Not my usual letter
Dear friends,
This is not going to be my usual email. I was wondering whether to write this at all, but realised it’s my duty to do so. My duty to my grandmother and her memory.
In 1918, my grandmother was 3 years old, she and her five sisters had to escape their home in the Armenian city of Van.
Being Armenian at that time meant a death sentence. They were escaping from the Ottoman authorities which launched ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population in their empire.
Two decades later, a lawyer Raphael Lemkin, would revisit what happened to Armenians and would coin a word that didn’t exist in the vocabulary before - this word was genocide.
genocide (n) - the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.
My grandmother’s mum was shot, because she saw a hungry parentless child crying and tried to feed her.
The world knew about this. The United States, France, the UK, and others stayed silent. Although Armenians will be forever grateful and loyal to France, which opened its borders to the Armenian refugees escaping death.
About five days ago, on September 19, 2023, Azerbaijani government with the support of Turkey and Russia decided to finish what they started 100 years ago.
In the region of Nagorno-Karabagh (or, as Armenians call it Artsakh) 120,000 thousand Armenians are being deported from their homes on the basis of their ethnicity today.
Why do I write this?
Because if I was there, in that region, instead of here in London, I wouldn’t have been able to write this to you. I would be afraid for my life, for the life of my daughters just simply because we were born Armenian.
Imagine being afraid for your life because you were born French, English, German, Romanian, Polish, Chinese, etc. Just simply because of this.
What do I ask from you?
Nothing, but being aware that this is happening. You won’t see this in the headlines of your local news. That’s why your awareness to me is precious.
If you’re interested in books that explore this story in detail I would recommend:
I will be back next week with my usual email.
Thank you for your awareness,
Vashik.
Thank you Vashik, for opening our eyes.
Many Armenians came to Greece at that time and settled here. One of my father's best friends was Armenian, I still remember him, a real gentleman.