Category: 2023

The unmatched scent of khoong spreads around the room, drawing all shapes of transparent clouds in the sun-lit horizon. Colorful mosaics of all sizes and shapes are perfectly embedded in the walls as if the walls had been pencil-drawn around them, following the exact trajectory of their outline. A sweet, familiar melody permeates through the ‘clouds,’ across the mosaics, until it finally enters deep into my soul. At that very moment, I know I am home. 

A heartwarming corner in the Armenian Sunday School in Abu Dhabi

Finding an Armenian church in Abu Dhabi felt like finding a long-sought treasure, a hidden gem that would give me a sense of connection and belonging, love, friendship, community and home. Living outside of Armenia, far away from all my family and friends, often meant endless days of homesickness and longing, wherein speaking my mother tongue seemed like a luxury that could only be afforded over Whatsapp calls. Speaking about topics related to my homeland with my international friends required me to first summarize a thousands-year-long historical context into a quick five-minute introduction, and only then touch the surface of the current news related to my homeland. I missed having insightful discussions about home, where everyone involved in the conversation would know all the intricacies of the issue at hand and would be equally interested in finding a solution, as the problem would matter, on a deep emotional and DNA level, to all of us. Against the backdrop of homesickness and nostalgia, finding the St. Nahadagadz Armenian Church meant finding a home away from home, but it also meant finding a family.  

Meghrig

After speaking with Hayr Vache Balkjian, I felt like the ground beneath my feet became more firm. “Milena, the moment you need something, as tiny or big as it may be, you give us a call, okay? We are always here for you,” was how Hayr Vache concluded our first phone call, leaving a lasting smile on my face as I realized that I, the petite young woman that I am, am no longer alone in this big city of towering skyscrapers. Despite the tremendous distance between the church and the campus where I live, Hayr Vache helped me secure free transportation to and from the church, as he carefully searched among his contacts to find someone who would live in close proximity to my current residence. That’s how I met Meghrig, a warm and kind Armenian woman who happened to live very close to NYU Abu Dhabi. When Meghrig and her beautiful family arrived to pick me up, I was greeted with the lovely and delightful sound of Western Armenian, the language of our hearts, which I enjoyed for the next 30 minutes of our long yet pleasant drive to church. The word “Hayastan” was used perhaps 50 times during our conversation, as we talked about our origins, the current situation at home, our relatives living in Armenia, the Armenians living outside of Armenia, and many other topics wherein motherland was always the central theme, and everything else was marginal. 

We arrived at the church around noon, which meant that most seats were already occupied by fellow Armenians on this Easter Sunday. One of the first things that struck me was the surprisingly high number of Armenians living in Abu Dhabi and how they have all come from all corners of Abu Dhabi to the not-central-AT-ALL part of the capital, simply to celebrate Easter together. The Divine Liturgy, performed entirely in Armenian, was followed by an event during which every participant was given a beautiful keepsake for the home with the message “God Bless this Home,” with the name of St. Nahadagadz Church written at the bottom. 

The St. Nahadagadz Armenian Church in Abu Dhabi

My next visit to the church was in the scope of the “Banakum” initiative, an annual event that brings together Armenian children and youth from all the corners of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The official opening of the three-day event took place on April 21 and was followed by a variety of activities, including lectures and discussions about Armenian culture, identity and values, the Armenian Genocide, Armenian patriotic songs and lessons on Armenian traditional dance movements and bracelet making. The children also participated in fun and energetic games that aimed to encourage a healthy and active lifestyle. Then they cleaned up the Armenian Sunday School (located right in front of the church) and its surroundings, thereby learning to appreciate and take care of their environment. The “Banakum” event concluded on April 23, on the eve of the commemoration day of the Armenian Genocide. After the commemoration liturgy, each of the participants was asked to leave a flower on the memorial, thus paying tribute to the victims of the Armenian Genocide. 

