Features

BY Amelia Wyckoff ILLUSTRATION Jessy Minker DESIGN Daniel Navratil

My grandma was having an allergic reaction to the for Armenians who remember the 1915 genocide, when members in Armenia, to calculated infographics full of incense. Tears streamed down her face while the rest 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Young Turks, a social justice buzzwords. I had been thrilled to share of us surreptitiously scanned the room, trying to calcu- revolutionary party in the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish posts about Armenian culture, but I grew increasingly late our next move. Do we kneel to pray or stand up to government continues to deny that the slaughter took uncomfortable as Armenian-American activists began sing? It was a 50/50 shot. I kept crossing myself wrong— place, and diasporans have fought for recognition since positioning themselves as part of a persecuted minority. was it the left or the right shoulder first? My grandma fleeing their homes. Rhetoric surrounding the current The Indy talked to Sarine Zeitlian, an Armenian passed me a hymnal, and I stared at the script through conflict in Artsakh has invoked vast histories of ancient activist from New York, about her social media the smoke until all the letters turned into U’s. “Sing, settlement and Armenian persecution. Diasporans strategy. “I began posting on Instagram about Black Anahid.” The music was beautiful, but I didn’t under- have taken to Instagram to document anti-Armenian Lives Matter during the surge of support this summer. stand a word. quotes from Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, Posting then almost became a trend, which of course

We only make the 45 minute drive to Armenian and Recep Erdoğan, the Turkish president. For many isn’t ideal, but helped to spread awareness,” she said. church for special occasions: Christenings, deaths, diasporans, Erdoğan and Aliyev’s rhetoric reopens old “When the conflict in Artsakh got worse, I thought if the occasional Easter. My grandparents, although wounds. In their eyes, the war in Artsakh is a continu- we used social media like they had, we could get more they aren’t Orthodox by faith, go fairly frequently. My ation of a genocide that never really ended. However, support than we’ve had before.” Zeitlian’s page now grandfather takes Armenian lessons in the church modern day Azerbaijan and Turkey are not the direct focuses solely on Artsakh. Kooyrigs, an organization basement from the priest who baptized me. He is the descendants of the Ottoman Empire: The Soviet Union and Instagram page with upwards of 20,000 followers only one who can speak to my grandma in her native and its collapse has significantly shaped the geopolitics dedicated to “providing resources to Armenian women language, Western Armenian. My grandmother’s of the Caucasus region. The USSR assigned Nagorno- around the world,” seemed to think the same way. On parents fled Constantinople (now Istanbul) and Syria Karabakh to Azerbaijan in 1923. The country has main- October 3, they posted a red square with the text “TEXT during the genocide in 1915. They raised her and her tained their control of the region throughout history, PASSAGE TO 52-886 #PEACEFORARMENIANS” sister in Washington Heights, New York. My grand- but the dispute hasn’t ended. In 2020, Azerbaijan superimposed. The caption read, “An extremely effecmother didn’t teach my mother Armenian, but she did and Armenia have once again gone to war. Reducing tive red square. Do it now, Armenian existence is at teach her how to make kourabia and pilaf for the Easter this war to Pan-Turkism is an oversimplification, but stake.” The square echoed the black square of earlier table. In fourth grade, we had to reenact the story of Turkish nationalist language motivates the diaspora to this summer, which flooded the #BlackLivesMatter how our families came to America. I wrapped a sheet act. At my dinner table, we regularly condemn the same hashtag and social media with blank images instead of around me in a makeshift taraz and told the class how statements that these posts quote. My grandmother is resources. This red square at once attempted to imitate I hid under dead bodies in the desert, got on a boat to not from Artsakh, but this conflict has illuminated how the Black Lives Matter movement and modeled itself Cairo, and arrived in New York (and, like every “diary myself and many members of the diaspora engage with on a trend that epitomized performativity. Like the of an immigrant” tale we read, stared wistfully at the Armenian nationalism. aesthetically pleasing infographics on Artsakh I had Statue of Liberty as my boat came to shore). read in July, these posts seemed to be getting attention

