In this episode, I speak with Liyah Babayan, author of Liminal: A Refugee Memoir.

In this discussion, we delve into Liyah’s profound, disturbing, and moving retelling of her childhood experiences fleeing the pogroms enacted against the Armenian minority population in Baku, Azerbaijan, in the midst of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989-1990, as expressed in her memoir Liminal. After experiencing incomprehensible trauma and dehumanization, Liyah and her family fled to Armenia, where they were homeless for over three years. Liyah recalls the hostility and derision (with notable punctuations of deep generosity) her and her family experienced from her fellow citizens during this time, as is too often the case with displaced and traumatized refugee populations around the world, regardless of the context of the displacement for each respective group. After this period, Liyah's family was finally granted the refugee status required to make their way to the United States, ultimately resettling in Twin Falls, Idaho through the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Resettlement program. While Liyah and her family were fortunate enough to be able to escape the horrific violence in Baku and their desperate living situation thereafter, their difficult journey toward integration and healing was only just beginning.

// Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/liyah-babayan-3

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