Radio Piece: Remembering the Victims of the Armenian Genocide

This week we remember the 100 year anniversary of the lost souls of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian genocide that began 100 years ago in the Ottoman Empire. My family is from Turkey, we’re Turkish-Armenian, or Bolsa-Hye. Many people ask me how that’s possible, an Armenian from Turkey? Members of my family were fortunately spared unlike the 1.5+ million unlucky souls who were murdered, butchered, exiled onto death marches into the Syrian desert or chained up and drowned in lakes.

My maternal side is from Kayseri. If you have ever heard of Cappadocia in Turkey, the cave-houses, it’s in that same area. You can read more about the history and importance of Armenians living in Kayseri here.

My paternal side is from Sivas which was along the Silk Road. You can read more about the history of Armenians living in Sivas here. 

Eventually both sides of my family moved to Istanbul and later they emigrated to Los Angeles, California to leave behind racism and bigotry in pursuit of a better life. Because of this reason, like many other Armenians, I have family all over the world within the diaspora: Argentina, France, Australia, Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy. Is that a good thing? For someone who likes to travel, sure I get to see family in beautiful places, but look deeper. We were all separated, and for what?

In this digital age, we’ve all reconnected, I even traveled to Argentina to meet cousins I became acquainted with on Facebook — meeting an Armenian who is not blood related doesn’t mean anything–we’re still family. It’s very sad to have been separated, but being able to reconnect digitally has made the Armenian diaspora very strong and unified.

Here is a famous quote by the Armenian-American author, William Saroyan, a descendent of Armenian genocide survivors:

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.”

While I was attending Humboldt State University in northern California, myself and a few other Armenian students formed an Armenian Students Association and during Genocide Remembrance Week, we held several events and produced a radio piece for KHSU radio which is the NPR station of Humboldt County. You can take a listen to the Armenian Genocide radio segment I produced here on the Soundcloud.