Armenians keep surviving. We are stubborn.

The persecution and violence continues, world-wide, under a radar that only uplifts majorities and areas of possible profits. The photo is from a NYTimes article from the fall of Artsakh a few years ago, when 120,000+ Armenians fled, understanding that if they stayed, they would all be dead within months.

Armenians keep surviving. We are strong.

Armenia is a land locked country and surrounded by countries ready to take it over or destroy it – Russia, Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan – with thousands of years of ethnic and religious strife as background that nobody in the West seems to know or care about.

Armenians keep surviving. We are scared.

Armenia, as a country, is making itself a technological hub and a travel destination with help from the diaspora and a burst of education, art, and business.

Armenians keep surviving. We are smart.

Every Armenian you will meet has ancestral trauma. We all have genocidal stories in our families, whether it is from 1,000 years ago, 100 years ago, 30 years ago, or 3 years ago. Some internalize. Some lash out. Some are angry forever. Some come to terms with the past, but definitely cannot forget.

Armenians keep surviving. We are sad.

The diaspora is disjointed, pulled in various political and emotional directions. Assimilated into the countries where their ancestors landed, which is almost every country of the world. Cultural traditions vary, with different language dialects, different oral histories, different reactions from non-Armenians in their “new” countries. Even the names and ingredients of Armenian foods are passionately argued over (Are rice-stuffed grape leaves called yalanchi? sarma? dolma? Are they spiced with allspice? cinnamon? sweet? savory? – believe me when I say Armenians from different countries will come to blows over this.)

Yet, Armenians keep surviving. We are feisty.

An Armenian is instant family with other Armenians. Non-Armenians are also instant family with Armenians. We will annoy the hell out of each other. We will turn our backs on each other. We will gossip about each other. And then we will give each other our last dimes and the shirts off of our backs.

Armenians keep surviving. We are complicated.

Wherever you are in the world, you will find a group of Armenians – maybe many, maybe few. Whether we gather together around a church, a basketball tournament, a bad reality TV show, a love of some small thing – wherever it is, there will be a lot of food, fashion, noise, gossip, laughing, music, and dancing. Because even though we are stubborn, strong, scared, smart, sad, feisty, and complicated, we are all Armenian.

And Armenians keep surviving.

We are survivors.