I am a descendant of an ancient people who have lived in what I, and others of my kind, identify as the Armenian highlands (while some know it as the Anatolia, or the Caucasus) for
several hundred / several thousand / several hundred thousand / millions
of years
My lack of specificity here is intentional, as I do not intend to arrive at any grandiose conclusions about the indigeneity of Armenian people on these lands, or what might be proven by the discovery of archeological artifacts, migration trails, or DNA evidence.
I sit here today as living proof of an ‘ethnic group’ that has lived in the Armenian highlands under many roofs. Approximately 3 million Armenian live in the republic now while millions of others are dispersed across the world as transnational diasporic communities. The Armenian region sits at the crossroads between Asia, Europe and Africa -- like a turnstile in the midst of blooming migration patterns, civilizations, empire and imperialism. The Armenian highlands have been conquered many times over by dominant regional superpowers of each time, including Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Macedonians, Ottomans, and most recently, the Soviet empire. The geo-political factors of current-day Armenia and its surrounding region have deep roots.
Armenian ancient history has been written within/amidst the context of these empires; and by our neighbours as well (the Greeks, the Hittites) who “preserved fragmentary observations about the Armenian highlanders in texts of great antiquity” (Samuelian, 2000). The Armenian school I attended included most of this information in their curriculum. Although perhaps it is best that I have forgotten those lessons, as they were more than likely morphed and misconstrued according to the nationalist agenda of the political party that my school was affiliated with --
See: proving the legitimacy of historically Armenian lands that are under non-Armenian control is considered to be a prerequisite for genocide recognition, as well as for unrecognized territories that are currently occupied by Armenians - as in Nagorno Karapakh (NKR) - an area that has divided the Armenians and the Azeris for over a century. It is, as I write this, in the midst of a war. I try to remember that anti-Turkish/Azeri and islamophobic propaganda within/amongst Armenians run deeper than at the institutional/organizational level, spilling over into historical literature.
- The discovery of 1.7-million-year-old fossils of human skulls exhibiting African ancestry are used as a nationalist prop to convince Armenians (and their enemies) that Armenia is the cradle of civilization.
- Another excavation unearths a 325,000-year-old site that proves “human technological innovation occurred intermittently throughout the Old World, rather than spreading from a single point of origin (usually hypothesized as Africa), as previously thought” (325,000 Year Old Stone, 2014).
- A series of articles about how geneticists are fascinated by the homogeneity and genetic stability of Armenian DNA over the last 3000 years. I watch a lecture on Armenian DNA, where an ‘expert’ argues that it’s not so much of a genetic anomaly as it is a coincidence based on topography and harsh climates.
- A 5,500 year old leather shoe - the oldest discovered yet - was unearthed in a cave in the Վայոց Ձոր (Vayots Dzor) province of Armenia. Lead author of the research, Dr Ron Pinhasi, tells the press, "as while small (European size 37; US size 7 women), the shoe could well have fitted a man from that era” (University College Cork, 2010).
