Bourj Hammoud municipality square. Photo courtesy of the author. All rights reserved.For Armenians around the world, 24 April is a day of sorrow and reflection. On this day in 1915, Ottoman Turks began a systematic campaign of extermination and displacement of ethnic Armenians. Hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered or evicted from their homes and forced to take on an arduous journey through the Syrian desert, where death awaited. The tragic events have been referred to as the Armenian Genocide.
But 24 April 2018 was like no other. For Karnig Asfahani, a 25-year old teacher in an Armenian school in Lebanon, for the first time in his life the day was full of hope and joy. The day before, Serzh Sargsyan, Armenia’s long-time ruler, resigned from his post as prime minister under pressure from mass demonstrations on Yerevan’s streets. Soon after, Nikol Pashinyan, a former journalist and charismatic protest leader, was tasked with forming a new government that would manage Armenia’s affairs prior to fresh elections.
“It was the first time in 103 years that we felt that it’s not the time to cry and mourn, but to think about the future,” said Karnig Asfahani sitting in a café in eastern Beirut. “It’s time to stand up and heal the trauma.”