Armenia was split between two empires in the +++ and little else. If you texted the number, you’d be taken 1st century, and my grandmother’s country of origin, to a petition to urge Congress to “denounce Azeri and Western Armenia, is now eastern Turkey. When my Azerbaijani forces launched an artillery attack against Turkish aggression.” I signed it without really knowing grandparents visited Armenia in 2012, my grandmother Stepanakert, the capital of Artsakh, this September. what that meant. didn’t understand the Eastern language. The cuisine An Armenian friend’s Instagram story implored me Several Armenians have further misused social tasted nothing like the Mediterranean food my grand- to “swipe thru!!!!” a slideshow from the New Zealand justice rhetoric for their own purposes by approprimother used to cook for Christmas Eve. She expressed based, catch-all social justice account @shityoush- ating claims to Indigeneity in order to advance their her shock and confusion over the phone, but she cried ouldcareabout entitled, “Understanding the conflict quest for recognition. A post widely circulated by at every genocide memorial they visited. She felt at between: Armenia and Azerbaijan,” with information Armenians on Indigenous People’s Day read, “I will home in a shared tragic history. Our Armenian identity, provided by the Armenia Support Fund. Its caption always unapologetically declare that Armenians are therefore, was obsessed with an event that had sought read: “It’s a complex situation .” Complex is a vast an Indigenous group from West Asia because the only to erase it. Stories of struggle and survival created my understatement, and, unsurprisingly, the post didn’t do reason that is doubted today is because of our genocide, sense of ethnicity. My family had assimilated, but we much to clear it up. For months since then, Armenian- removal, occupation, subsequent denial, and historical mourned our people and preserved our persecution in Americans have flooded Instagram with infographics revisionism. We have lived there since time immemohallowed memory. to publicize what they see as the second genocide of rial.” That post included slides likening the assimila-

On July 12, 2020, the Armenian and Azerbaijani Armenians. I’ve seen posts describing intergenera- tion of Armenian women to the forced conversion of armed forces clashed on the state border, near the tional trauma and explaining diasporic guilt. There Indigenous people into white settler society in the US. Tavush Province of Armenia and the Tovuz District of are soldiers and civilians dying, important churches Although the region has changed hands throughout Azerbaijan. The head of the Foreign Policy Department being destroyed, and war crimes being committed— history, claiming the contemporary discourse of of Azerbaijan’s presidential administration and the Genocide Watch even issued a Genocide Emergency Indigeneity allows Armenian activists to unequivocally Armenian Foreign Minister both claimed that the Alert. The current situation in Artsakh is radically claim the Karabakh region. Using Indigenous People’s clashes were an attempt to pressure the other side “on different from that of 1915, and yet many Armenians Day to lament Artsakh feels like a convenient play the question of Nagorno-Karabakh.” are experiencing and publicizing it as déjà vu. Born into for national attention. For diasporans, the rhetoric of

Nagorno-Karabakh is a historically contested the words “Never Forget,” those fighting persecution genocide and Indigeneity are strategic tools, problembreakaway state within the internationally recognized in the 21st century feel like they are fulfilling an ethnic atically feeding off of the momentum created by the borders of Azerbaijan. It is known by 70 percent of prophecy that began with the desert massacres in Black Lives Matter movement. These claims are rooted its residents and Armenians generally as Artsakh, an Western Armenia over 100 years ago. One Armenian in a historic loss of ethnic identity for diasporans ancient name derived from a time when the region tweeted, “As the great granddaughter of genocide in America. Sophia Armen, an Armenian-American was a part of the Armenian Kingdom. I will be refer- survivors, I never thought I would live to see history activist, writes, ring to it as Artsakh in modern contexts but using its repeat itself. Let this post serve as a record.” regional name, Karabakh, when discussing its history. Diasporans have taken to the streets, pointed “So much of Armenian diasporic literature and politOn November 10, Armenian prime minister Nikol megaphones at the New York Times, and shut down ical theory is about anti-assimilation as a response to Pashinyan agreed to end the war, removing Armenian highways in Los Angeles to call for an end to United ongoing anxieties about erasure, the driving force of genotroops from Artsakh. Some Armenians protested, States aid to Azerbaijan. These demonstrations began cide. Our nationalism, it means something different than storming parliament and calling for Pashinyan’s resig- after the Black Lives Matter movement mobilized the nationalism of colonial powers. It quite literally means nation. The violence in Artsakh has killed and displaced across America, with Armenian diasporans capitalizing nation—a body of people of which one is a part, a collecArmenian civilians, but citizens and diasporans alike on the momentum behind social change. The posts tive belonging that is a connection to land and community grieved the ceasefire. I saw on social media ranged from small businesses beyond borders, and the struggle of self-determination

Artsakh has become a symbol of self-preservation donating their proceeds, to personal accounts of family over our own lives. ”

