ara baliozian

> Dear Ara Baliozian, > You say:"I am all for peace,coexistence, and cooperation with our > enemies.I > don't see blockade and the occasional massacre (whether we are the > victims > or vicrimizers makes no difference)as a desirable,or even > viable,option" > Why then you call them "enemies" if you want to live in peace with > them? Okay, henceforth i promise to call them friends...but i am afraid that may confuse the reader.... > I also think that "some day,if Armenians,Turks,and Azeris step > forward and > identify themselves as supporters of peace...we may be surprised to > discover > that they are - and they have always been - in the majority". But if > a > serious problem arise between these peace supporters (for example, > territories) it will again turn out that all of them are old > enemies. those who are seriously committed to peace will attempt to negotiate and settle their differences peacefully. but those eager to hit the warpath will react differently.... > Doesn't the history show that? Maybe the problem is that "war is the > alfa > and omega of life"? > Vahan But one can always dream for better days! / ara

LIFE IN THE GULAG ******************************** 1. In his ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH, Alexander Solzhenitsyn writes: "Who is a Zek’s worst enemy? Another Zek." Zeks too, I thought. 2. Hatred imprisons the mind as effectively as barbed wire in a Siberian labor camp. And who does an Armenian hate most? The Turk. But in the absence of a Turk, an Armenian will do just as well. 3. It is important for an Armenian to learn to speak about Turks without turning into one. Also to learn to speak about fellow Armenians…. 4. The world is as ready to view us through our own eyes as we are ready to view others (be they Turks or fellow Armenians) through their eyes. 5. Because I write against Armenianism alla Turca, I am labeled anti-Armenian by Armenians who can't tell the difference…. 6. Instead of speaking about Greeks, Kurds, Arabs, Turks, Patagonians, Hottentots, and Armenians, we should teach ourselves to speak of human beings. That way we may learn to emphasize that which we share.

LATER [18 February, 2002] ***************************************** 1. Good detectives know that to solve a crime it is sometimes necessary to enter into the mind of the criminal and to think like him. One reason Turks and Armenians disagree is that they have no interest in identifying themselves with those they view as criminals. Result: a hung jury and a killer (or a perjurer) that walks. 2. There is no such thing as perfect justice in this world, and sometimes a little justice is better than no justice √ as when you sue a big company for a hundred million dollars and you are awarded a penny. 3. When Raffi Hovannisian visited Turkey in his capacity as Armenian▓s foreign minister and stated: "You must accept full responsibility for the Genocide," or words to that effect, the Turks turned their backs on him and said: "We can't deal with someone who hates us!" And sure enough, the Yerevan regime thought so too and forced Raffi to resign. What went wrong? 4. The Turks explain their crimes against humanity or "deportations" by accusing Armenians of acts of treason, terrorism, and insurrection in time of war when their own existence as a nation was in peril. They refuse to consider the reasons that drove Armenian freedom fights or terrorists (depending on who is in charge of the semantics) to do what they did to the same degree that we refuse to consider their own reasons. We prefer our version of the story that says, the Turks massacred us because they are born killers and bloodthirsty Asiatic barbarians. But if they are what we say they are, why did they allow us to live and prosper for six centuries? 5. So far our Genocide has become an international political football. What are the chances that it will be resolved in our favor in the near or distant future? If we say it▓s murder one and they say justifiable homicide or even self defense, I am afraid we may have to compromise by accepting a plea of manslaughter, an apology, and a penny.

Sunday, February 17, 2002 ********************************* 1. Some readers agree with me. Other disagree. Still others ignore me. And then there are those who for reasons of their own have programmed themselves to disagree with everything I say. So that if I were to say, "You are right," they would react by saying, "No, I am wrong!" And if I were to say, "You are a man of honor," they would say "No, I am a scumbag!" and for once they would be right, except that being right for this type of Armenian is such an alien concept that it verges on the absurd, the unheard of, and the fantastic. 2. Turkish patriotism is bad. Armenian patriotism is good. Turks are brainwashed. Armenians are educated. Turks are dumb. Armenians are smart. No, not all of them, of course. Armenians who speak in such terms also make a sharp distinction between their kind of Armenian (patriotic, educated, smart) and the other kind (unpatriotic, brainwashed, dumb). The question that we should ask at this point is: What if in our efforts to dehumanize the Turks we have succeeded only in dehumanizing ourselves? Likewise: what if in our efforts to dehumanize a fraction of our fellow Armenians (and specifically those who disagree with us). we succeed only in dehumanizing ourselves?