A fun and energetic game inspired by Vardavar, organized in the scope of the Banakum event

I had the honor of participating in the “Banakum” event as a photographer, a role that made me appreciate the event even more than I otherwise would, as, with each shutter sound, I was able to capture a sincere smile, endless happiness in the eyes of the youth, the joy of feeling reconnected with their origins, speaking their mother tongue, learning about their culture and identity, feeling home away from home, exactly as I felt, or maybe more. I understood more deeply the role of the Armenian church as a powerful bridge to connect different members of the Armenian community who would perhaps never know each other if not through the church, and who have now turned into a strong and supportive family where everything, be it food, news, happiness or sorrow for the motherland, is shared without reservation. A family in which each member stands up for the other, supports in any way they can, building each other up and thinking of creative ways to help rebuild Armenia. I never thought speaking Armenian in the UAE would be not the exception, but the norm. I never thought seeing Armenians in Abu Dhabi would be not a surprise, but a weekly occurrence that would set up the mood for the rest of the week. I never thought I would be so close to home while being so far away from it, and I could never be more grateful than I am today for the existence of an Armenian church and for people like Meghrig and Hayr Vache who, within only three weeks, have managed to do so much for me that I don’t hesitate when referring to them as my second family. They entered my heart as seamlessly as the colorful mosaics have entered the walls of the St. Nahadagadz Armenian Church, bringing with them a warm hue of bright colors that I can’t help but associate with the heartwarming colors of Armenia.

The participants and organizers of the Banakum event

ANCA executive director Aram Hamparian advocating for Armenia and Artsakh on Capitol Hill

As the largest and most influential Armenian American grassroots political organization, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) works on the ground on Capitol Hill to influence and guide US policy, serving Armenian Americans as a liaison with their elected officials, and advancing issues of concern to the American Armenian community. The ANCA’s current efforts and actions are dedicated to stopping all US military aid to Azerbaijan and to sending emergency humanitarian assistance to Artsakh in the face of the ongoing blockade by Azerbaijan. In conjunction with these pressing issues, the ANCA also focuses its attention on education, and in particular, Armenian Genocide education. By now, our readers have received the 2023 Special Issue Magazine dedicated to genocide education. In preparation for the magazine, the Armenian Weekly conducted an interview with ANCA executive director Aram Hamparian to learn more about the ANCA’s objectives in genocide education and how they correspond to current events in Armenia and Artsakh.

Armenian Weekly (A.W.): Tell us about the Armenian Genocide Education Act and its status.

ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian (A.H.): The ANCA welcomed the reintroduction of the Armenian Genocide Education Act on April 24 by Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and her three colleagues, Representatives Gus Bilirakis, Ted Lieu and David Valadao. They were joined by more than 40 original cosponsors, a strong showing of bipartisan support. [Note: Since the interview was conducted, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Menendez and Senator Marsha Blackburn introduced the bipartisan companion to the House’s Armenian Genocide Education Act.] 

In the last session of Congress, this measure was introduced by former Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, a longstanding ally in Congress, who was joined by Congressman Gus Bilirakis in introducing H.R.7555. This measure secured strong bipartisan support, garnering 76 cosponsors and considerable interest and support among diverse Congressional constituencies and also academic, scholarly and human rights circles. It was referred to the Committee on House Administration, since it called on the Library of Congress (an arm of Congress) to promote Armenian Genocide education, but this panel did not have time to act on the measure before the end of the 117th Congress. 

The Armenian Genocide Education Act builds upon the President’s (2021) recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the historic passage (2019) of H.Res.296 and S.Res.150 – resolutions that established US recognition of the Armenian Genocide and rejected any official US association with the denial of this crime. This measure aims to appropriate $10 million over five years for the Library of Congress to help educate Americans about the Armenian Genocide. It specifically cites Ottoman Turkey’s systematic and deliberate state-sponsored mass murder, national dispossession, cultural erasure and exile of millions of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Arameans, Maronites and other Christians between 1915 and 1923.

A.W.: How does Armenian Genocide education fit into the ANCA’s legislative priorities?

