BY MADELEINE MEZAGOPIAN
Amid the current global socioeconomic and political turmoil, which will no doubt impact coming generations, minorities suffer the most, as they face the very real possibility of losing their identities. The Armenian Diaspora is one such minority, as more than a century of oppression and suffering has resulted in the loss of land in Armenia and become a threat to its survival.
This tragic development steadily haunts all Armenians, as does the memory of the 1.5 million martyred—who died while refusing to abandon their faith, a crucial component of their identity—during the genocide 110 years ago.
Today, while we re-embrace the sufferings of our ancestors, we are filled with fear that these sacrifices will not only be forgotten, but will be erased from history by those who exert shameful efforts to rewrite the past. This revisionism speaks of a different past and a different future—one that abolishes Armenia’s territorial rights and allows Turkey and Azerbaijan to lay claim to our lands.
Fear is spreading quickly in both the Homeland and the Armenian Diaspora. Armenians are afraid that the Homeland will forget the sufferings of not only the 1915 Genocide, but the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh in 2023, as 150,000 ethnic Armenians were expelled from their native lands. This betrayal must be vehemently resisted.
Today, we the Homeland cannot afford to remember the sacrifices of our martyrs only with tears. Today, we cannot alleviate their sufferings with only speeches and prayers.
Today, Armenians in the diaspora, with solid determination and perseverance, must assemble with the key purpose of building solid bridges between themselves and those in the Homeland. Representatives of the diaspora must collaborate with Armenians in the Homeland, joining efforts to support Armenia in different ways. Most importantly, they must put heavier emphasis on the history of confiscated territories and the sufferings of the Armenian people.
Today, Armenians worldwide bow to the sacrifices of our grandparents and great-grandparents, and ask for forgiveness for our shortcomings in adequately preserving their sacred memory. We must ensure that their sacrifices were not in vain by resisting all the ongoing betrayals. Especially those by some in Armenia who seek to rewrite the past and current history of the Homeland, a revisionist history that is devoid of the Armenian Genocide, and one that allows our enemies to confiscate territories in Armenia proper.
Today, we kneel with great humility and seek forgiveness from our martyred ancestors, the victims of not only their direct perpetrators, but equally the victims of the world, who kept silent and remained indifferent to the sufferings and the losses of our Homeland. The same silence which encouraged the Holocaust. A silence that is still being practiced, even as Azerbaijan reoccupied Artsakh, continued its erasure of Armenian cultural heritage, and imprisoned former Artsakh leaders.
Today, solidarity amongst Armenians is necessary in order to protect our Homeland and forbid individuals from betraying the memory of our martyred ancestors. Such solidarity is a required in order to avoid torturing the sacred souls and disparaging the memory of our martyrs.
Madeleine Mezagopian is a scholar and an academician based in Amman, Jordan.