ARMENIANISM ALLA TURCA *********************************** In his FROM DAWN TO DECADENCE (New York, 2000), Jacques Barzun writes: "It might be said that such conduct has always been the way of states, classes, and individuals. But the atmosphere one breathes is different when the vulgar way becomes the ideal. It turns the thoughtful into cynics or pessimists." And I add: it also blurs the line between Armenianism alla Turca and the real thing. Elsewhere he quotes Sydney Smith: "The only way to make the mass of mankind see the beauty of justice is by showing them in pretty plain terms the consequences of injustice." And further down: "Men are much like the children they beget – they always make faces at what is to do them good, and it is necessary sometimes to hold the nose and force the medicine down the throat."

quote:Originally posted by highflyer: To Ara When I read your posts I do not feel alone.In a private post to you I had said we are just Armenians.We are no better or worse than any others. We tend to view ourselves better than others humans.We have not been put through any trials or tribulations that anyone else has not also shared.We are just Armenians no better no worse.Thank you for being brave enough to say this publicly. and thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. i may have my share of critics and enemies, but i also have my share of friendly readers who agree with me.../ara

quote:Originally posted by sen_vahan: Dear Ara Baliozian, My first question is: Why I have NEVER heard about Ara Baliozian? I grew up in Armenia. Vahan Dear Vahan: may i confess that i myself don't know about a great many Armenian writers. neither have i read a great many Canadian writers though i have been living in Canada for over 40 years. nothing to feel bad about. we have more important things to worry about.../ara

Friday, February 15, 2002 *********************************** 1. I am grateful to all charlatans who, with their example, taught me the value of honesty. 2. To those who accuse me of misleading the naОve and the uninformed, I say: Armenians are smarter than that. They can spot a phony when they see one. Don't worry about them. Worry instead about yourself and your false sense of superiority in thinking you are invulnerable to the lies of propaganda. 3. People profess to love the truth but live as though they were afraid of it -- hence the old Armenian saying: "If you speak the truth, you will be chased out of seven villages." 4. The very same people who pour venom on every line I write and sling mud at me (hoping some of it will stick), accuse me of being negative. 5. Everything I write I owe to Armenian intolerance and charlatanism. 6. We are so spoiled by pseudo-chauvinist mumbo jumbo that anything remotely objective we label as anti-Armenian, which may suggest that there are a great many anti-Armenian writers in Armenian literature.

BADIV ************************* About our high rate of assimilation (85% if I am not mistaken), we are told again and again that it must be ascribed to social, historical, and cultural conditions and pressures beyond our control. But I think that’s only half of the story. The other half being our treatment of one another. I have yet to meet an Armenian who was not at one time or another stabbed in the back by a fellow Armenian; and I am not talking here about poets, writers, academics and intellectuals in general who have been merciless towards one another, but of Armenians in all walks of life, including schoolteachers, clergymen, partisans, merchant – yes, including Oriental carpet dealers. I have been told so many horror stories that there are times when I think an Armenian who gives up his identity as an Armenian may be justified indeed to consider himself an emancipated human being and to look down on us who continue to blabber endlessly about Armenianism as if it were a noble cause. I myself grew up among survivors who had a sense of honor -- some kind of weight, moral compass, self-esteem and dignity. The worst thing they could say about another was that "badvavor mart che" (he is not a man of honor). Who speaks in those terms today? I try very hard to remember when was the last time that I heard the word badiv (honor), and I can't help wondering: What the hell is going here?

quote:Originally posted by sen_vahan: Ara, You are asking personally or that is a question to all armenians? I mean your question about how good Christian are we. If it is for all of us then I will answer that this way:'Show me any real Christian nation and I will proove that armenians are "good" christians.' If it is a personal question then my answer is that there is NO real christian (except maybe those living in monasteries), but there are probably some GOOD ones. What it means to be GOOD? I am not a good christian and you? Vahan dear Vahan: we emphasize the first nation to be Christian bit too much, i think. also the first nation to suffer a genocide in the 20th century. i don't think that's something we should brag about. as for monks: i was educated by them; most of them were not good Christians either..../ara

