Think upon this truth, that I wish I could have said to my fellow Armenians long ago.
The attitude or the saying to choose to be Armenian is a denial of genocide.
We did not choose to be victims of genocide, just as we do not choose an infinity of pain and suffering. The Armenian identity does not escape those who survived genocide, rather it follows and haunts him like the Turks who slaughtered his family. It is given without a choice, like a spear to the heart, a gunshot to the head, like a knife to the throat. To say otherwise is to cause him greater suffering and then to deny the man his right to suffer in peace.
I can take this spear through the chest and name it my victory and emblem as the cross was transformed into a sign of God’s victory and love. Just as I have and will. But shame on those and a thousand woes upon him who says he may choose to be Armenian this day, for in doing so, he creates a world and philosophy in which genocide can be forgotten and denied, a world in which I may endure genocide as an Armenian and not even be allowed my own self and identity thereafter.
The moment you think whether you are Armenian or not based on your actions due to the paradigm of “choosing” to be Armenian is the moment you have abandoned the memory of your ancestors, made nothing of the killings and their death, and dishonored their name forever.
Not to be stable in your identity as an Armenian is a shame and a dishonor to all.