Armenian population of Artsakh from harm. Carman to exotify my own heritage, diminishing it to handy

Armenians who have struggled to gain widespread and Zeitlian feel the war’s impact personally: Zeitlian’s epithets. That plaque served as a small consolation for recognition of the genocideare seizing the moment mother remembers the war in the ’90s, and Carman something greater that was lost. I experience the beneto garner international attention, hoping to develop a has friends from her community with family on the fits of assimilation daily, but I feel empty, disconnected sense of belonging. However, their use of organizing front lines. Unlike both of them, I have no Armenian from the traditions that were once so important to my strategies used by Black and Indigenous folks and other community to turn to outside of the elderly parish- family. people of color is questionable considering Armenians’ ioners my grandparents see on Sundays. I visited My grandmother’s dementia has progressed, but historically privileged position in America. Glendale, which has the largest concentration of she holds onto her identity. At Thanksgiving last year,

Armenians of the diaspora have benefited from Armenians in the world outside of Armenia, on a trip she pointed to each of her grandchildren and asked, whiteness interpersonally and systemically in America. to Los Angeles two years ago, and I was shocked to “Do YOU speak Armenian?” She couldn’t believe it After their mass migration to the US in 1915, Armenians see Armenian script on street signs. I bought the few when not a single one of us could answer yes. She never struggled for citizenship to avoid returning back home, pastries I recognized at a bakery and presented them to taught it to us, but she wishes we somehow knew it. where genocide raged on. A decision from a circuit my friend, describing their flavors but forgetting their When speaking to the Armenians I interviewed, I found judge in Boston afforded four Armenian men citizen- names. In Glendale, Armenian culture felt tangible myself struggling to pronounce “Artsakh.” I felt like an ship, codifying them as white and distinguishing them and immediate. The choreg loaves my family baked at impostor. Nayri addressed this feeling, “There’s a lot from Turkish, Syrian, Chinese, and Korean immi- Easter suddenly seemed inadequate. of impostor syndrome among people who are Western grants. Congress codified that decision a few months Throughout the summer, I found and followed Armenian. You’re not directly impacted, however you later. Aram Ghoogasian, an Armenian writer from Armenian culture accounts I never knew existed. I relate to your country is how you’re impacted… rather Los Angeles, argued in his article “How Armenian- scrolled and felt moved to call my grandpa, imploring than some of my friends, whose families are fighting Americans Became White: A Brief History,” “Today him to teach me Armenian now that my grandmother on the front lines.” I desperately crave a sense of Armenian Americans, on the whole, enjoy high levels no longer can. Artsakh has at once drawn me closer to belonging. I want my Armenian-ness to mean someof wealth relative to many non-whites, an observable other Armenians while highlighting my distance from thing, to manifest itself in the life I lead away from the trend more attributable to Armenians’ racial position… this culture. I watch the churches crumble, and I choke dinner table my family shares at Easter. I am certainly than their fabled proclivity for hard work.” Armenians up. My emotion doesn’t stem from a fear for my family. not immune to my own critiques: It is quite possible have been positioned as a model minority since they Instead, I regret that my grandmother will never step this is nothing but an extended exotification of a heriwere allowed to naturalize in the 1920s, and assimi- foot on the land she comes from, whether in Istanbul or tage I didn’t get to experience first hand, or a problemlation has further complicated how they relate to the Aleppo. Perhaps this is why I find it difficult to extricate atic effort to feel different from the homogenous white American communities they are a part of. myself from the nationalism I am critiquing. I long for community I grew up in. My grandmother has enjoyed some example of Armenian-ness that I can experience a peaceful life in America, but I wish she could one day +++ and understand. I found faulty symbols throughout my visit a country she feels at home in. Three generations adolescence: At every visit to the American Museum later, a home neither she nor I ever saw means so much In the past few months, I’ve felt more Armenian than of Natural History, I stared at the tiny glass box that to me. ever before, although I am privileged to be far removed housed mannequins surrounded by ceremonial objects, from this conflict. Nayri Carman, a Western Armenian with the caption, “The powerful role of the work ethic from Michigan, explained, “For me, it’s not about in personal identity places Armenians among the most AMELIA WYCKOFF B’22 is calling their grandma. getting the land back, it’s about where people are.” enterprising Near Eastern people.” Looking back, For many like her, this conflict is about protecting the this exhibit offered me nothing but an opportunity