LATER [14 February, 2002] ********************************* 1. Why does anyone assert his fictitious moral or intellectual superiority? -- unless it is to covered up his real inferiority. 2. About ten years ago I met an Armenian writer who thought by publishing a single article he was going to change everything. When I informed him that I had published hundreds of article without changing anything, he replied: "You have been going about it the wrong way." I have no idea what he thinks today because we are no longer on speaking terms. 3. In a dictionary of philosophy: "Generally speaking megalomania is a reaction to failure. The megalomaniac represents himself as he would like to be but as he is not. Megalomania may also be a symptom of the decline of one’s critical faculties." 4. On dogmatism: "It stands in direct contradiction to criticism, skepticism, empiricism, and realism. It fosters intolerance and fanaticism." 5. I have readers who hate me but love reading me, but only in the sense that Jack the Ripper loved the company of women.

Thursday, February 14, 2002 ******************************* 1. On several occasions I have been accused of corrupting the young. What nonsense! The young are ahead of us today. It was different with my generation. I remember, a Catholic priest once told me: "The only reason Martin Luther broke away from Rome is that he wanted to marry a slut." And I believed him. I should like to see the young who could be taken in by such a line today. As a child I was also brainwashed to believe Armenians were special and it was a privilege being one. I swallowed that one too. I was told many other lies but after that one the others are bound to be an anti-climax. 2. To be read by friendly readers: nothing unusual in that. To be read by hostiles: That’s where the money is, because it means being allowed the opportunity to introduce thoughts where none exist. 3. We have enough gold in our communities (think of Gulbenkian, Krikorian, Manoogian, & Co.) for two Golden Ages. Instead, we wallow in the recycled crap of Jack S. Avanakians. 4. Even after you prove to him that his position is untenable, an Armenian will go on defending it to the bitter end, like a captain going down with the ship. That’s his way of asserting his manhood. I don't write for readers whose central concern is their own manhood. That would be like writing about hallucinations.

LATER [13 February, 2002] ********************************** 1. I learned two new words today: shopocracy: rule by shopkeepers; and ignoranus: an ignoramus who is also "where the sun don't shine." 2. Chinese saying: "When in a hurry, slow down." 3. Nothing can be as impenetrable as the self-assessed intelligence of a dimwit. 4. In a French dictionary I read a definition of tolerance which says, among other things: "Tolerance is a proof of intelligence because it allows us to enrich ourselves by contact with beliefs and practices that are not our own. Its aim is to replace brute force with reason." 5. In the eyes of ancient Greeks, all foreigners were barbarians. To a Protestant, a Catholic is a "biscuit eater." To an American bigot, Paris is a city famous for its pissoirs and England a land of fags. Gamal Abdel Nasser once described America as a country populated by "cowboys who engage in gangsterism." In the eyes of the average Armenian from the Middle East, Armenian-Americans are fools ("aboush amerigahayer"). To those who brag about Armenians being the first nation to accept Christianity, I ask: "And how good a Christian are you?"

Wednesday, February 13, 2002 ************************************ 1. All suicides blame their misfortunes on others. It is the same with nations. 2. To hate the Turks or what they have to us without Ottomanizing ourselves: that’s the challenge that so far we have failed to confront with any degree of success. 3. For an Armenian, there are always two sides to every question: his and the Turkish (even when it happens to be Armenian). 4. "We have forty million reasons for failure but not a single excuse," writes Kipling. It should be obvious by now that we cannot teach morality to Turks, but we may have a better chance to learn something from our tragedy, provided we view it as a blunder on our part. And speaking of blunders, I am reminded of the old dictum (by Talleyrand, I think): "It’s worse than a crime. It’s a blunder!" 5. Like all men, Armenians too have their good and bad sides, but they reserve the worst when dealing with their own kind. 6. Do not grasp a knife by the blade. Do not call an Armenian a friend. 7. No need to insult an arrogant fool: he is already a prisoner of his own limitations. 8. When a fool says "I believe," a lie is sure to follow. 9. A partisan definition of patriotism: "To recycle the boss’s crap." 10. MEMO TO A YOUNG ARMENIAN WRITER: "Remember, being a writer is a noble profession with many fringe benefits, one of them being: to be called an idiot by idiots. Another is looking forward to lectures on etiquette by hooligans. Still another is being the recipient of the generosity of benefactors (or what Plato once called "the charity of swine"). There are many other benefits that come with the territory which happens to be a no man’s land.

