By The Renegade
Original post and content here.
Between rain showers of missile and shell alike this past week, there was a celebration in Hasakah that illuminated the immortality of the peoples here. May it not be forgotten.
Despite a forecast of heavy airstrikes on Saturday, the Armenian and Syriac communities let absolutely nothing get in the way of their existence. The Armenian Social Council and Syriac Youth Union of North and East Syria presented the immortality of their peoples by organizing a multi-ethnic celebration of culture and arts.
Dancing and laughing in the face of ongoing attacks by one of the most destructive occupiers in the world, the celebration included the short film “Pray for Us” accompanied by a play commemorating the Armenian Genocide, along with Armenian, Syriac, Kurdish, and Arab songs and dances.
“This message aims to demonstrate to the Turkish occupation that despite their bombardment and shelling of the region last night, the people remain steadfast on their land,“ said Imad Tetrian, an organizer of the Armenian Social Council.
On Christmas Day, two Syriac villages were bombed in Turkish airstrikes in an attempt to terrorize Christian communities of the region on their holiest day.
A passage came to mind during the celebration:
“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose history is ended, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, whose literature is unread, whose music is unheard, whose prayers are no longer uttered.
Go ahead, destroy this race. Let us say that it is again 1915. There is war in the world. Destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them from their homes into the desert. Let them have neither bread nor water. Burn their houses and their churches. See if they will not live again. See if they will not laugh again. See if the race will not live again when two of them meet in a beer parlor, twenty years after, and laugh, and speak in their tongue. Go ahead, see if you can do anything about it. See if you can stop them from mocking the big ideas of the world, you sons of bitches, a couple of Armenians talking in the world, go ahead and try to destroy them.”
-William Saroyan, “Inhale and Exhale” (1936)