YEGPARIAN: SOCCER SELLOUT
By Garen Yegparian

14/yegparian-soccer-sellout/
October 14, 2009

Sorry FDR, but I’ve got to steal your line, because truly, Black
Saturday, October 10, is a day that will live in infamy. I write this
article in a mood of utter disgust and deeply suppressed rage. How
else would you have me, or the world have us, Armenians, feel, when,
as a friend wrote to me, "They just sold out the whole country,
and we couldn’t do a thing about it."

Sure, there was some last minute brinkmanship. The speeches by
Armenia’s and Turkey’s representatives were cancelled to avoid
stepping on one another’s toes over the Genocide and linkage of the
infamous protocols’ implementation to Turkish-defined "progress" on
Artzakh negotiations. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earned
her keep by arm-twisting the two parties to sign the documents that
potentially spell the end of Armenia as an independent state worthy
of that name and status.

When I saw the 2-0 loss of the much touted Turkey-Armenia soccer
match, it occurred to me that Armenians fared much better with a ball
than with the BS of diplomacy. In the latter, the score was four to
negative one! Turkey got virtual absolution for the Genocide; arguable
legalization of the current illegitimate frontier; tacit acceptance
of the supremacy of principle of the inviolability of borders over
self-determination (a boost on the Artzakh front for the Turkic side
and more support for the current, Western-Armenia-excluding border);
and opening of the border, Turkey’s illegal blockade/closure of which
is an obstacle to progress in its efforts to fully join "Europe". What
did Armenia get? The impending demolition of what little bit of
an economy it has-what will happen is what happened to Mexico with
the implementation of NAFTA in 1994, enrichment of a few, probably,
and further impoverishment for the overwhelming majority.

In the process, the wishes, position, sensibilities, honor, and
good sense of the overwhelming majority of Armenians worldwide was
disregarded. From the multiple demonstrations that dogged Serge
Sarkisian’s tour of the Diaspora and his return to Armenia to the
four-day, 34-person fast organized by the AYF across the street from
Armenia’s Consulate General in LA (ironically, located in Glendale
now), all were arrogantly ignored. Sarkissian as much as said so
in his comment quoted by the Anadolu news agency during his visit
to Bursa, Turkey to watch the Armenian team lose (poetic justice?):
"I have not tried to inform people in order to receive permission from
the Armenian Diaspora. I wanted to convey a decision of the Armenian
Government to the Diaspora and held meetings to update them."

What’s worse is that there are plenty of Armenians who are
also blissfully unaware, or barely cognizant, of the Sword of
Damocles that Sarkisian has strung up above our nation by a Turkish
horse-hair. Including me, why did no one, or all of us, not mob every
diplomatic installation the Republic of Armenia has worldwide, and
in Armenia the presidential and foreign ministry buildings. What’s
wrong with us? People are seething, but confused. This is the stuff of
which radicalization comes. We’ve essentially got the world against
us, again, since the Turks’ Swiss-brokered efforts were supported by
the Americans, French, and Russians, as witnessed by the hours-long
presence of the foreign ministers of these countries in Zurich on
Black Saturday. Didn’t they have anything better to do?

It’s going to be a long, hard struggle to undo this damage, but
ironically, our strongest supporters for the moment may be the Azeris
and Turks themselves, who, for their own reasons (incomprehensible to
me) are opposed to these protocols. Let’s hope that Turkey’s parliament
rejects these documents from hell, ’cause it sure doesn’t seem likely
that Armenia’s parliament will have the good sense and backbone to
reject them!

Maybe the time to wreak some havoc is nigh.