Tuesday, February 12, 2002 ********************************* 1. Whenever someone says anything remotely favorable about himself, my first instinct is to doubt his honesty. 2. In the Bible we read: "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (ROMANS, 8:31) A Jew would reply: "The whole world"; and an Armenian: "Turks and Armenians." 3. If it’s not corrupt, incompetent, and wasteful civil servants, it’s cut-throat capitalists or killer commissars and the imbeciles who support them in the name of God or Country: the options of an underdog are limited. 4. To my critics and fellow underdogs I say: I have no interest in proving you wrong and myself right. All I want to do is allow you to observe our reality from a different perspective or add my perspective to yours and in doing so to make you less vulnerable to manipulation by impostors. If you say, "I can take care of myself; I don't need your two cents’ worth," may I remind you that some of our ablest men were taken in by enemy propaganda: Zohrab by Turkish, Zarian (and many others) by Soviet – and they paid a very high price for their gullibility: the first was murdered in cold blood by Turks and the second was buried alive by fellow Armenians. Moral I: None of us can claim to be immune to deception and manipulation. Moral II: To say or think that one is immune is an unmistakable symptom of self-deception.

CARCINOGENIC AGENTS ******************************** It takes all kinds and my readers are no exception: they come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. Some are friendly, others less so, still others indifferent, semi-hostile, downright hostile, viciously hostile, and cut-throat hostile. And then there is the carcinogenic agent. The carcinogenic agent reads and comments on everything I write – including the commas and blank spaces between the lines – with the single-minded dedication of a John Ford Indian, a turn-of-the-century Turk, and a mafia hitman. He thinks it is his patriotic duty not only to contradict everything I say but also to silence, slay, and bury me. Nothing unusual in that because he shares these sentiments with our bosses, bishops, benefactors, and their flunkies. But he goes further. He is convinced that I am, or rather my kind of ideas are, the source of all evil in this world – past, present, future – from Cain’s murder of Abel to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So that if twenty or thirty years hence and long after I am gone he is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia or cancer, he will blame it on me. It goes without saying that I plead not guilty on all counts, beginning with Cain’s felony, on the grounds that (a) I never had the privilege of making this gentleman’s acquaintance, and ( I have an airtight alibi.

Monday, February 11, 2002 ********************************** 1. In a book published in 1836 and titled HINTS ON ETIQUETTE by that most prolific of all thinkers and sources of wisdom, Mr. Anon (short for Anonymous) we read the following: " "Shopkeepers and retailers of various goods will do well to remember that people are respectable in their own sphere only and that when they attempt to step out of it they cease to be so." 2. According to the rich, the poor are poor because they are lazy. According to the poor, the rich are rich because they are bloodsuckers. But according to another theory that I read today: the poor are poor because they refuse to accept the moral and intellectual guidance of the rich. Live and learn. 3. All tragedies begin with happy endings. 4. On several occasions I have been called by Armenian readers an idiot and a pro-Turkish denier of the Genocide. About being an idiot: I suppose every Armenian is an idiot in the eyes of another Armenian; it would therefore be a waste of time to refute the charge. As for being a pro-Turkish denier: I am told whenever a Turk wants to insult another, he calls him an "Ermeni pij" (Armenian bastard). If so far I have not yet been called a "Turkish bastard" it may be because the Turks are ahead of us. 5. The root of arrogance is ignorance. The root of ignorance is mental laziness. And the root of mental laziness is self-satisfaction, which might as well be another word for arrogance. Arrogance, ignorance, and laziness thus feed on each other and starve even as they grow fat.

