Sunday, October 16, 2005
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All the Turks have to say is Armenians are prone to engage in acts of terrorism if their demands are not met and they will have majority support in Washington. And if, on top of that, Yanks discover the fact that some Armenians harbor anti-Israeli and pro-Arab sentiments, then you can kiss acknowledgement of the Genocide goodbye.
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Several readers have pointed out that my testimony cannot be relied on because I am a traumatized witness. I am more than willing to plead guilty as charged. But if these very same readers imply that six centuries of Ottoman oppression followed by massacres and dispersion have not traumatized them, they deceive themselves. Either that or they have been so thoroughly dehumanized that it doesn’t even occur to them that they may be in denial.
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Monday, October 17, 2005
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In an interview published in SOCIAL SCIENCE RECORD: THE JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK STATE COUNCIL FOR THE SOCIAL STUDIES (Volume 24, Issue 2), Professor Vahakn N. Dadrian has some kind words for Armenians of Zeitun and Sassoun who “defied authority, retaliated, engaged in reprisals, in consequence many Turkish hordes as well as regular and superior army units were held at bay and in some instances even defeated and humbled.” What the good professor fails to discuss is, to what extent this kind of isolated defiance provoked the Turks to retaliate by massacring innocent and defenseless civilians who were in no position to resist?
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Nikol Aghbalian is right, we are a tribal people; or, in the words of Gostan Zarian, our concept of nation begins and ends with our mountain, our valley, our village, our church, and our chickens.
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Dadrian sets the stage for the interview by describing Armenians as a “historically persecuted race…an orphan nation” that has experienced “massacres, atrocities, and massive destruction.” What he fails to explore is to what extent our own tribalism, lack of solidarity, and incompetent leadership – things that have been discussed at some length by our own historians, novelists, essayists, satirists, and poets – were a contributing factor to our perennial status as losers and victims.
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Elsewhere in this same interview and speaking of other academics who, unlike him, have so far ignored the study of genocides, Dadrian explains that it may be because they prefer to explore topics “that yield them dividends in terms of research money, prestige, publicity and publication.” Dadrian thus illustrates another notorious Armenian idiosyncrasy – the widely held illusion that our status as victims empowers us to assume a morally superior stance by viewing Turks as Asiatic barbarians, the West as thoroughly corrupt, degenerate, and cynical, and, as if that weren’t enough, to express outrage when the world fails to support our claims.
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Tuesday, October 18, 2005
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THEME AND VARIATIONS
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History makes one point very clear: in time of trouble, when we need them most, our political parties are nowhere to be seen. But in time of peace they are all over the place – in schools, churches, community centers, and the media, speechifying, sermonizing,editorializing, organizing demonstrations, lobbying, and, above all, rewriting history in their efforts to cover up their blunders and inability to face facts and to come to grips with reality.
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As a case in point, consider the Ottoman Bank caper at the turn of the last century in Istanbul – the theme of many future variations. A small group of self-appointed heroes do their thing, clear out, and as a result of their actions, innocent civilians are massacred by the thousand. And, as if that weren’t enough, they add insult to injury by misrepresenting that debacle as a glorious page in the annals of our history.
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Wednesday, October 19, 2005
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Somewhere in his STUDY OF HISTORY Toynbee writes that the uneducated or poorly educated masses are no match for the educated bourgeoisie. Elsewhere he explains that the aim of an educational system is to maintain the status quo and to protect the privileges of the ruling class. To put it more bluntly, we are all brainwashed to believe that the political system in which we live is fair and we should be satisfied with our lot.
Long before Toynbee, Napoleon said if it weren’t for religion, the poor would butcher the rich.
Both Napoleon and Toynbee were members of the privileged classes or the Establishment, and both could afford being honest.
One positive feature of the bourgeoisie is that, in addition to producing swine, it has also produced some men of integrity and courage. Jean-Paul Sartre comes to mind. This Nobel-Prize winning philosopher, novelist, and playwright was born and raised into a petit-bourgeois family and he hated the bourgeoisie so much that he allowed himself to be a dupe of Stalin, Mao, and Castro.
On the day the average Armenian becomes aware of his status as a dupe, our bosses, bishops, benefactors with all their hirelings, flunkeys, hangers-on and brown-nosers will be consigned to the dustbin of history before anyone can say Jack S. Avanakian.
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