Hayastan

Written originally on November 20, 2020

"I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia"

---William Saroyan

In the event of remembering our fallen Armenian heroes, I have been reflecting my sentiments during the course of the war. Sentiments I am sure that are part of every Armenian living now. At first we were all frightened for our families back home. We protested, we spoke out, we wrote, we sang, we donated.

Then the trilateral agreement came, and what was recognized became a memory of remembrance. So many emotions filled us all. Anger, fury, rage, anxiety, depression, hopelessness.

Now as we approach November 22nd, the remembrance of our brave martyrs, I was reminded of the earlier struggles the Armenian nation went through. The byproduct of its unrecognition we suffer nowadays. And I am reminded by William Saroyan's words on the Armenian Genocide, the event marking the beginning of suffering, only to see them ringing true in our times as well.

William lived in a time where the Genocide was forgotten first by the Armenians then the world. A time in which the world forgot its roots and forgot Armenia completely. Nowadays, we may feel forgotten. But seeing the love in my Armenian brother's and sister's eyes is still giving me hope that Artsakh, and every Armenian city and town taken from the past, will one day unbind the shackles of the terrorist warmongers and give birth to a new Armenia.

Lastly, I conclude by saying that I love Armenia more than anything, and I would give my life to her and her beautiful people in an instant. For there is no greater love than to lay down your life for another's.

ես սիրում եմ քեզ Հայաստան ❤️🇦🇲