legacy that is absolutely and exclusively not defined nor anchored to those five years of darkness and butchery!

When will we rise above this perception? Did the war against Azerbaijan not prove otherwise? Can we speak of our victories more than our pains? And if we can’t, can we occasionally lie about it? A simple white lie asserting that our nation is more than the sadness we and others have painted over us.

I return to the Scandinavian girl and struggle to find my place among the Armenians she had heard of and the Armenians I am accustomed to encountering. Somewhere in between there is that delicate balance that I want to retain. Just as I want to hear from non-Armenians words that encompass my complete history: “You’re Armenian? Awful, the genocide. But I know you won the war against Azerbaijan. Good come back.”

Apo Sahagian

Apo Sahagian

Apo Sahagian is a Jerusalemite-Armenian musician and writer.
Apo Sahagian

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4 Comments

  1. Apo,why do you care what Eurobabes think of us? Last time it was some English chicks, this time it’s Swedish chicks. Take it from a professional brief-writer: this is just a device you use to open an issue. It’s stale.

    2. The Genocide was a tad worse than five bad years. Even worse than the White Sox losing streak. Maybe you figured this out but all the lands, wealth, culture, buildings, places where we arose etc. hardly summarize the physical losses. To put it in your idiom: a tragedy comparable to Sweden without Swedes, where Swedes can’t go, where the current residents hate Swedes and kill them with impunity, where Swedish blood falls into silent Swedish earth and Swedish is heard no more. Now do you get it?

    3. It’s a straw man to say that the Armenian self image or image of our history and culture is unremitting torture and exile. Armenians I know care deeply about righting an incalculable wrong, but that is not the core of the Armenian self image. The only people who, like you, think Armenians are defined as Genocide victims are Turkish Nazis.

    4. Our faith teaches life over death, victory and resurrection. Look to these truths which molded 100 generations of Armenians to see who we are. Pay no attention to what 2014 “post Christian” Swedes think.

  2. “That basic common history is waived off in favor of a cowardice nation that walked into its own slaughter.”

    Yeah dude, it’s totally the Armenians fault the Ottoman government decided to kill them all.

  3. Yes, indeed, there’s more to “our 6,000-year-old history” than the Genocide. There’s also more to “our 6,000-year-old history” than the Genocide and the war with Azerbaijan. I don’t know if the Scandinavian girl should be expected to know that, but shouldn’t an adult Armenian with “a bachelor’s degree in government, diplomacy, and strategy”?

    But, anyway, 6,000 years? Really? What exactly were the highlights of Armenian history from the 4th millennium B.C.?

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