I'm a screamer. If you can't see me at any Bryant sporting event, including volleyball, basketball, and women's rugby, you will absolutely hear me. The saxophone section is only two people including myself, but you can hear my playing abilities as well as my voice cheering on our team on our home court/pitch. With the ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabagh (Artsakh) right now, I feel the need to use my voice outside of the sports games more than ever.
It is really difficult going through Instagram every morning and seeing all of my diaspora and Armenian friends and family spamming news articles for new updates in that region. Decades of fighting our own battles take a toll on the community as a whole. Seeing my people being stripped from their homes with only a trash bag full of items and the help from the diaspora, the only people who truly care, is bittersweet. It's nauseating how meaningful landmarks like the We Are Our Mountains statue suddenly being defaced and transformed, leaving centuries of culture behind.
Since my trip to Armenia this July, I have had a new outlook on my activism. The news I see on Instagram and social media seems more personal now. Locations of regions that people are flocking to hold memories of my trip. And here I am in the States along with people that don't know and don't care. The students and friends I have on campus know my screaming, but do they listen when I scream about Artsakh? There aren't many Armenians at my university and even fewer that care about their ethnicity.
To most people here, I am the only Armenian they know. I represent my people, even as a diasporan Armenian. I understand the silence they feel on a smaller scale. They are screaming for their homes, churches, landmarks, schools, and family members back and the entire world shuts its eyes. AGAIN. I don't understand how people can choose to be ignorant while their friends and classmates are fighting a virtual war for media attention and legislative help. Because of this, I refuse to be silent. I suggest you scream as well because there are families in Armenia who are screaming in grief for their family members and homes right now.