THE ABC OF HISTORY ******************************* In our environment the lessons of history are like Mark Twain’s weather: everyone talks about it but no one does a damn thing. That’s because history for us has become a source of lamentation rather than understanding and instruction. To learn from history certain conditions must be present, among them the awareness that -we don't know everything we need to know; -we have committed many blunders in the past; we are committing many blunders today, and the chances are we will commit many more in the future; -there is more to history than massacres; -we are not the Chosen People and God is not on our side: which means we can rely on no one but ourselves; -to emphasize and analyze our blunders is infinitely more important than to catalogue and document the crimes of our enemies; -to introduce nationalist or partisan bias in the study of history is to pervert it; -in any collective enterprise, divisiveness is a sure recipe for failures; -the function of leadership is not to divide but to unite; -a leadership that divides will lead the people to slaughter. Unless these conditions exist, learning from history is destined to remain an unattainable goal for us.

PLEASE, DON'T CORRECT ME IF I AM RIGHT! ************************************************** 1. After reading one or two, or at most three books by Armenian historians subsidized by Armenian political parties or satellite cultural institutions, the average Armenian thinks he knows everything there is to know about Armenian history. It goes without saying that this misconception is shared is by people of all national groups, including Turks. 2. I have been silenced by partisan editors, corrected by uninformed ignoramuses, and insulted by chauvinists because I refuse to recycle chauvinist crap: I must be on the right path. 3. When two men of different principles meet, one of them is sure to kill the other even if neither principle justifies murder. 4. If my humility will only reinforce your intolerance, you will be better off if I were to kick your ass. 5. I only put into words that which is felt and thought by many. If you say, that’s a lie, I suggest a more receptive frame of mind. People hesitate to express their innermost thoughts and feelings to self-righteous imbeciles on the warpath.

RELIABLE SOURCES ************************** During the last 25 years I have reviewed several hundred books by odar historians, statesman, witnesses, missionaries and diplomats in which the Armenian Genocide is mentioned or discussed. Here is another: In the fifth and final volume of his memoirs, THE JOURNEY NOT THE ARRIVAL MATTERS: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE YEARS 1939 TO 1969, Leonard Woolf devotes several pages to the Armenian massacres. Among other things we read here: "In 1894 one of those savage and senseless internecine massacres, epidemic among human beings, broke out in the Ottoman Empire. Turks and Kurds, encouraged by the Ottoman Government, began a systematic looting and destruction of Armenian villages and the slaughter of the inhabitants. The motives were religious, racial, and economic – which means that they were senseless, uncivilized, and inhuman. To kill a man and his wife, to rape his daughter and then kill her, because they pray in a church instead of a mosque, talk Armenian instead of Turkish, and are slightly (or thought to be slightly) more prosperous than you are, is senseless and barbarous, and the motives given above are labels which conceal a deeper and darker part of the human mind. The man who massacres can only do this if he regards his victims not as individuals like himself but as non-human pawns or anonymous ciphers in the fantasy or nightmare world of friends and foes, good men and evil men, in which he thinks he lives and which he therefore creates – or, of course, if he is just a plain common or garden sadist." One could easily a 1000-page tome of similar quotations by reliable sources from England, America, France, Italy, Russia and many other countries. I wonder why so far our "massacrists" and "genocide mafia" have failed to do this.

Saturday, February 09, 2002 ********************************* In a French dictionary of philosophy I read the following definition: "absolute (from the Latin absolutum, separated): independent of all other things. The absolute, according to Hegel, drives all human thought and action. He writes: ‘Philosophical reflection leads us to the absolute, but it requires patience and hard work. Religious faith, romantic love, and suicide are but manifestations of impatience vis-а-vis the absolute’." It follows, haste rather than ignorance (according to Socrates and Plato) is the source of all evil. But perhaps in this context ignorance and haste might as well be synonymous. What is ignorance, or action based on ignorance, if not a result of haste – haste in confusing ignorance or partial knowledge with wisdom? We act to the best of our knowledge and in doing so we confuse fragmentary knowledge with the whole truth. We were massacred because we wanted independence ASAP and because we were too hasty in mistaking Europe’s verbal support of our aspirations for the real thing; and because we were too quick to assume the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire to be imminent as well as inevitable. We hastily embraced all those factors that were in our favor and blindly (also rashly) ignored the voices that advised caution. We are disappointed in (and hence critical of) our fellow Armenians because we have the mistaken notion they are not what they are but what they ought to be. And what are they if not products of centuries of brutal oppression, hence suspicious of their fellow men (including Armenians), cunning, ruthless and cruel when in a position of power.

