#hyestan

From the Archives: Ajam explores Yerevan's Bangladesh neighborhood. 

Photo courtesy of the author, Maxim Edwards.

I think of myself as Armenian. But ina way like my Armenian is missing. I never heard anyone speak well of the place and barely heard of it at all. But in every lesson I learn I feel more connected and so like I need to know Armenians. My family has these stereotypes that seem to be built around family more than culture so I get confused. I know what it means to be an Elgatian, a Kasparian. But to be Armenian?

I wonder if white Americans see their ethnic heritages this way? I assume many natives and blacks do. So much is lost to all of these peoples and, for me, no one is willing to talk face to face. Like the pain of our fathers is not to be touched by us.

Do Irish Americans have some silent hatred for the Brits?

The day the Armenian Genocide is remembered--April 24--resonates so much with me. It's the day they gathered up all of the intellectuals--men and women, teachers, philosophers, writers, mathematicians, politicians, scientists--and killed them publicly. The massacres started before this but that's the important day to Armenians.