A.H.: The ANCA has a forward-looking policy agenda, focused on the long-term viability of the Armenian nation. Armenian Genocide education represents a vital component of this work, aligned with our aims of a secure Armenian homeland and a safer world. Increasing awareness of the Armenian Genocide shines a spotlight on the current threats – by the same state perpetrators of the 1915 Genocide – to the very existence of Armenia and Artsakh. More broadly, this type of education makes the world safer by challenging Turkey’s precedent of genocide committed, consolidated and denied with impunity.

A.W.: Given that the ANCA’s advocacy efforts are focused on the existential threat facing the republics of Artsakh and Armenia today, how can genocide education inform those efforts?

A.H.: Genocide education places the current existential threats to our homeland in historical context. Azerbaijan’s aggression – fully backed by Turkey – did not start in the 1980s, but rather has its roots in the genocidal campaigns by Sultan Abdul Hamid, the Young Turks and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to rid Armenian lands of Armenians as part of their twisted pan-Turkish dream of ethnically-cleansing their way to Central Asia. Today, a century after the Armenian Genocide, we hear Turkish President Recep Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev repeating genocidal threats, and worse yet, acting on their stated intentions to finish the work of 1915. Erdogan and others have called Armenians the “remnants of the sword,” meaning the few they failed to kill, while Aliyev loudly proclaims Yerevan and the rest of Armenia as Azerbaijani land.

A.W.: The ANCA continues to work diligently to zero out US military aid to Azerbaijan and to hold Azerbaijan accountable for its war crimes in the 2020 Artsakh War and to the present day. How do you think genocide education today can help in these specific efforts?

A.H.: It is our hope and expectation that US policymakers – forced to make decisions on US military aid to Azerbaijan out in the open, under the bright light of public scrutiny – will be informed by the long history of Turkey and Azerbaijan working together today to eradicate the presence of Armenians upon their indigenous homeland. That they will not misrepresent this ethnic-cleansing as a “conflict” between two antagonists, but rather a unilateral attack by vastly larger militaries against a blockaded, landlocked genocide survivor state. We are working toward the day that Turkey and Azerbaijan’s genocidal drive to eradicate Armenians will be challenged by American leaders as a moral imperative, not as a geopolitical chess game to be managed. A future State Department whose diplomats all learned about the Armenian Genocide in school would be far more willing and able to prevent a second Armenian Genocide, and more broadly, to help end the global cycle of genocide.

A.W.: According to The Genocide Education Project, currently, 14 US states that require genocide and Holocaust education include the Armenian Genocide as a primary example. What efforts are being made by the ANCA and its local affiliates to promote this requirement in other states, and what states, if any, are a specific focus?

A.H.: Our challenge is to expand the list of states that require Armenian Genocide education and then – just as importantly – to ensure that these states actually implement these programs in each and every school district. We are working with our local chapters to make this happen. We aim to build on the remarkable work that has been done in the civic arena, by Armenian National Committees in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia, to include Armenian Genocide education in public school lesson plans. The Genocide Education Project, in the academic space, is doing groundbreaking work in training teachers and providing educational materials in school districts across the country.

A.W.: Any final comments about the importance of Armenian Genocide education, specifically as it pertains to the work of the ANCA?

A.H.: As William Faulkner said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” That’s doubly true for Armenians. By virtue of our history, our geography, our neighbors and the threats we face, we must confront the past, addressing its gravest injustices, as part of our broader movement forward as a nation.

What’s at stake here is not just historical memory, which is so very vital, but also prospects for a just resolution of the Armenian Genocide and the prevention of future genocides against any peoples, anywhere on our planet. There is no better way to end the cycle of genocide than by teaching about genocide, and there is surely no better place to start than in our schools.

Our efforts in this regard are all the more necessary given the lack of sufficient Armenian Genocide education in school textbooks and lesson plans and all the more urgent in light of the Turkish government’s increasingly aggressive global campaign of Armenian Genocide denial, including active and ongoing efforts to roll back US recognition of this crime.