Հիշում եմ և պահանջում is a phrase that echoes louder every year on April 24th, Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

This is my first time posting about this tragedy, but every child in Los Angeles has grown up knowing of the 1.5 million Armenians systematically exterminated by the Ottoman Empire.

In a time when my own country is increasingly complicit in enabling atrocities abroad, and when my president refused today to call genocide what it is, I am struggling more than ever with navigating the dichotomy of living in the liberal capital of a fascist autocracy.

Հիշում եմ և պահանջում means “I remember and I demand”, and it feels now like something I have to share. Because recognition is not just about the past-- it's about what we tolerate in the present.

History denied is history repeated, and I feel the weight of everything I was taught in history class growing up repeating itself now.

For the lost. For the survivors. For those still fighting to be seen.

Հիշում եմ և պահանջում

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