LATER [8 February, 2002] ******************************** 1. When late in life Verdi made a recommendation to a conservatory and was ruled out, he wrote an angry letter whose first line reads: "If I had been born a TURK I might have got what I asked!" 2. Meeting an Armenian, nothing better. Dealing with him, nothing worse." 3. I have yet to meet a fool who did not assess himself as wise. 4. Some of my readers labor under the assumption that as a writer it is my duty to respond to personal attacks with patience, kindness, and understanding. It doesn't even occur to them to ask: "Who made this rule?" – assuming of course this to be a rule and not a figment of their self-serving imagination. Let me therefore assure one and all that there never was a rule that says arrogant stupidity or insolence should be rewarded with generosity of spirit. 5. When Henry Ford said "History is bunk!" he was echoing Napoleon’s words: "Circumstances – what circumstances? I make circumstances." 6. Among us, politics (the art of the possible) is confused with ideology (the art of the impossible), and inevitably, ideology is confused with theology (the art of the incomprehensible), and theology is confused with pathology. Some day, in a future progressive and enlightened Armenian democracy, if our partisans are arrested and put on trial, they will be absolutely right in pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.

Friday, February 08, 2002 ********************************* 1. Centuries of oppression and subservience have taught us to confuse power with authority. On the day we learn to separate the two, we shall have taken a step in the right direction. Until then we will never rise above the level of sheep who, even as they are led to the slaughterhouse, follow the shepherd. A bishop does not represent God on earth, neither does a boss represent the people; and the two combined have as much legitimacy as the French Monarchy on the eve of the Revolution. 2. It never pays to go down into the gutter to reinforce an argument. If you are right, let the evidence speak for itself; if you are wrong, why compound the felony? 3. When a fool convinces another fool, he assumes the majority is on his side. When an Armenian convinces himself, he thinks the world should be on his side. 4. Why is it that when we see a starving man I say "This man is starving," and you say "He is only hungry and we all get hungry every day." Why is it that when I look at our problems I say they are of genocidal dimensions and you say the whole world has problems?

LATER [7 February, 2002] ********************************* In his effort to justify the conduct of a typical Armenian bully whose favorite mode of communication is to insult and threaten, a friend explains: "His bark is worse than his bite. I met him recently. He is actually a very nice person. Very kind, smart, a dedicated patriot – the way only a young person can be…and he is young." And I am tempted to ask: How old do you think fascist killers were? They too were kind and considerate to their friends. Some of them even sang Schubert songs, played Beethoven sonatas on the piano, and enjoyed Bach’s B-minor Mass. Like a rose, a fascist, is a fascist, is a fascist. It makes no difference to me if he is a Turk or an Armenian. I'd rather deal with a tolerant Turk than an intolerant Armenian. As for patriotism: some of the most brilliant speeches on patriotism were delivered by Hitler and Mussolini.

Thursday, February 07, 2002 ********************************* 1. There is a story about Michael Arlen (Dikran Kouyoumjian) needling Churchill with pro-German and anti-British propaganda and Churchill giving him such a tongue-lashing that, my guess is, Arlen’s critical faculties were forever after permanently paralyzed. And how can I forget the most damning line in Churchill’s angry words to Arlen: "You are an Armenian!" – probably meaning: before you meddle into our own affairs, take care of your own mess. My suggestion to all Armenians who contemplate criticizing odars: Don't! But if you do, be prepared to be slaughtered. 2. There is a type of Armenian who knows more about Turks than the average Turk and the only thing he knows about Armenians is that they were slaughtered by the Turks. 3. Man: an evolutionary success story but a moral failure. 4. To how many of my critics I could say: "Thank you for being a living proof of everything I have been saying, and thank you also for being too stupid to see this." 5. If you think of history as a cemetery of false beliefs and ideologies, you can no longer say "I believe I am right!" especially if your adversary says so too.