The play is loosely based on our extended family, and the genocide of the Armenian people by the Ottoman Turks during World War I. The play weaves glimpses of every-day Armenian life in this country with stories of the genocide, which began in 1915.
My father, a genocide survivor, features prominently in the play, as do our grandparents, aunts and uncles. “Nine Armenians” also tells of my journey, as a young adult, to Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, to listen, experience, and observe for myself what life is like in Armenia today.
Part of the reason that Leslie wrote the play is so that Armenians “would be counted.” Our father, who called the genocide “the massacres,” spent his entire life — as have so many other Armenians — working to have the United States and Turkey acknowledge the genocide.
Numbers matter to Armenians. We want it known that 1.5 million Armenians were killed during the genocide — a number that represents half of the Armenian population then living in Turkey. Forty-eight states in the U.S. and 29 countries around the world formally acknowledge the genocide. But the U.S. government and Turkey, denying history and distorting facts, refuse to acknowledge the genocide.
The Armenian Genocide began on April 24, 1915, when an estimated 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople (now Istanbul) were rounded up by Ottoman authorities, arrested, and deported to the region of Ankara, in the interior. The majority of these men were eventually murdered.
Armenians care about numbers and being counted, which is why “Nine Armenians” tells the story of nine members of one family — and at the same time tells the story of millions of others.
Because Armenians like numbers, we are grateful to know that 135 memorials, spread across 25 countries, commemorate the Armenian genocide. Our genocide may be denied, but we will not forget.
This April 24, on Armenian Martyrs’ Day, the Armenian community in the Pioneer Valley and our allies will again, for the 22nd consecutive year, mark the genocide by gathering to reflect, mourn, and demand that our genocide be acknowledged. Led by my sister Gina, we will meet at the E.J. Gare Parking Garage in Northampton and walk together, in a solemn procession, to Memorial Hall, where we will hold a vigil and service.
For the first time in the 22 years of holding this commemoration on Armenian Martyrs’ Day, our mayor will come with a proclamation and read it aloud. Although Mayor David Narkewicz has stood with us for many years, witnessing to our pain and supporting our community, this year will be different. We are deeply grateful for the Armenian Martyrs’ Day Proclamation that will be delivered.
The proclamation contains appropriately strong language and names and condemns the massacres, which for too long were overlooked. “Whereas on April 24, 1915, a mass genocide of the Armenian population began in the Ottoman Turkish Empire, the first genocide in the twentieth century…” the proclamation begins. It continues, “Whereas Americans of Armenian descent have contributed to the quality of life in the United States and Massachusetts in the best traditions of our nation and states, in times of war and peace; and Whereas the Armenian citizens around the world and of the Commonwealth are dedicated to honoring the memory of the brave men and women who died; and Whereas our thoughts, offered in memory of the 1.5 million Armenians lost during the genocide, will serve to remind everyone that persecution, torture, and killing must cease.”
Armenians like numbers and we are grateful that Northampton can now be counted among the long list of towns and cities throughout the world that formally and publicly acknowledge the Armenian genocide and our painful history, which remains an open wound.
When the centennial of the beginning of the genocide was commemorated in 2015, Armenians throughout the diaspora demanded that it be recognized by the governments of the U.S. and Turkey. Our cries were not heard.
My father, who has now passed on, did not live to see the genocide that slaughtered members of his own family acknowledged by Turkey and America. My sisters and I, now in our 60s, wonder if the genocide will be acknowledged in our lifetimes.
We believe Armenians count. And we are still counting.
The Rev. Dr. Andrea Ayvazian, of Northampton, is part of the ministerial team of the Alden Baptist Church in Springfield. She is the founder and director of the Sojourner Truth School for Social Change Leadership, which offers free movement-building classes from Greenfield to Springfield. She writes a monthly column on the intersection of faith, culture, and politics, and can be reached at .
http://www.gazettenet.com/Columnist-Andrea-Ayvazian-calls-on-governments-of-United-States-and-Turkey-to-recognize-Armenian-genocide-16999053