Serving Bread

There is a genocide in Armenia. And unlike the one that took place 95 years ago, Armenians seem to have chosen to largely ignore the ongoing genocide in Armenia at the hands of Armenians.

I was saddened, shocked and ashamed to stumble upon the latest issue of The Economist that profiled ‘gendercide’, a growing and disturbing trend in many parts of the world. While the topic itself was enough to anger me that this injustice exists in our world, I was that much more distraught to learn that my people—Armenians—contribute more to this evil than any other peoples in the world (save Chinese society according to some statistics). Gendercide refers to the intentional and systematic elimination of baby girls to honor a family’s preference for boys.

According to the latest CIA World Factbook, Armenia ranks first in gender imbalance at birth. In Armenia, 114 boys are born for every 100 girls. If the world is at should, the ratio should be about 1 to 1—that roughly 50% of all births should be boys and the other 50% should be girls (While evolutionary biology may skew the natural ratio toward boys, the ratio would be closer to 1 than 1.14).  But in Armenia, the picture is skewed. I don’t pretend to know all the reasons for this imbalance. Technology allows us to know the sex of a child before birth and any ancient prejudices toward boys are most likely playing a significant factor in this ratio.

According to the Economist article, the sex ratios in the Caucuses rose dramatically after the fall of the Soviet Union (from normal levels to what we have today). So in the past 15 years, there has been a systematic elimination of little girls in the country of Armenia.

I’m ashamed that I only learned about this today. I’m ashamed to be a part of a people group that has engaged in a practice that has no other word but evil to describe it. To this day, Armenians continue to lobby governments around the world to recognize the genocide of 1915 where 1.5 million Armenians were systematically and killed at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. Since World War I, Armenians have been relentless in our pursuit to make sure that the world does not forget this evil that has been committed against our people.

It is our arrogance and hypocrisy that has focused our attention to remember the past and overlook the present evil committed by our own hands and by our society. Today, I am ashamed to be an Armenian. As a people, we pride ourselves on our culture, our traditions, and our religiosity (we are the first Christian nation), yet we have perpetuated and allowed for this evil. It is those very things that are fundamentally broken and need to be transformed and changed. It is our very culture in which we take pride, that has perpetuated and allowed for this evil. God have mercy on us!