Tourist Destination or the Homeland?

Many of us in America grew up with at least one picture of eternal Ararat on the wall in our family home. Somewhere in the house was a plaque or mosaic of the alphabet Mesrob Mashtots gave us. We dreamed of the day Armenia would be free. Naturally, most of our patriotic fervor was directed towards lost Western Armenia—stolen as a result of the Genocide. After all, most of the Armenians in America were the children and grandchildren of the victims. What remained of Armenia was the territorial footprint of the First Republic, but few from the diaspora had visited due to the political climate under Soviet control. We were grateful to see the words “Armenian S.S.R.” on world maps but lamented the fact that it was not a free nation. I recall in my school years looking for Armenia on world maps but was challenged by others that it was not a “real” nation because its flag was not on the map. It was difficult to describe to them that Armenia had been a nation for thousands of years, when they only lived in the present.