130/ Armenian-ness and Solidarity in a Changing World w/ Karena Avedissian and Anna

This is a conversation with Karena Avedissian and Anna, and a collaboration with their podcast Obscuristan. The main thread of our conversation was about Armenian-ness and how complicated of an identity it is due to the old and transnational history of Armenians. Some have ancestry in the Ottoman empire and therefore feel closer to the Levant, especially after the genocide which also exiled so many to my part of the world. Others lived under the Russian empire and then the USSR. There are of course those who moved to Europe and North America and elsewhere as well. Karena is of Armenian-Iranian origins and grew up in the US, but lives in Armenia. Anna is from Artsakh and Armenia and is currently in the US. So we inevitably had to also talk about Armenian proximity to Whiteness in the US and why it's important to understand it. We brought up Ukraine a lot as well as Russia's full-scale invasion last year prompted them to launch their podcast which partly seeks to decolonize Russian history and imperialism. We also brought up Azerbaijan's ongoing violence against Armenians in Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh. Also: Lebanon as Beirut has a special place in Armenian history, something I didn't really know until I myself visited Armenia. Also: Gilmore Girls, coz why not. ---- Mentions and Book Recommendations: Karena: The Politics of Exile by Elizabeth Dauphinee Anna: The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition by Thenmozhi Soundararajan (who will be a guest soon as well!) Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis ---- You can support The Fire These Times on patreon.com/firethesetimes with a monthly or yearly donation and get a lot of perks including early access, exclusive videos, monthly hangouts, access to the book club, merch and more. Host: Joey Ayoub Producer: Joey Ayoub Music: Rap and Revenge Main theme design: Wenyi Geng Sound editor: Ibrahim Youssef Episode design: Joey Ayoub ---- You can also follow updates on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok | Website & Mailing List Joey Ayoub can be found on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | Website The newsletter is available on Substack