National Schizophrenia; the Grey Genocide
chizophrenia-the-grey-genocide/
By Henry Astrajian on Feb 19th, 2010
A vicious virus, covertly infesting the Armenian nation, has created a
full blown entity, which could be defined as the Grey Genocide.
Unlike the Red Genocide where blood is spilled, and the White Genocide
where the individual is alienated from his ethnicity, the Grey
Genocide is a complication of the two and assumes the characteristics
of Schizophrenia. This term is used two ways: in literature and in
common parlance, it is used to describe a state of `Split
personality’, and in medicine it means a mental condition
characterized by `Thought Disorder’. As a nation we suffer from both;
and this is the hidden price we have been paying, and still do, for
the Genocide inflicted upon us by the Turks; it is Schizophrenia, the
Grey Genocide.
A certain feeling of dual loyalty prevails in the Diaspora’s psyche
and thinking. Granting variables from country to country, the Armenian
Diaspora is torn between its civic loyalty to its adopted countries,
and emotional, spiritual loyalty to Hayastan. Security, prosperity,
and the privileges of citizenship, provided us by some countries, like
the United States, enhance that split. This reality is a recipe for
disaster, it befits the colloquial term schizophrenia; split
personality. We are not unique in this dilemma, there are the Irish,
the Jews, the Indians, and the others who share the dilemma; I leave
their situation to the reader’s interpretations.
In Diaspora, we have managed to defray the cost of personal sacrifice
needed to make Armenia viable and sturdy, by paying guilt money, and
sometimes humanitarian services, in lieu of populating the homeland
with our presence.
Two major factors have led us to this schizophrenic state: For three
generations the post-Genocide community, hemorrhaging with poverty and
disease, could barely find itself; land had shifted from under their
feet moving them from Der-Zor to Aleppo to Beirut to Marseille to New
York. Their primary task, like today’s Haitian earthquake victims, was
to find their children and relatives, to settle in the host countries,
and to earn a living.
After nearly a century of setting roots in Diaspora, transplanting the
communities to settle in Armenia is a difficult, if not an impossible
task. We know it from experience: right after WWII Soviet Armenia,
with Soviet Union’s blessings of course, arranged for the famous
Nerkakht (Immigration) to the motherland, which had lost a half a
million or so of its population to the war. Tens of thousands of
families, mostly from the Middle East, answered the call. They
uprooted their families yet again, to migrate to the promise land
pursuing preservation of ethnic identity, language and culture for the
budding generation. Economy was not a motivating factor, for they had
done well in the Arab land, victimization to the White Genocide was.
In their own motherland the immigrants thought that they had escaped
the Grey Genocide, until Schizophrenia set in. They faced
discrimination, alienation, alienation of affection, and a big
cultural chasm with the natives whose thinking and the way of life
juxtaposed theirs. In essence there was a clash of Russian and Ottoman
civilizations on the land of Armenia. The newcomers felt they had
followed the pied piper to the abyss, and the natives `welcomed’ the
newcomers calling them Akhper (meaning: Brothers, also meaning Trash).
Those who were skeptical about the move and stayed behind asked their
relatives to send them photos; standing up if they were happy, sitting
down if they were not. The pictures came with the immigrants lying
down.
Diaspora is not ready yet for another move, even to its motherland. It
is not ready to sacrifice and build their motherland the way the Jews
did. It would be like a self inflicting wound to leave the comforts
and freedoms behind and move to a country where they would be second
class citizens.
This constitutes the first set of factors leading to Schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia, indeed!
A second major factor is the behavior of official Armenia. The short
of it is that they want our money, but not us. They consider us a
pollutant to their society, culture, and way of life. They consider
our input in issues concerning the Armenian Nation as interference in
their affairs, they consider pursuit of Diaspora Armenian issues a
burden on their shoulders, and they consider issues related to Western
Armenia a threat to their existence. Their indifference to issues
concerning Diaspora, whose land has been confiscated by ethnic
cleansing, is evident from their sneaky way of formulating the
Armeno-Turkish protocol, then sending their President to B.S. us and
insult the intelligence of the community by holding meetings in NYC,
LA, Beirut and Paris, to convince us that the snake oil is good for
your arthritis. Diaspora rejected them and their ideas after verbal
and sometimes physical confrontations. In Paris, demonstrations
limited Sarkissian’s visit to Gomidas’s monument to a couple of
minutes, after which he left in disgrace; they called him, and
justifiably so, `Tavajahn’ (Traitor). The flame extended to LA and
other cities.
The president’s support in Diaspora came from his shananigans the
Armenian Assembly and AGBU; Turkophiles who continue to bow to the new
Sultans of Turkey. `Padishahim chock yasha’ (`Me lord live long’).
By their cockeyed reasoning, the Government of Armenia and the
Protocol supporters suffer from thought disorder, `Schizophrenia’.
Their irrational approach to Armeno-Turkish relations is a paramount
example of that. Their stance is not new. The disassembled Armenian
Assembly and the AGBU (Dubbed KGBU for their support of Soviet Armenia
in the Cold War) have a track record of mental serfdom; they were the
proponents of TARC (Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Committee) about
which I wrote extensively, condemning it. These two organizations have
become the tools of the reactionary minds, which control Turkey’s desk
in the State Department, implementing, directly or indirectly, their
dirty work. Their thinking is schizophrenic; they work for the
recognition of the Genocide, yet they support the Protocol which
denies the Genocide.
They indeed suffer from Thought Disorder.
The latest of their dirty work is their efforts to exclude a 100 year
old humanitarian organization like the ARS from participating in
official Washington meetings.
This kind of behavior is not new. Remember AGBU’s conduct in Paris in
1919 where Armenia’s fate was being discussed by the League of
Nations. There were two competing Armenian delegations, AGBU’s founder
Boghos Nubar Pasha, opposed Armenia’s representative, Aharonian’s
participation in the League’s proceedings. The League denied
participation to both parties.
So here we are! Ethnically one, yet physically and mentally shattered
like broken crystal, suffering from Social Schizophrenia, and medical
Schizophrenia. It is the Grey Genocide!