Sunday, November 05, 2006
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ARMENIAN ENEMIES,
TURKISH FRIENDS
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Is there a single Armenian today who thinks Turks are better than Armenians? Likewise, is there a single Turk who thinks Armenians are better than Turks? This may suggest that nationalism and racism are inevitable facts of life, which we must never give up combating.
No doubt some Armenians are better than some Turks, and vice versa, some Turks are better than some Armenians. Which reminds me of the following brief exchange in Zabel Yessayan’s autobiographical THE GARDENS OF SILIHDAR:
“Dad, is it true that Jews are bad people?”
“There is no such thing as a bad people, my child. There are only bad men and good men.”
“What about the Turks then?”
“Same with the Turks.”
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Are Turkish writers today better than Armenian writers? According to the Nobel committee, and now the world community, at least one Turkish writer is better than Armenian writers.
I once heard an Armenian poet and author of several textbooks say that the Nobel committee was a Zionist conspiracy. And immediately after Pamuk was awarded the Nobel Prize, an Armenian friend, whose patriotism is such that it would not allow him to read “enemy writers,” telephoned to inform me that Pamuk did not deserve the Nobel Prize. But then, with one or two exceptions, this has been said of all Nobel Prize winners.
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In a recent issue of the ARMENIAN REPORTER I read a letter to the editor that said something to the effect that, if we are better, why is it that hundreds of Jews have been awarded the Nobel Prize but not a single Armenian? Will this fact convince a single Armenian that Jews are better than Armenians? I suspect it may have the exact opposite effect by reinforcing the notion that the Nobel committee is an offshoot of THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION.
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Dissident Turkish historians today have more friends among Armenians than among their fellow Turks. Why should it be different for dissident Armenian writers?
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Monday, November 06, 2006
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DIARY
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Saddam Hussein has been condemned to death. Some see this as a major victory. I can only think of all the others in the Middle East and elsewhere who deserve to hang but who will die of natural causes?
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We speak too much about Turks and massacres and not enough about intolerance, which happens to be the source of all crimes against humanity; perhaps because, if we speak of intolerance, sooner or later someone may ask, “How tolerant are we?”
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If you keep asking the wrong questions, you will never get the right answer.
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Only Armenians who know nothing about Armenian literature think my views are eccentric or anti-Armenian.
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You cannot reason with men who are against reason.
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In a cartoon by Wolinski, one Frenchman to another: “On account of Aznavour, Turks are threatening to boycott French goods. That’s not a problem because for some time now France has been exporting nothing.”
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“As an Armenian, I value Armenians over Turks,” a gentle reader writes. I suspect a Mongol will never say, “As a Mongol, I value Mongols over Armenians,” probably because he doesn’t even know who Armenians are. And if swine could speak, no doubt they will say, “As swine, we value swine over jackasses.”
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Tuesday, November 07, 2006
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NOTES AND COMMENTS
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History is made by mobs that cannot think for themselves.
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When I knew nothing I believed everything I was told by my elders. Now that I am no longer a child I spend most of my time trying to prove that I am no longer an impressionable idiot.
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Some of our charlatans have become such experts in their field that they now believe in what they say.
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Who qualifies as an intellectual? Anyone who has mastered the difficult art of thinking against himself. As for patriots and propagandists: for every intellectual, there are probably a thousand or even ten thousand of them.
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Once upon a time I espoused every fallacy, prejudice, and misconception I now condemn. I know how hard it is to see one’s most cherished ideas as products of manipulators whose aim is to convince you to kill and die for what they only pretend to believe in.
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Wednesday, November 08, 2006
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HERE WE GO AGAIN
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“You don’t always practice what you preach,” I am sometimes informed by disappointed readers. To which I can only say, “Here we go again!”
First of all, I am neither a preacher nor a propagandist (same thing). If I were, I would be paid for my work. But like everyone else, including preachers and their dupes, I stand for certain things (such as tolerance and solidarity) and am against others (censorship and authoritarianism…both in the name of patriotism, of course). That doesn’t make me a preacher, just an average Joe who values common sense and decency over charlatanism.
So much for my positives. On the negative side, I am willing to concede that I have little patience with and no sympathy whatever for anonymous and faceless hoodlums who take pleasure in flinging mud at me hoping some of it will stick. They may even think if they make themselves repellent enough I may give up in disgust and fall silent. This may indeed happen some day, but not yet – at least not today and probably not tomorrow.
However, I am willing to compromise and make the following solemn promise. On the day I achieve perfection, I may see the wisdom in bullies and liars, and on the day I achieve sainthood, I may forgive and love them. In the meantime, my advice is: Don’t hold your breath!
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