Survivors

In order to lay the ground for reconciliation between two parties every human being has to take the risk of admitting their guilt, no matter how small or how big. Otherwise, it may never happen. I am a third generation Armenian, but the pain of my grandparents is my pain, it is in my subconscious. I fall asleep and wake up with this pain in my heart.

Silvina Der-Meguerditchian was born in Argentina and lives in Berlin. Her artwork uses different mediums such as installation, video, sound, rugs and performance and deals with issues related to the burden of national identity, memory, the role of minorities in society and the potential of a space "in between." Her projects were awarded with scholarships from the European Cultural Foundation (ECF), Soros Foundation, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Tufenkian Foundation and the Gulbenkian Foundation. Her works have been shown in many exhibitions around the world, including Germany, Argentina and Turkey.

“What my nation and my family went through was a great tragedy. Some of those people were still alive when I was born – the people I knew and loved, such as my great-grandmother. The fact that some countries that call themselves democracies – and some big ones among them, too – did not admit this fact is a complete injustice. As long as the evil is not named as such, there is always the risk of it coming back.”

Twenty-one years after the death of her grandmother, Valérie Toranian – an influential French feminist and an editor at La Revue des Deux Mondes – swapped journalism for literature, in order to bring that “stranger” back to life in a novel that tries to make some sense of surviving the unspeakable.

I am a proud Armenian and I am proud to have a wonderful Armenian son named Haroot. I consider myself a victim of the Armenian Genocide because I do not know anything about my roots. All my relatives except my grandparents were massacred by the Turks.

If I were given the chance to be born again into another nationality, I would choose to be Armenian again! My heritage provides me with a sense of continuity from ancient ties to the past and into a future bright with hope and excitement. The Armenian culture is unique beacuse it embraces ideas from other cultures while staunchly holding on to its own roots. The panoply of history and traditions surrounding my heritage is priceless and must be protected like a treasure.

Above all, we Armenians benefited from the kindness of others in our hour of need and now we are telling our stories to the world so that its memory is not erased and no other nation suffers our fate.

I was a late gift to my parents. My father was born in 1899, my mom in 1907 or 1911. Her father was taken away in the night, dressed only in his pajamas. The Turkish soldiers returned to give the blood-stained pajamas to his wife. My mother and her family were sent out into the night, with only the clothes on their backs. Some of their Turkish neighbors went after them to bring them a few personal items.

My Armenian heritage is important to me because it connects me to a network of driven, passionate and loving people who stop at nothing to reach their goals. While I didn't get to spend much time with my great-grandma, Siranoosh Tavookjian, my fondest memories involve sitting on a porch with her, listening to her sing Armenian children's songs. Fortunately, I have had the pleasure of growing up with her daughter (my grandmother), Barbara Bohigian.

My Armenian heritage is very important to me because of what I heard from my parents and my grandparents. I know that all our families suffered greatly, and many lost everything.