By Ani Arzoumanian
I am the messenger, the historian, the speaker for the dead. I roam the Earth, endlessly seeking opportunities to spread the truth. How many know this truth? Some have heard. How many care? Not many do. Until they’ve met me. My job is to spread awareness. I talk, I write, I speak. My goal is to avenge the suffering souls still stuck between Heaven and Earth, forever in torment, roaming right alongside me every step of the way.
1.5 million. Two thirds of an entire race, silenced by death. “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” I do. I remember, I remind. I declare that the truth must be revealed and justice served, so that my murdered ancestors can finally rest in peace. Denial has continued 101 years too long. Genocide is Genocide is Genocide. No other term will do. It was not a massacre, a war, disagreement, or “safety measure.” It was a deliberate attempt to exterminate an entire ethnicity, conceived and carried out by the Ottoman-Turkish government of 1915.
All of my great-grandparents were miraculous survivors of the Armenian Genocide. Most were orphaned at a young age—one as a newborn—and all were forced to survive the unimaginable in a country whose government set out to erase them from existence. Raped, starved, beaten, shot; their predetermined fates were written in parchment, right under the red hands of Turkish leadership.
Tragedy has struck our Earth time and time again. Never, not ever, have we learned our lesson. History endlessly repeats itself. Hate is fueled by hate, love is drowned by violence. How can we stop this vicious cycle, the evil workings of Human Nature? By accepting the truths of our past, we can prevent a recurrence in the future. Hitler decided to commit the Holocaust because he thought there would be no negative consequences. He believed this because he saw that, under the cover of World War I, the annihilation of the Armenians went unspoken and unpunished.
101 years later, I have become the messenger for my dead ancestors. I speak when they cannot. The Turkish government spends millions of dollars every year to lobby Congress in Washington, D.C., as part of its policy of denial.
How should I react when someone tells me I’m lying? Or when someone says that none of it was real, that my ancestors and the rest of the so-called “survivors” made up one big lie? DNA tests have traced my bloodline to Western Armenia (present-day Eastern Turkey) back 30,000 years. Only recently, my family was forcibly removed from ancient Armenian lands. What am I to do about this injustice by myself? That is why I have become the messenger. By spreading awareness, I can do so much more to avenge my family.
I need you to help me fulfill my goal. The more people are educated about this issue, the more nations, such as the US, can be persuaded to recognize the events of 1915 as genocide. Eventually, Turkey can be pressured into recognizing the Armenian Genocide and paying reparations to Armenia for all that was lost: land, lives, property, traditions, and faith in humanity.
Ani Arzoumanian, 15, is a rising Junior at Ridgewood High School, in Ridgewood, N.J. She is an active member of the AYF, a graduate of the Hovnanian Armenian School, and works with organizations such as the ANC of New Jersey and the Armenian Wounded Heroes Fund, helping with their social media outreach. She wrote this paper for one of the courses she took at Phillips Academy, Andover, over the summer.
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Bravo Ani.
I commend and salute you. You are a very brave and powerful soul and feel the power and the calling of our ancestors to avenge them. I also tell every single person I come across that shows some interest. Some know a little , some know nothing ,and some just don’t care. The point is to tell everyone that is willing to listen so the whole world will know. Well done !!
Dear Ani…Thank you for furthering our Armenian CAUSE by being active… As an older person, I remember, while attending a joint ARF, ARS & AYF Convention in Detroit in the late 1950’s, seated in a convention hall, when suddenly in came Soghomon Telerian, the Armenian hero. The members in the Hall stood up….I remember the faces of the older Dashnaks, standing…with tears flowing down their faces!! With that single event I committed myself, in whatever way I could to be involved in our noble cause. IT IS AN ACQIRED CRUCIBLE, OF OUR PERSONAL, PRIVATE SUFFERINGS, THAT OUR NOBLEST DREAMS ARE BORN…AND GOD GREATEST GIFT ARE GIVEN, IN COMPENSATION FOR WHAT WE HAVE BEEN THROUGH. Keep on keeping on!!!
We need lots more Ani’s.
Very touching, piercing and impressive by a 15 year old.
A sincere cry and a perfect model, for all Armenians to be involved and be active.
Vart Adjemian
I am with you and dedicate myself to this cause. armeniangenocidesociety.com Greg
Shad abris ani
We need a lot more of Ani’s generation of Armenians to be more proactive in maintaining the pressure of truth in this world.
Unfortunately from my perspective our new diaspora generations are becoming more indifferent to the Armenian culture, the historical injustice perpetrated on the Armenian race.
I believe today’s parents should be the initial stepping stones for instilling the Armenian feeling, cultural pride and language in their babies as they grow up. They should involve them in Armenian youth events, sports, arts etc. I know everyone is busy, so was I and my wife, but we ‘sacrificed’
our potential pleasure times and became their taxi drivers. We gradually familiarised them with our culture and history and the inhumane atrocities committed upon our ancestors which amounted to Genocide.
We should maintain our efforts to demonstrate that we still REMEMBER and DEMAND
Good on you Ani jan. Please keep up your struggle and I am sure many others will follow in you path of justice and humanity.