Remembering the Armenian Genocide through inherited memory

Sofia Oganezova

Staff Writer

On April 24, Armenians around the world will gather to remember the first modern genocide — a history that, for many students, remains largely unknown.

For Alina Verdiyan, a WCC alumna, remembrance is both deeply personal and tied to a broader history of survival and displacement.

“Obviously, I haven’t lived through that time, my parents haven’t lived through that time, even my grandparents,” Verdiyan said. “But what it means to me is the pain for the people that lived through that era and a recognition of what our people went through.”

The Armenian Genocide began in 1915, when the Ottoman Empire carried out the mass deportation and killing of Armenians. Historians estimate that approximately 1 to 1.5 million Armenians died through massacres, starvation, and forced marches.

April 24 marks the beginning of the genocide when Armenian intellectuals were arrested in Constantinople. Today, it is recognized as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

Yet more than a century later, awareness remains limited.

“I don’t even think it’s a misconception,” Verdiyan said. “People just don’t know. They simply don’t know.”

That lack of awareness has historical roots, according to Ronald Grigor Suny, a historian and distinguished professor at the University of Michigan.

“In my youth, this kind of genocide consciousness was not yet widespread. And then finally it spread, and Armenians began themselves to talk more about these events,” Suny said. 

Although Verdiyan did not live through the genocide itself, her own life reflects the instability many Armenians have experienced across generations.

Her journey to the United States was long and uncertain, shaped by conflict and migration across multiple countries.

“The events of 1988 between Azerbaijan and Armenia made us evacuate to Armenia from Azerbaijan. And then the earthquake happened just as soon as we moved to Armenia,” Verdiyan said. “We had to kind of find our way to Moscow, Russia, as we were waiting for visas to come to the United States.”

At the time, the idea of moving to the U.S. felt almost impossible.

“So the way we came was my uncle: he immigrated to the United States and was applying to be a refugee,” Verdiyan said. “We laughed at my uncle back when he said he’s coming to America — when nobody goes to America, that’s impossible. But he was persistent and then brought his family over. We were part of the family.”

Verdiyan began her education in the U.S. at WCC, where she took ESL classes before transferring to Eastern Michigan University.

For Verdiyan, understanding the Armenian Genocide comes through stories passed down over time. 

“When you’re hearing it from a person who passes down information from one to next, the pain of it gets lost,” Verdiyan said. “Versus when you get to visually see it.”

Verdiyan shared stories passed down through others — of Armenians hiding for months to avoid being found.

“They had to be hidden in an animal shelter, like a barn, for months, as Turks were chasing Armenians,” Verdiyan said.

For many Armenian families, these stories are not distant history but lived memory passed through generations.

“All of my grandparents experienced the genocide, both the horrors of it, and it’s safe to say that it scarred them and affected them in a way that I saw even as a child growing up,” said Peter Fairoian, Head of School at Greenhills. 

Historians note that Armenians were targeted in part due to how they were perceived within the Ottoman Empire.

“Armenians were people designated and defined by their religion and who they were in the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, that was used as an excuse to go after them and massacre them in 1915,” Suny said.

Beyond remembrance, Verdiyan said one of the most difficult aspects is the continued denial of the genocide.

“What pains the most is that it hasn’t been recognized by the oppressor,” Verdiyan said. “They don’t even teach that it was a genocide. They just look at it as a war.”

“Everybody talks about the Jewish Holocaust but the Armenian genocide — people just don’t know anything about it,” Verdiyan said.

For decades, even major institutions hesitated to fully recognize the events.

“Even The New York Times, a newspaper for the educated elite, a liberal newspaper, used to call the Armenian genocide controversial,” Suny said. “But at a certain point, as scholarship developed and this became more well known, they changed their mind and they spoke of it as a genocide.”

Verdiyan believes the Armenian Genocide is not just history, but part of a broader pattern of violence that continues in different forms.

“When you look at the history and what’s been happening even today in some of other countries: the oppressors and what happens to people that are being massacred and tortured — it’s just in a different quantity,” Verdiyan said. “It happens all over the world.”

This pattern of persecution is not unique to one time or place.

“People are being persecuted for their religion, for their identity, all the time, unfortunately,” Fairoian said. 

Verdiyan also emphasized that Armenia is often overlooked on the global stage.

”My husband always says, ‘Does Armenia have any friends in the world?’ Yes, we do, very few. Not because there’s anything wrong with the country or the people. There’s nothing economically beneficial for the rest of the world,” Verdiyan explained.

As Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day approaches, Verdiyan hopes more people — especially students — take the time to learn about this history.

Education also plays a key role in how history is understood.

“I think it’s important for young people to come to their own conclusions based upon an intellectual approach rather than just an emotional approach,” Fairoian said.  

For many Armenians, the day is also about unity and reflection. 

“On Genocide Remembrance Day, they all come together, they all recognize what happened to their ancestors, and they try to understand and move beyond the pain and suffering of those events,” Suny said. “I think that’s a magnificent thing and something that has potentially a healing quality, a unifying quality for Armenians all over the world.”

For Verdiyan, remembrance is not only about honoring the past, but ensuring it is not ignored in the present.

“People just don’t know,” Verdiyan said.

Comments

comments