OBOC - Armenia

Unfortunately the only thing I knew about Armenia is the controversy with Turkey regarding acknowledging the “Armenian Genocide” in 1915 during WW1. So while looking for a book from Armenia I realized that most of my searches centered around this phase in history. I ended up reading “Knock at the door” by Margaret Ajemian Ahnert which was the story of a daughter narrating her mom Ester’s story of survival and escape from the incidents of 1915.

While on one hand it is a story of the genocide as seen from the eyes of a teenaged Armenian girl whose life is completely torn apart, it is also the story of the bond between mother and daughter as Margaret copes with her 99 year old mom’s illness and her impending death.

The first few chapters when Ester narrates her life in Amasia give a good glimpse into the Armenian culture especially the food! Following that Ester narrates how her life takes a turn for the worse as Armenians are forced out of their cities and are systematically murdered. She loses most of her family, her home, her blissful life and her innocence in this process but she is miraculously saved from one catastrophe after the other, leading her to believe that God must have a purpose for her. She survives hunger, rape, brutality in marriage with simple faith and the constant refrain “This too shall pass” and escapes to America where she slowly learns to put these thoughts out of her mind. It is in America she meets her husband and raises a successful family. So it is essentially a story of a survivor triumphing against all odds.

All along one question is constantly raised – why is Turkey still denying these incidents ever happened? This I believe is the overwhelming feeling among Armenian diaspora in the US. I remember during the Presidential campaign both Obama and McCain had to answer questions regarding acknowledging the Armenian genocide. This is the case even with Margaret, who was born in the US and had visited Armenia just once in her life. More than Ester's story, Margaret's sense of insecurity despite living in the US intrigued me. She identifies so much with her mother's experiences and feelings and seemed to be very wary of engaging in any conversation with people from Turkey and that made me wonder how these 2 countries can sit down and start negotiating without bringing some closure for the victims of 1915.

The book was interesting and quite an easy read. I found the initial chapters describing Ester's childhood were not as well written as the other chapters. The narration seemed disjointed in those chapters.

Now that i've read this book, I am hoping I will have more context when i pick a book from Azerbaijan... I get through Argentina and Austria of course!