Sunday, May 08, 2005
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DEFINING ARMENIANISM
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If you analyze the Armenianism of our superpatriots, you may discover that most of it consists of tolerance for that tiny fraction of their fellow Armenians who are members of the same mutual-admiration society. Everyone else, including fellow Armenians (that is to say, 99% of mankind), are perceived as hostile witnesses and enemies.
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ON GENOCIDE
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Those who are on our side will be one our side for their own selfish reasons and regardless of what we or anyone else says. Those who are against us will never allow their conscience or sense of justice and fair play to shape their convictions. As for the skeptics, the ignorant, and the apathetic, the best way to enhance our credibility in their eyes is by presenting both sides of the story and allowing them to decide for themselves.
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WORTH REMEMBERING
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There is no accounting for tastes. Some scholars are Turcophiles in the same way that some women fall in love with serial killers.
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ON CONTEMPORARY
ARMENIAN LITERATURE
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The cruelest thing that has happened to Armenian writers after they were systematically and ruthlessly slaughtered by Talaat and Stalin was to become dependent on the charity of swine.
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Millionaires don’t read books; they prefer to count their money. I don’t blame them. If I had any money, I too would probably trade in my typewriter for an adding machine.
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One of our benefactors is quoted as having said to one of our writers: “I hire and fire people like you every day.”
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Stalin had his commissars of culture whose function was to silence dissent and to bury critics. Our benefactors have their hirelings whose function is to be guardians of mediocrity by supporting only brown-nosers.
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A LOSE / LOSE SITUATION
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After calling me the “son of a Turkish whore,” one of my gentle readers added, “No offense!” More recently another gentle reader (I have been blessed with so many of them) after leveling a string of insults, accused me of being too sensitive. Had I ignored his insults, I would have been accused of having the skin of a crocodile.
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Monday, May 09, 2005
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The Armenian psyche has been a central theme of our literature from Khorenatsi and Yeghishe (5th century AD) to Shahan Shahnour, Gostan Zarian, and Baruir Massikian (20th century). Everything I say about us is a paraphrase. I invent nothing, and I am original only in the etymological sense of the word – I go back to the origins…thus it was in the past, and thus it is today. Progress is our least important product, and vicious circle our favorite trajectory.
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One way to define Armenianism is to say that it ought to be the opposite of Ottomanism. If Ottomanism is intolerant, despotic, cruel and ruthless, Armenianism ought to be tolerant, democratic, compassionate, and considerate towards underdogs and minorities.
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If the Turks say, what really matters is only their side of the story, we should not say the same about our side of the story.
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Perhaps the problem with Turks is that they think only with their Turkish brain. We should avoid emulating them. Instead, we should follow Woodrow Wilson’s advice and “not only use the brains we have, but all that we can borrow.” And we wouldn’t have to borrow from foreign sources either, because everything that needs to be said has already been said by our own writers.
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Yugoslav proverb: “Man is harder than rock and more fragile than eggs.” If we view Turks as hard as rocks and ourselves as fragile as eggs it may be because, by uniting them, their leaders made them stronger; and by dividing us, our leaders made us weaker and more vulnerable. If you think I am the first to say this, read Yeghishe (410-470 AD): “If a nation is ruled by two kings, both the kings and their subjects will perish.”
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To ignore our prophets is bad enough; to cover up their prophecies is to pretend that history fell on us without warning, like a thief in the night.
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Here is another quotation from Yeghishe: “Solidarity is the mother of good deeds, divisiveness of evil ones.”
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And now, compare these two quotations from the 5th century AD with two parallel quotations from Nikol Aghbalian (1873-1947), statesman, literary scholar, and educator: “When man does not submit himself to the rule of law, he will have to submit himself to the rule of men, that is to say, cliques and gangs.”
And, “We Armenians are products of the tribal mentality of Turks and Kurds, and this tribal mentality remains stubbornly rooted even among our leaders and elites.”
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Thus it was in the past and thus it is today.
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Tuesday, May 10, 2005
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LATERAL THINKING
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I don’t write against anyone, not even Turks. I write against the Turk in me.
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Some of my readers operate on the assumption that by insulting me they assert their superior brand of morality and patriotism, as opposed to exposing themselves as products of an inferior educational system.
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Who will disagree with me if I say to have an Armenian friend is to harbor a potential enemy?
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There is a difference between history in the making and history as a fait accompli. History in the making is a messier affair fraught with uncertainties, doubts, and misunderstandings. During World War I the Turks had no way of knowing they will come out of it alive, in the same way that we were sure the Christian West would not abandon us at the mercy of bloodthirsty infidels and Asiatic barbarians.
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Because we are experiencing a slow-motion and self-inflicted white massacre, we pretend it is not taking place.
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I neither preach nor teach. I share. There is an element of coercion in both preaching and teaching. A preacher relies on a captive audience, and a teacher on his own authority. Sharing is between equals; it does not exploit or violate anyone’s freedom.
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Martin Luther (1483-1546): “I am more afraid of my own heart than of the Pope and his cardinals. I have within me the great Pope, Self.”
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Wednesday, May 11, 2005
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If members of your mutual admiration society are unanimous in agreeing with you, the chances are the rest of the world will be against you.
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Most so-called good Armenians are good only by their own definition. I have yet to meet a good Armenian who was not bad in the eyes of other Armenians; and some of the most repellent Armenians I have met thought of themselves as standard bearers of Armenianism. And if you were to ask me if I think of myself as a good Armenian, I will say that I am so busy trying and failing to be a good human being that I no longer care if I qualify as a good Armenian by anyone’s definition.
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To assume that one is better than others may be said to be the source of all violence. What are wars and revolutions, massacres and genocides if not results of this aberration?
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As Armenians we see ourselves as innocent victims. As Turks they see themselves as unjustly accused. When we judge others, we always judge them in relations to ourselves rather than in relation to their fellow men.
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Erich Fromm: “Understanding a person does not mean condoning; it only means that one does not accuse him as if one were God or a judge placed above him.”
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If you say I am making so many demands on my fellow Armenians that it amounts to victimizing the victims all over again; I will say, all I have been saying is that, only if we shed our Ottomanism may we usher in another golden age. You might even say I am the bearer of good tidings and joy.
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