Tag Archives: Armenia

Musa Dagh

Posted on January 16, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

Musa Dagh is a tabletop mountain on the Mediterranean in southern Turkey or northern Syria where 5000 Armenians set to be marched to their deaths in the 1915 genocide decided to make a stand. It is a true story, and … Continue reading →

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To Talk of Many Things… (Vol. #11 – Armenia and Azerbaijan)

Posted on November 28, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

It has been just over a year since Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a ceasefire to end the ’44 Day War’. A war started by Azerbaijan in order to gain back land they lost more than 25 years ago following a … Continue reading →

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Towers of Trebizond

Posted on June 25, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

This is how Rose Macaulay described the Black Sea in her masterpiece “Towers of Trebizond”, a: “…long strange, frightening, and romantic drama for which the Black Sea and its high forested shores seemed to me to be the stage. Some … Continue reading →

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My Last Night in Yerevan

Posted on May 13, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

The quiet hum of Ashtarak highway reverberates in the background; the wind rustles the trees, new leaves – excited to show them off after a long cold winter. The city, away down into the valley buzzes with life: restaurants and … Continue reading →

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Springtime In Yerevan

Posted on April 30, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

It’s springtime again in Yerevan. The crisp early-morning air smells like croissants and coffee and cigarette smoke over cologne or perfume wafting from a wandering passerby on a labor of purpose. A bustle of movement, new-construction around which deliveries – … Continue reading →

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Armenia Saved My Life

Posted on April 29, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

“That is why I love America,” he said to me this morning, eyes watering. “A land where immigrants are welcomed and can free themselves of the shackles of the past – of the old country which we love so much, … Continue reading →

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Grant Matevosyan

Posted on April 20, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

I love literature that is grounded. Stories that emerge from the darkened forests, crystal lakes and crisp mountain pastures where sheep are raised in the summer and which are lost to the forbidding snow, sequestered away and quiet during the … Continue reading →

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“Song of America” by George Mardikian

Posted on April 4, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

There is something extraordinarily good, tremendously fresh and clean and pure about “Song of America” by George Mardikian. Mardikian is a now-famous Armenian-American restauranteur and philanthropist who became successful despite the ‘old world’ difficulties – genocide by the Young Turks … Continue reading →

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My Name is Aram

Posted on February 17, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

There is something earthy, well-connected to the land in Armenian literature. The golden sunsets across the mountains, the pale white powdery snow, the gentle goodness of the tastes close to nature – figs and grapes and nuts, occasionally meat when … Continue reading →

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Apples of Immortality

Posted on January 2, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

For those who love medieval literature – Chaucer or the Brothers Grim – for those who love faerie tales from Ireland – you will love Apples of Immortality. Stories that come from the olden Armenian traditions, handed down from father … Continue reading →

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