An Armenian’s Life

In life, we are born into a culture, race, community and often trying to find a sense of belonging as we grow up. When we are born we are either 100% of the culture, race and community, and sometimes we are born 50/50 of mixed communities and races as well as a lot more.

We as Armenian’s mixed or not, have a life of trying to explain to the world of who we are, where we are situated in the world, and we often have to tell our whole history and who we are as a culture to many people who do not know about us and how we adapt in today’s society. Well, in the last few years, a lot of awareness about us has been raised by many celebrities Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Khloe Kardashian, Conan O’Brien, Sona Movsesian, George & Amal Clooney, and others who have visited our country Armenia, and as well as Pope Francis.

They have opened the door to a world of discovery for a lot of people to know. An Armenian’s life was so difficult trying to explain who Armenians and Armenia are and now that these prominent figures of our society today, have made it very easy to put us on the map. A lot of tourists that are non-Armenian have been visiting our country and because of social media these last few years, and the way people explain, Armenia and Armenians have become famous and popular in the public eye. which is so remarkable and we thank those who know about us now.

I sometimes sit in a coffee shop or sometimes I am at a mall or something sitting down at the food court for a break and a lot of times, I have heard non-Armenian individuals discussing Armenians, and hearing that makes me feel great and I just allow them to continue on their conversations without interrupting them, and telling them I am Armenian and thank you for talking about us in such a beautiful way, but I just let them carry on and then I leave with a sense of happiness and smiles. I am hearing this all too often now which has never been done before.

If feels great getting the world involved, and as well as putting cultures that aren’t really well known on the map. It feels incredibly amazing.

An Armenian’s life is full of beauty, the enjoyment of tell our story, about our churches, statues, our authors, Christianity, Mount Ararat, fruits, the food, enjoying on spreading our love for arts and crafts with making traditional rugs, explaining that Apricot, Grapes, and Pomegranate are our fruits that come from Armenia. We also talk about the Mother Armenia statue, Lake Sevan, Etchmiadzin, our Alphabet inventor Mesrob Mashtotz, Our first Catholicos St. Gregory the Illuminator, and amongst many other important aspects of our race, culture, heritage and community.

An Armenian’s life has also some sad, difficult parts as we are always discussing the issue of the Armenian Genocide, where we are looking for recognition, justice and get the world of people in countries that are still not recognizing what happened to us on April 24, 1915. We Armenians hold peaceful demonstrations in the world in front of the governments eyes to either say thank you for recognizing the Armenian genocide and/or where in some countries in front of government to also say to recognize and to get justice. In the 100th anniversary in 2015, as a symbol of the 100th centennial, we have the Purple Forget-Me-Not flower which tells people to never forget, and its an important symbol that we will keep on using even after the 100 years have passed.

Acts of crime committed by the Turkish Ottoman Empire and government, killing 1.5 million Armenians, displacing innocent people from their homes, getting the Armenians to walk through the cold desert where then when they get tired, they get beaten down and eventually killed. The government of Turkey has yet to recognize the crimes they committed against Armenians and humanity. In 2017 will mark 102 years on April 24, 2017. We will always be making sure that Genocide is recognized and we are working on making sure that history will never be repeated.

With darkness always comes the light and we are striving to find justice.

An Armenians life will always be filled with both happiness and sadness, and now we are focused on also allowing people to see the beauty of Armenia and learning about our dances, music and all that Armenia and Armenians have to offer to the world. We will forever be grateful that we are Armenians, proud, happy, and we are so blessed being born into it all as all cultures, races and heritage should be around the world. We should celebrate diversity and forever be grateful of who we are in all walks of life.