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There is a small area of land in Asia Minor that is called Armenia, but it is not so.  

It is not Armenia. It is a place.  

There are only Armenians,  

and they inhabit the earth, not Armenia,  

since there is no Armenia.  

There is no America and there is no England, and no France, and no Italy.  

There is only the earth. 

-William Saroyan in The Armenian and The Armenian  

  • First Republic Day, Freedom Square - Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
  • I was surprised by how unfamiliar Armenia felt to me- how I have been told all my life this is my homeland and my “home,” but what does that mean?-Lara Sarkissian (USA)Syrian Refugee - Berdzor, Nagorno-Karabakh
  • \{quote}I love Armenian people — all of them. I love them because they are a part of the enormous human race, which of course I find simultaneously beautiful and vulnerable.\{quote}  -William Saroyan in \{quote}First Visit to Armenia\{quote}Myasnikyan, The Republic of Armenia
  • Eglise Apostolique Arménienne Saint-Paul-et-Saint-Pierre - Alfortville, France
  • Sarkis Zeitlian Center- Anjar, Lebanon
  • Armenian Cemetery - Diyarbakir, Turkey
  • St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Chapel - Kolkata, India
  • \{quote}In America, I felt so Armenian; yet in Armenia, I realized that I am in many ways an American.\{quote} -Aline Ohanesian- (born in Kuwait, now living in California) Papik and Tatik - Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh
  • Eglise Apostolique Arménienne Saint-Paul-et-Saint-Pierre - Alfortville, France
  • \{quote}They talked and cried, sometimes sang a song.  I can\'t remember those days without pain.\{quote}-Ani Arutyunyan (born in Armenia, now living in California)April 24 Candlelight Vigil- Glendale, USA
  • \{quote}I want to see old Armenia, as I imagine it in my head.\{quote}-Anna Karapetyan (Russian citizen, now living in New York City)Harput, Turkey, formerly Kharpert.
  • \{quote}Being Armenian feels like belonging to something ancient and permanent, while the modern world is transitory.\{quote}-Azat Oganesian (born in Ukraine, now living in the United States)St. George Armenian Apostolic Church - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
  • \{quote}When do you feel Armenian?  Always. It\'s like asking when do you feel human.\{quote}-Aline Ohanesian (born in Kuwait, now living in California)Kovsakan, Nagorno-Karabakh
  • \{quote}Honestly, I feel Armenian whenever I see, hear or eat anything remotely connected to Armenia, even if it\'s not Armenia itself.   If I see a Lebanese restaurant, hear Farsi being spoken on the street or watch an Indian film, it all makes me feel Armenian. It sounds a bit absurd, I know.  It just feels like Armenia or my Armenian-ness is part of this greater community of the Middle East or The Old Country or what have you. It doesn\'t take just Armenia to make me feel Armenian. I guess the best way to describe it is community.\{quote}  -Liana Aghajanian (born in Iran, now living in Los Angeles)Paris, France
  • St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Chapel - Kolkata, India
  •  \{quote}I feel more connection to my clan than a homeland.\{quote}  -Anon (San Francisco, California) Little Armenia Parking Lot - Hollywood, USA
  • I feel like the Armenian side of my heritage was really kept from me, so it\'s intriguing—I sometimes wonder if I\'ll ever go to Armenia, and if I did, would I connect with it like a \{quote}real\{quote} Armenian?-Ariane Khachatourians (Saskatchewan, Canada)First Republic Day, Freedom Square - Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
  • \{quote}I feel like I am part of a big dysfunctional family that will always be there if I need them.\{quote}-Lucig Kebranian (Anjar, Lebanon)ARF Sardarabad Center- Bourj Hammoud, Lebanon
