Armenia Society News Digest for Wednesday, August 19, 2020
What Makes You Armenian?
Nicholas Krikorian (center) with ANCA Leo Sarkisian Intern Angelika Avagian and ANCA Maral Melkonian Avetisyan Intern Tatevik Khachatryan during a visit to Capitol Hill.
BY NICHOLAS KRIKORIAN
About two months ago, I entered my first online call for the 2020 Armenian National Committee of America Leo Sarkisian. I was already having destructive thoughts that I didn’t deserve this opportunity because I wasn’t Armenian enough. I was unknowledgeable about the Armenian Cause, greater Armenian history, Armenian culture, and had essentially distanced myself from most things Armenian. Being repeatedly taught about the Genocide and religion during my childhood never seemed to help me understand what being Armenian truly meant to me — they just seemed like regular school lessons. However, through befriending Armenians throughout the diaspora, fighting for the Armenian Cause alongside them, and learning more about myself, I discovered how to interpret and appreciate the Armenian part of my identity.
Armenians tend to hold a sort of unspoken hierarchy; whether we speak the language, if we go to church, who we surround ourselves with- these all seem to be determining factors as to how “Armenian” we are. This problematic nature got in the way of me fully identifying with my Armenian heritage, as many things about me don’t align with what a perfect Armenian looked like in my mind. I’ve never liked Armenian music, nor do I have an affinity for the food. The biggest hit was when I discovered that I identify as Agnostic, while the rest of my family and Armenian community is Christian. With this rejection of the religion that Armenians so proudly boast about being the first to become, I jokingly deemed myself the “Armenian disappointment.” My biggest mistake was amounting my alignment with my heritage and ancestors based on if I believed in God or not, as it made me keep this self-discovery a secret from my family for years.
Why should it matter if you can speak Armenian or not? Or if you go to church and pray like all the other Armenians around you? If you’re an Armenian, you’re an Armenian, and no outside factors can ever change that.
So, this is the conclusion that I had come up with midway through my internship. While it did bring me a solid amount of solace, it still wasn’t enough for me to be happy. Saying I was Armenian accomplished nothing, it was just a word. What happened later was what opened my eyes to a brand new ideology.
In what seemed like an instant, Azerbaijan attacked Armenia, and that turned the calm internship into a fast-paced news cycle where tasks had to be finished quickly to keep up with the endless stream of events and information. For my whole life, I never learned more about Artsakh past its name and location. With this latest aggression, I had the opportunity to research and learn more Armenian history that strayed away from the Genocide, and I found joy in learning so much about my ancestors.
Days into the Azerbaijani bombing, some of my intern friends began saying things like “I’m so mad I haven’t been able to think about anything else” or “I cried about everything last night.” They all had a unity with all of Armenia that I had to grasp, as I didn’t find myself having any emotional reaction to everything happening.
Fortunately, more and more protests started happening around the world, demanding and to President Aliyev’s attacks and U.S. aid to Armenia and Artsakh. Seeing clips of fellow Armenians shouting and chanting and dancing all for one Cause got me riled up as well, and I began to send barrages of information to my non-Armenian friends in an attempt to educate and spread awareness. For the first time in my life, I actively sought out Armenian news and information for myself and was genuinely angry when I couldn’t attend a DC protest due to coronavirus concerns.
Since I wasn’t able to help the cause in that manner, I suggested to the ANCA intern team that we try to start a movement on social media to educate non-Armenians, similar to the way the Blacks Lives Matter movement spread. This was when we banded together to create a Carrd website to have all the necessary sources, petition links, and donation links to spread awareness and gather support from both Armenians and non-Armenians. This experience of influencing the Cause seemed to trigger some sort of change in me that I hadn’t yet recognized.
Finally, one of my intern friends sent me a live-stream of one of the larger protests on one random day, and I was enthralled. I couldn’t take my eyes off all the Armenian people, with all different lifestyles and identities, coming together to fight for our country- and this is when I cried. I realized what being Armenian meant to me – fighting for our Cause. Having a community without judgment that collaborated to achieve the aid we needed for our home country. None of that had anything to do with music or religion, if I went to bazaars or ate ethnic foods. It was what made me feel Armenian. It was what helped me go from rejecting this part of myself to exploring it and being happy to call myself an Armenian.
This is why I hope all Armenian people who feel similar to the way I felt before this internship are able to find what part of their Armenian heritage makes them comfortable in their own identities. It could come in the form of Armenian song and dance, foods, religion, friends and community, pursuing the Armenian Cause (Hai Tahd), or anything else to be individually discovered. That’s why I want to ask you: what makes you Armenian?
Nicholas Krikorian is a senior at the A. Edison High School in Alexandria, Va. and a 2020 ANCA Summer High School Intern.
Turkish mountaineers turn slopes of Mount Ararat into landfill
Turkish mountaineers have turned the slopes of Mount Ararat into a landfill, Ermenihaber.am reports.
The leftovers from the food they took with them during the mountaineering were dumped in a tent camp at an altitude of 4,200 meters above sea level.
One of the Turkish mountaineers made a video and posted the footage on social media.
“If climbers are doing this, then we are in trouble. Which municipality can collect this,” he says in comments.
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Armenia: About 300 Covid-19 patients in serious or critical condition
August 18, 2020 – 16:22 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net – The coronavirus infection rate in Armenia is declining but some 300 patients remain in a serious or critical condition, Health Ministry spokeswoman Alina Nikoghosyan said Tuesday, August 18.
Nikoghosyan said people’s following of three simple anti-epidemic rules – wearing a mask, frequent disinfection of hands and social distancing – are bearing fruit.
“The number of deaths are stable, with 8-9 patients dying every day due to the fact that 300 people are in a serious or critical condition,” RFE/RL Armenian Service cited Nikoghosyan as saying on Tuesday.
15 hospitals converted into Covid-19 treatment centers have already returned to normal activity in the country.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Armenia grew by 145 to reach 41,846 on Tuesday, August 18. So far, 34,982 people have recovered, 832 have died from the coronavirus in the country, while 245 others carrying the virus have died from other causes.
Today on Twitter
These are some of the tweets about Armenia from some of the Twitter accounts we follow. Get in touch with us via Twitter if you want to be part of this Twitter list. We retweet occasionally.
Btw the #water in #Pambak river is pure enough to drink 
. #NaturePhotography
: Vahe Aghamyan
The series of firings, dismissals and imprisonments of officials continues in #Azerbaijan:
https://ift.tt/3230vPP
The #Armenian contingent carrying out a #peacekeeping_mission in #Kosovo, fulfilling it's tasks, handed over the shift to the new group of Armenian #peacekeepers.The superior command assessed the Armenian peacekeepers' professional abilities and service.
#ArmenianArmy #Security
The law «On Making Amendments to the Law “On the State Budget '20 of the #Artsakh Republic"» was adopted with 26 votes in favor & 6 against. The SB revenues will make 126bln 49mln 399.2th AMD, expenditures-135bln 650mln 717.7th AMD, the deficit-9bln 601mln 318.5th.
4
[Arménie 
] @OmbudsArmenia a reçu 794 plaintes concernant les actions relatives à l’impact économique de #Covid_19 
https://ift.tt/34eRHt4
The President of the Republic of #Artsakh Arayik Harutyunian (@Pres_Artsakh) has signed a decree on coordinating the activities of the state administration bodies of the Republic in conducting a common foreign policy.
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