I am an Armenian

I am from a country so small, people ask, "Where's that?" when I say its name

I am from a race of people who have existed for 4,000 years,

Where apricots flourished and pomegranates grew

I am from a race who was once great and powerful

I am also the carrier of a message,

"We survived."

 

We survived betrayal,

We survived trickery,

We survived a genocide,

We are still standing.

We are here.

We are here.

 

We survived rape, torcher, and abuse

We survived starvation and dehydration of an unforgivable desert

And the most difficult of all, we survived separation.

The separation of our mothers, fathers, sister, brothers, grandparents, aunts, and uncles

We watched as those dear to us were raped and flung aside like rags, then killed

We watched as our people were lined up like cattle and shot

We watched the leaders of our time hanged from ropes, slowly swinging back and forth in the wind.

We prayed, begged, and pleaded with God to free us from this misery

No answer.

"Who will help us?" We wondered as we lay next to a pile of decomposing bodies

No one.

"Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" Adolf Hitler, 1939

But I am here.

I remember.

I am a descendent of those who suffered.

I remember.

I will speak, and my voice shall ring clear:

 

"I remember."

 

------In commemoration of the 1.5 million people killed in the Armenian genocide.