Syria's Islamized Armenians w/ Karena Avedissian (E5)

Leila is joined by Armenian writer, scholar and member of From The Periphery media collective, Dr Karena Avedissian. 

Karena recently returned from a trip to conduct research and build ties with the Armenian community in Northeast Syria. We spoke about an article she wrote - Armenians in Rojava: A quiet revolution - looking at the experiences of Islamized Armenians, descendants of survivors of the Armenian Genocide who were forcibly ‘assimilated’ during and after 1915. 

STIR is a podcast by ⁠Leila Al-Shami⁠ (⁠Burning Country⁠, The Peoples Want) and Elia Ayoub (⁠The Fire These Times⁠, ⁠Hauntologies⁠) and is part of the From The Periphery Media Collective. To support all of our projects please head out to ⁠Patreon.com/fromtheperiphery⁠

Credits and More:

• Karena is on Bluesky. For more on this topic, watch another recent interview with her here.

• STIR is on Bluesky

• From The Periphery is on ⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠Bluesky⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠ Instagram⁠⁠, and has a website⁠⁠⁠

• Leila Al Shami (Host, Lead Researcher, Editor). More: Bluesky⁠, ⁠Mastodon⁠ and her ⁠Blog⁠

• Aydin Yildiz (Producer). More: Antidote Zine

• Elia Ayoub (Producer). More:⁠ ⁠Bluesky⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠Mastodon⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and his⁠ ⁠Newsletter⁠⁠

• Hisham Rifai (Illustration)

• Omar Offendum and Sami Matar (Music)

Date of recording: 18 July 2025