Genocide, An Irreparable Misfortune

Genocide… Is an irreparable misfortune, indelible disgrace, impotent anger at the insult of the human soul. This topic will always be beating with pain in the chest of an Armenian!

After all, the executioners knocked on every door – not a single family escaped murder. My family is no exception. Before moving on to the main story of this book, I would like to say a few words about the pain of my family.

The fate of my great-grandmother Khatun Grigoryan is no different from the fate of the main character, and she is buried in distant America. Her only “mistake” was that she was saved, but unlike Esther, great-grandmother was able to save a 3-month-old baby, “Surb Avedaran” (Saint Gospel), and a handful of her native land wrapped in a miserable piece of cloth.

This became her main and invaluable treasure throughout her subsequent life. Esther Aronian, Aurora Martikyan, Khatun Grigoryan… You can’t list all of them.

The book “Knock on the door” was presented to the public in Washington by Margarita Achemyan-Anert. This book is a tragic conversation between Margarita and her 98-year-old mother Esther who was born back in 1900 in the city of Amasia and who survived the Genocide.

You cannot convey the feelings and emotions you get when you try to imagine what the main character saw, what she went through, how she was sold into slavery to a Turk for some 85 cents, how she was lying in a wagon with corpses, how she prayed silently because it was forbidden to speak Armenian. But what’s more important is that Esther continued to live after her entire family was killed.

There are people who have a special mission in this life, no matter how difficult it is. These people must go through fire and water, lose themselves, and “rise from the ashes” in order to tell the world about something important. Esther had to survive so that the world would find out about the massacre of Armenians, about the shame and stigma that Turkey covered itself with.

There exist books that can disturb a person’s soul. There are topics that can touch the depths of the soul – the Armenian pain, the Armenians, pomegranate seeds scattered throughout the world. And now, the sermon for us, modern Armenians, comes from the main character:

“Remember that love is stronger than hate. Life goes on and every new day, waking up in the morning, we can change the world for the better. We should never doubt what God sends down upon us because every step back hides a step forward. It may not be visible, but believe me, it is.”

R. Makaryan