How much worse does it have to get?

Armenian Heritage Park, October 11 (Photo: Knar Bedian)

How much worse does it have to get for you to care and for our loud voices to be heard? How bad does the current war going on between Azerbaijan and Armenia have to get for you to listen? Armenians are some of the purest and kindest people I have met. I may be Armenian but I do not mean this in a self-centered way at all. Armenia is the one place you can go walk alone in the streets at night and feel safe. It is the one place where you know that even if you don’t know someone they will treat you like their own. Armenia is the one place you can go where there is never a silent night, never a night without dancing or singing. There is always a celebration. Always. What have Armenians done to deserve this? We have just tried to live, live through all of it. We have gone through so much and we are not done yet. We are getting our land back. We are taking back Ararat. We will not stop until we get what is rightfully ours.

In 1915, Turkey started a genocide against Armenia. 105 years later, Azerbaijan is attempting to continue and finish off that genocide. Their goal is to never see an Armenian walk on this earth ever again. But why? What did we do to have all of our land taken away? What did we do to have our lives threatened? Is it really bothering you that we’re trying to live our lives peacefully? Is it really bothering you that our soldiers are trying to make it past their 18th birthday?

Notice a pattern here? Notice how Armenia has never been the one to start the attack. It has always been Azerbaijan and Turkey. We have never fought until they gave us a reason to. And the only reason even then is to make sure we have a future.

All we are asking from all of you is a little recognition. All it takes for our voices to really be heard is some amplifying. Because we are loud. We are very loud but without speakers the world won’t hear us. We’re the only ones listening to our chanting, our begging, our hopeful prayers. Nobody else seems to care, and if you do care then do something about it. It’s not too hard: just an Instagram story or a small donation or even a text asking, “Hey what’s going on in Armenia?” Trust me, it makes a difference.

Even before I knew how to spell I knew how important my culture was to me. I knew that it represented me and my family. Since I was only a couple of years old, I have been speaking the language of my ancestors, the same ancestors who fought days and nights just so I could be alive right now. Without them protecting our motherland I wouldn’t be here today. And you wouldn’t have colored televisions, iPhones, waffle ice cream cones, MRI’s, ATM’s, oxygen masks and much more. The list keeps on going. Maybe now that you know how much we have given you, you’ll start to care. I mean, you didn’t seem to care when we told you about all our fallen soldiers and our attempts to live a peaceful life; but maybe now that I told you how much we have impacted your daily lives you will care.

We have protested all over the world. Unlike others we have worn masks, we have not been violent, and we have stood there for hours chanting until we can’t chant anymore. Our voices are never going to fade away. Our voices are never going to get quieter. They’re just going to keep on getting louder and louder. We will keep fighting until we get justice. That’s all we want. We don’t want violence.

And just a little note to Azerbaijan: stop trying because you will never reach your goal. Never will we let you get the satisfaction of not seeing us ever again. We will always be here right in front of you. Even if there is only one Armenian alive they will carry on with our culture, they will sing, they will dance, and they will grow our community and start all over again. Stop trying, you’re not getting anywhere.