Armenia – collective trauma, diaspora and a lost war

The texts published by the individual authors reflect only their opinions and not those of the editors and publishing platforms

  

Author: Katja Dorothea Buck

Place: Armenia

Class: Text

Subject: Politics, Society, Religion, Extremism, Minorities

Date: 22.03.2021

Website: www.zocd.org

Reading time: ca. 2 min.

Language: English

Title: Armenia – collective trauma, diaspora and a lost war

  

 

The Schneller magazine has devoted 24 pages to the topic of Armenia. No other focus before has been given so much space. And Armenia does not even belong to the Middle East, the region that Schneller Magazine usually reports on. However, the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan last year made us in the editorial team think. Many of our partners and friends in the Middle East have Armenian roots. Their ancestors survived the 1915 genocide and found a new home in Syria and Lebanon. Also for them, the war has opened old wounds. We wanted to understand why the loss of a comparatively small piece of land plunges an entire people into collective despair.

 

In this issue, Armenians from Germany, Dubai, Jerusalem, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and, of course, Armenia itself write what Armenian identity means today. It is clear that the collective trauma of being wiped out as a people is still very present. And it is also clear that people who do not have Armenian roots cannot measure this to the depths.

 

But what we can do is listen. Anyone who listens to our Armenian brothers and sisters will be shocked at how little we know about Armenian history. Listening is the least we owe to them. Only then will we get an idea of what this war means to them and mourn together for what is lost on both sides.

 

Katja Dorothea Buck

 

Follow this link to read the Schneller magazine about Armenia.