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Tiptoeing on Political Minefields

  • Emily A Rose
  • Dec 29, 2019
  • 3 min read

Updated: Jan 6, 2020


Մի օր թռչնեմ քեզ յիշեմ (One day I’ll fly to remember you)

Մի օր վազեմ քեզ հասնեմ (One day, I’ll run to reach you)

Մի օր կու գամ քեզ գտնեմ (One day, I’ll come to find you)

Մի օր կու գամ քո հետ լինել (One day, I’ll come to be with you)

- Վաղ Թէ Ուշ / Sooner or Later



I walk into a room and he’s on the floor amid a pile of ashes. His hands are coated in the black soot as he combs through the scraps, finding one word and then another, trying to put them together to see if they match, like a twisted jigsaw puzzle. He puts half a word together with half a sentence, to his left a separate pile of words he thinks might go together with other words, to make one broken sentence, to make one broken line, to make one broken verse, to one broken song, for a people who were broken. Almost.


This is Apo Sahagian - he’s the lead singer and face for what is considered today the biggest Palestinian rock back, Apo and the Apostles. You can’t walk two steps in the Palestinian territories without hearing their name or their music, which is exceptional, they even opened at PAMFEST,  but Apo, himself, is Armenian. And like many minorities in Jerusalem’s Old City, he didn’t land on modern day Jerusalem but it certainly landed on him. 


“What’s it like to be an Armenian in modern day Jerusalem?” I ask him. 


“Well, you’re always tiptoeing on political minefields,” he says, “everyone wants you on their side.”


“Did that Armenian rock star just explain my entire life in four words?” I think, but I try to stay neutral because, you know, it’s an interview. 


Which is about his work - he’s taking ancient Armenian folk songs and making them modern. Many of these songs don’t even have recorded versions or if they do they are somewhere on old grainy soviet records. 



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And he’s a man against the odds - 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a genocide during the first world war - my professor in school used to remind us that “the Nazis had great teachers” because many of the brutal tactics used during the Armenian genocide were practiced by the Nazis and Samantha Power in the best book ever written, A Problem From Hell, even says that the Armenian genocide set the ground for every other genocide that would come after. 


That’s why my professor in school used to read us an Armenian poem at the end of every lesson - he said that along with the tragedy of loss of life, with the genocide was also the brutal slaughter of a vibrant culture, music, art, dialects, folktales and well, way of life. 





And let’s remember that historically the Armenian people are spiritual and cultural trailblazers - they were the first to accept Christianity as their national religion (in 301 AD) and the first printing press in Jerusalem was brought here by an Armenian - bringing the good word, as the enlightened and the illuminated.


But caught between the ever-shifting Eastern and Western empires, like being caught between a rock and a hard place, or like tiptoeing on political minefields. 



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And I’ve just returned from New York but this time I actually cried in the airport. I didn’t want to say goodbye to my brothers and my friends, it was the first time that I was that sad to leave. I called a friend who said to me, “either you come back to New York and get to the top of your profession or you stay there and get to the bottom of that conflict.”  

  

Now I’m sitting on this stoop in a quiet spot, tucked away within the heavy walls of the Armenian quarter, which is Apo’s backyard, and he plays a few chords of a song from his new album - and he reminds me of what I love about this city - it’s a city against the odds. They say that, in Jerusalem, wisdom is in the air. So I take a deep breath.


I guess, for now, I will keep tiptoeing on political minefields, praying that my deep faith in the people who live within these walls, will be enough to keep me safe.  


In my report I said that Apo is giving a voice to what was lost but maybe it's also a voice for those who were taken. Please enjoy the song below, my favorite of the collection and one of the most beautiful I’ve ever heard.


Ex Cultu Robur,

EMRO



 
 
 

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