An American’s Journey to His Roots

My ancestors on my mother’s side came to the US and settled in Fresno. Originally hailing from Bitlis (now part of eastern Turkey), they, like many others there, found refuge in the vast, fertile lands of Fresno. Over time, many others followed like my ancestors, and a vibrant Armenian community developed there with numerous Armenians from Bitlis, among them one of the — if not the most — famous Armenian diaspora writers, William Saroyan.

It was through Saroyan that the diaspora found a unique voice who was able to articulate in beautiful yet somber detail the emotional complexities and mental anguish in one’s yearning for one’s homeland.

I was surprised to find a DAAD-sponsored summer school program for Armenia. Armenia isn’t a country or a culture that people easily find — it must be sought after. I was therefore interested to meet the other students who, like me, had developed an interest in this small, unassuming country in the Southern Caucasus. It’s not every day that one meets someone who knows something — let alone anything — about Armenia. Yet its people who settled in the crossroads between Europe, Asia and the Middle East date back thousands of years to many other commonly known ancient civilizations such as the Greeks, Babylonians and Assyrians. Its language, comprising its own branch in the Indo-European language tree, has its own unique alphabet that was created by the early theologian Mesrop Mashtots in 405 A.D. It is also the first nation to have adopted Christianity as its state religion, dating back to 301 A.D. For the richness and longevity of its history, culture, language, it is almost remarkable that such a country and its people continue to remain a mystery to so many. As an Armenian-American, the only reason why I know these facts about Armenia is that my grandmother dutifully insisted on trying to remind us of who and where we were descended from.

The next two weeks would consist of morning language courses in Yerevan’s Brusov State University, even learning the alphabet and how to read. Late morning and afternoon lectures focused on the history of Armenia and the region, Armenian literature, the peculiar origins of Armenian last names, Armenian politics, as well as the conflict with Azerbaijan and the resulting geopolitical situation post-Soviet Armenia finds itself in. As many other students had studied other languages, history or politics from the region, each session ended with lively discussion, with many students chiming in with insights from their own respective academic backgrounds. As one student knew Kurdish, for example, he was able to point out some linguistic similarities between Armenian and Kurdish — something which I had never considered yet, given the history of both peoples having lived side by side for centuries during the Ottoman Empire, is not a stretch of the imagination. In the literature session, for example, a passage from William Saroyan’s book was read and discussed

As much as each session was well-organized and informative, no academic trip to Armenia would be complete without excursions to its vast countryside full of storied, centuries-old monasteries. Khor Virap, which sits on a bluff overlooking the Armenian-Turkish border below the towering Mt. Ararat — the mountain where Noah is said to have landed his Ark — is home to the legend of Tiridates III and Gregory the Illuminator, the latter who is said to have been imprisoned in a dark, windowless pit for over a decade. What follows is the story of Gregory the Illuminator’s release, his healing of Tiridates III’s madness and the declaration of Christianity as the official Armenian religion.

A drive to Lake Sevan and Dilijan also warranted stops at Sevanavank, Haghartsin monastery and Goshavank. Sevanavank and its two monasteries perched atop a hill on the edge of the peninsula used to stand alone together on an island surrounded by the magnificent blue waters of the lake. Once a home of isolation to monks ordered to copy manuscripts and follow a strict regimen from Echmiadzin, the cathedral and see of the Armenian Apostolic Church, it also featured prominently in a cunning and legendary battle between the Armenians and Sajids.