One Criterion: Being Armenian

Armenians around the world are preparing to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The official day of commemoration is April 24, 2015 as April 24, 1915 was the Kristallnacht of the Armenian Genocide. It was the evening that the Turkish Ottoman Government arrested 250 Armenian artists and leaders, many of whom were subsequently killed. It was also the night that the same government arrested 5,000 migrant male Armenian workers trying to eke out meager livings in Istanbul. These folks all disappeared. After that fateful night, the government systematically killed and deported most of the Armenian population from what is today the Republic of Turkey. It was a brutal and heinous ethnic cleansing of people from their ancestral homelands. It was Genocide.

In the Genocide, the Turks had one criterion which they applied in a most uniform manner. The criterion was simply one question: Are you Armenian? If the answer was yes, you qualified. You qualified to be slaughtered on the spot. You qualified to be slaughtered, only after you were made to watch everyone you knew or loved be killed or burned in their local church. If you were a young girl or boy, you might have been a little luckier and qualified to be adopted by a Turkish family and have your life dramatically changed forever. If you qualified, you got to leave with whatever you could carry on a death march into the Syrian Desert—you got to experience every indignity before starving to death. If you qualified and were luckier, you might have been forced to become a prostitute. If you qualified and were really lucky, you might have escaped with horrible memories of all the above and found yourself in Syria, Europe, the U.S., or South America to create a new life, a new family, and as Saroyan said… a new Armenia.

The only criterion was if you were Armenian. They did not care which political party you belonged to. Were you Hunchak, Tashnag, Ramgavar, or even a Young Turk? It didn’t matter as long as you were Armenian. Were you Catholic, Apostolic, Protestant? It mattered not, as long as you were Armenian. There were families split by politics where one “side” did not acknowledge or speak to the other “side.” Apostolic members of families ignored or disliked Protestant and Catholic branches of their families. Yet, no one escaped this most simple criterion. If you were Armenian, you were subjected to the Genocide.

Since then we, Armenians around the world, have found ways to create rifts, divisions, and schisms between ourselves for, well, any of the above reasons. We create distrust if not hatreds between people from different political parties. We might all be Christians but like Sunnis and Shias, we figure out ways to not associate with people of other Christian denominations. In the U.S., we even have divisions based on which Pope… er… Catholicos of the Apostolic (Orthodox) church we follow.

It is crazy. In this year of commemoration of what our people endured 100 years ago, we should apply the same criterion as the Turks… with, of course, the complete opposite action. Are you Armenian? Excellent. I embrace you my brother… my sister. Let us not look at what makes us different. Let us look at what makes us the same and that quite simply is being Armenian. There is no better year in which to do this than this year. It is a good way to honor our martyrs, ourselves, and our nation. Let’s put all of our differences aside and value that simple criterion that would have qualified us all for the Genocide: being Armenian.

Mark Gavoor
Mark Gavoor is Associate Professor of Operations Management in the School of Business and Nonprofit Management at North Park University in Chicago. He is an avid blogger and oud player.

10 Comments

  1. Exactly
    So sad our own leaders failed to achieve this and instead of inaugurating the Armenian genocide museum in Washington we are empty handed only months away.
    Will we learn?
    Will we change?
    We must.

  2. Mr. Mark Gavoor, an excellent article. It should be a “must read” for all Armenians and especially all leaders of Armenian organizations. Keep up the good work.

    • Ms. Rivera:

      I agree that Christians are the most persecuted today, but not on Earth: I’d say Middle East instead.
      The Middle East, previously almost all Christian or non-Muslim, has been almost completely ethnically cleansed of Christians.
      But the recent wars that were unleashed, e.g. war on Iraq, war on Syria, which enabled the ethnic cleansing of local Christians, were unleashed by bloodthirsty Western Neocons: not Muslims.

      So to ascribe atrocities and genocides of Christians to Muslims exclusively is inaccurate.
      Christians of Asia Minor – Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks – were subjected to Genocide by Turks, who happened to be Muslim.
      And they were assisted by Kurds, who also happened to be Muslim.

      However, (nominally) Muslim Arab countries, specifically Syria and Lebanon, took in survivors of the AG and sheltered them.
      Sheltered them.
      Christian Armenian communities in (Muslim) Syria and (Muslim & Christian) Lebanon were thriving, until outside forces unleashed Hell on Earth.
      Islamic Republic of Iran has been a good friend of (Christian) Republic of Armenia since its independence in 1991.
      During the terrible years of NKR war and complete blockade, IRI provided crucial humanitarian aid to Armenia.

      And let us not forget that the Turks were assisted and enabled in their planning and implementation of the AG by Christian Germany.

  3. How vulnerable we Armenians are.Putting aside a few kind actions, it still has not downed on us that we are absolutely hated by Turks.
    It helps only if their pockets hurts,and the few million of us can hurt at least just for one year during the centenary if we do not purchase anything made in Turkey,not visit Turkey unless we have to and stay away from Turkish airlines.Is this too much to ask?

  4. Thank you for these sentiments, Mr. Gavoor. It is in that very spirit that The 100 Years, 100 Facts Project has taken off as an online educational initiative with its website (http://www.100years100facts.com) and social media presence across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+, celebrating the experience of this remarkable nation in the run-up to the centennial of the attempt to annihilate it. The one hundred facts being presented on Armenian history and culture showcase points of pride and interest, including write-ups on historical events, notable individuals, various Diaspora communities, and even the Armenian denominations mentioned above, alongside some off-beat entries as well. The 100 Years, 100 Facts Project is meant to be accessible for all – all Armenians, and all interested in the Armenian experience

  5. As individuals I think we achieve this. – the loving appreciation of all other Armenians, the feeling you have arrived at an oasis whenever you meet one. In his books on our Veterans, Dick Demirjian has collected scores of examples of Armenians who met others by chance in far away places. As Saroyan said, a new if temporary Armenia arose, with laughter and the love of family projected through a stranger.

    Yes, as political parties and groups we are divided, but few carry division beyond their parties and rival Parishes.

    These feelings of seeing all Armenians as a Haven and home are especially acute for those of us who grew up Armenian-deprived. The first time I wandered into a bank in Glendale to see 5 of 6 tellers being Armenian I thought I was in heaven.

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