  • \{quote}On one hand, I feel that I don\'t belong to Armenia because I don\'t have an Armenian nationality. On the other hand, I don\'t feel that I belong to Lebanon even though I\'ve born because Lebanese people notice \{quote}ian\{quote} in my family name and generalize that I\'m Armenian; even though I\'m Lebanese of Armenian origin. There is a big confusion here since I don\'t know If I introduce myself as Armenian or Lebanese or both.\{quote} -Hasmig \{quote}Jasmine\{quote} Boyadjian (Beirut, Lebanon)Sanjak Camp - Bourj Hammoud, Lebanon
  • First Republic Day, Freedom Square - Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
  • San Lazzaro degli Armeni- Venice, Italy
  • I love that when I miss being Armenian, all I have to do is venture into Hollywood and Glendale to get my fill.Liana Aghajanian (born in Iran, now living in Los Angeles)Little Armenia - West Hollywood, California
  • \{quote}I don\'t really know how to answer this question. I like who it makes me. I like that I\'m a fighter and I\'m righteous and passionate and I feel like I have a century of survival in me.\{quote} -Danielle Tcholakian (New York City) Vakıflı Köyü, Turkey
  • Culturel Alex Manoogian de l\'UGAB - Paris, France
  • I\'m no Armenian.  I\'m an American. Well, the truth is I am both and neither. I love Armenia and I love America and I belong to both, but I am only this: an inhabitant of the earth, and so are you, whoever you are. -William Saroyan in Antranik and the Spirit of Armenia Little Armenia Parking Lot - Hollywood, USA
  • \{quote}It is sometimes amazing to think that when I\'m in an Armenian event, all the people there, including me, have come to this country far away and are all together celebrating something in the same way that our ancestors did a hundred years ago.\{quote}Gary Gananian (Sao Paulo, Brazil)Sarkis Zeitlian Center- Anjar, Lebanon
  • You know, when I meet an Armenian, it\'s like we have been friends forever.  And that, I do not feel it with anyone else. The connection is there right away due to our ancestors and history.-Kevin Dubouis (Nice, France)Lower Baghjaghaz - Kessab, Syria
  • \{quote}I never asked too much, as if I didn\'t want to wake up painful memories.\{quote}-Sandra Arslanian (Beirut, Lebanon)Family photographs - Whitman, MA
  • \{quote}I don\'t think Armenians have ever fully adjusted to living in the Diaspora. In many ways ( financial stability, home, careers) they have, but there\'s always a longing for something more, something on the other side of the sea, something that always pulls them to not fully be engulfed in the cities and countries they are living in now. They are always searching for something that is lost.\{quote} -Liana Aghajanian (born in Iran, now living in Los Angeles)School - Kovsakan, Nagorno-Karabakh
  • Gurun Sivas, Turkey
  • We all have to adjust to our new homes; otherwise we won\'t be able to survive.-Anna Karapetyan (Russian citizen, now living in New York City)Surp Sarkis Armenian Apostolic Church - Damascus, Syria
  • Lernagog, The Republic of Armenia
  • My birthplace was California, but I couldn\'t forget Armenia, so what is one\'s country? Is it land of the earth, in a specific place? Rivers there? Lakes? The sky there? The way the moon comes up there? And the sun? Is one\'s country the trees, the vineyards, the grass, the birds, the rocks, the hills and summer and winter? Is it the animal rhythm of the living there? The huts and houses, the streets of cities, the tables and chairs, and the drinking of tea and talking? Is it the peach ripening in summer heat on the bough? Is it the dead in the earth there?-William Saroyan in Antranik and the Spirit of Armenia Syrian Refugee -  Kovsakan, Nagorno-Karabakh
  • Surp Boghos Armenian Church - Anjar, Lebanon
  • In school, my monastic teachers always repeated:  We have to learn what is ours well, and what belongs to others even better.-Hratch Kaspar (Venice, Italy)Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy - Kolkata, India.
  • There is still so much about being Armenian that I do not know.-Ian Koncagul (Dearborn, MI)First Republic Day, Freedom Square - Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
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