Epilogue: Where is Home?

Summary

My goal in this epilogue is to transform my painful experiences into something beneficial – for myself and the collective – by reclaiming the pain of negotiating between multiple nations, identities and consciousnesses during times of crisis and sharing it with others to empower them, which is the essence of living in the space of verants’ughi. In this liminal diasporic space, where different perspectives intersect, I reclaim my multiple consciousnesses and refuse to be categorised into conventional identity labels. Through critical thinking and writing, I embed my personal experiences – both mental and somatic – in the larger collective, creating a bridge between my personal struggles and the public.

As I was working on this book, the global COVID-19 pandemic was raging through the entire world; meanwhile, different forms of turmoil occurred in Armenia, Iran and the US – the countries that have shaped my multiple consciousnesses.

In September 2020, the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), an Armenian-controlled enclave, internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan for three decades, flared up yet again amid the global pandemic of COVID-19 (Figure E.1). The leaders of the two countries came to ceasefire agreements several times; however, these agreements were breached every single time. This re-ignited a conflict that affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of Armenian and Azerbaijani civilians: many lives were lost, and a large number of Artsakh people were displaced from territories captured by Azerbaijan and then sheltered in Yerevan, Armenia. The rise of COVID-19 cases in Armenia only further exacerbated this perilous situation.

Since I have discussed nationalism, nation-state agendas and the importance of religion, language and traditions in this book, I would like to briefly consider some of these points here with specific regard to this conflict. While Armenia is a majority Christian nation and Azerbaijan a majority Muslim one, and while it is believed that religion is the source of friction between the two nations, the conflicts today have deeper roots in nationalist agendas rather than merely religion. In the 1920s, the majority-Armenian region of Artsakh was placed into Azerbaijan after the Caucasus had been conquered by the Red Army. After the Soviet Union had dissolved in the late 1980s, Armenia and Azerbaijan gained independence in 1991.