99 - all you should know about the Genocide April, 2014 | Page 85

It is night time. You awake with a start
because of a loud noise that has come
from the street, as if someone is making
strange noises using a microphone. Is
it a song? What language is it? Is it a
human language? You understand in
your state of half-sleep that you are
hearing the call to namaz. “What? How
can this be namaz? I am in Western
Armenia, in Kars, my grandfather’s
homeland.” And at that moment you
realize that the connection has been
lost between the memories flowing in
your blood and the reality of today.
Many of us have a memory whose roots
stretch to distant lands with names
both familiar and unfamiliar, as if you
are looking at them through gauze,
wrapping them in both national pride
and shame. This is the memory that is
constantly palpitating in the souls of
our fathers, ourselves and our children.
Each call to namaz is a further step in
the disconnect between memory and
reality.