I feel like a big assumption here is that the addition of other cultures inherently makes one “less” of all of them, when really, that’s not how culture works. That *is* how colonial ideologies of blood quantum and myths of extinction work though, which we’ve internalized. https://twitter.com/aramisharam/status/1308501069362655232

In the U.S., sovereign indigenous nations often have these same conversations about how to “measure” Nativeness. Blood quantum laws were imposed by the U.S. govt as a tool of forced assimilation and a means to ensure the erasure of Native people through myths of extinction.

These are myths, of course, because despite centuries of genocide, occupation, forced removal, termination, and subsequent denial, indigenous peoples have always existed and still persist despite our current borders/racial categories, because we *predated* our colonization.

I think Armenians struggle a lot with these conversations today because we also live in the afterlife of our genocide, with the reality of the ongoing occupation of our land, and the denial of our right to our ancestral homelands. These questions are side effects of genocide.

REAL QUESTION: What does it mean to be Armenian? Is it a measure of blood based on colonial ideologies of extinction? Or is it an additive model that focuses on ancestry, collectivity, kinship and belonging through cultural transmission of our genealogies and oral histories?

Are culture and identity really things that can be statistically, biologically, or scientifically quantified and measured? Or were they *made* to be this way as a result of assimilative ideologies and co-constitutive structures, like white nationalism & Pan-Turkism?

TL;DR: Turkey is a settler-colonial state on stolen Armenian land. The only thing that will lead to our extinction is our reliance on ideologies that were invented to exclude us, erase us, & ensure our extinction, which is really just a disservice to ourselves and our ancestors.

I suggest that whoever sees this takes a look at the history/current reality of blood quantum laws & ideologies in the U.S. in the aftermath of indigenous genocide:
https://blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2011/09/will-current-blood-quantum-membership-requirements-make-american-indians-extinct.html



https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/02/09/583987261/so-what-exactly-is-blood-quantum https://nativephilanthropy.candid.org/events/blood-quantum-laws-support-chattel-slavery-and-stealing-of-lands/

https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/09/15/tribal-sovereignty-vs-racial-justice/define-real-indians