soulsongera

I grew up near Saroyan’s old neighborhood. Many of my childhood friends were Armenian. But I never had a clue what the issue was. One day I was standing in my mother’s door watching the neighbors argue regarding whose leaves were blowing into the yard. My Mom’s neighbor is fastidious about his yard. I heard him mutter “Turk” as he got into his long, white Cadillac and drove away. (both are Armenian). And I remarked,”What is the big deal with the Armenians and the Turks? Why don’t they just get over it and move on?” No one answered. It was rhetorical. My mother never has opinions about such subjects. She assumes I’m probably right. The next time I was at Borders I bought the first Armenian Genocide book I found. Written by a local author (they have their own section near the front), it was “The Cross and the Crescent” by Lindy Avakian. It started me on a journey that has transfixed me. I am obsessed with fighting for acknowledgement of the Genocide, etc. Why didn’t I know? I grew up in Fresno. I have a reasonably good liberal arts education. Yet I knew zero. Our selfish natures that gravitate to oppress others isn’t limited to Armenians. Your observation about Armenians changing under normal circumstances made me think that perhaps this is why the Armenians were so lovely and lovable to the missionary community in the late 1800’s and up until the genocide.(based on their writings) They were surviving in abnormal conditions, persecution, so their best sides came shining through. Nearly all the Jews in the holocaust movies seem fairly lovable too. This brings me to my point. When I was a little girl my father would read Bible stories. Reading Exodus I asked why the Hebrews were so dumb, because in the last chapter they just walked across on dry land and now they are complaining and doubting God again. My father paused, “Don’t you see? The is the story of all of us…” I will probably be the first and last person to quote from a muppets movie to you. In “The Muppets Take Manhatten” one of the great truths of the universe is put forth, “Peoples is peoples.” Perhaps I risk your despising me by revealing I am a Christian, but my pastor pointed out Sunday how Christ looks at the aggravating masses of humanity. He looked at them as harrassed and helpless, and lost, without a shepherd, and with great compassion. WE are all screw-ups.

To Ara Baliozian: Thank you very much. I feel that I must challenge this teacher on the use of this text. I want to do my homework first. If I do not find a receptiveness to the possibility of bias in her chosen text I plan to write each member of the board of regents of the university and make my plea. Thank you; I now have a place to start. To Ali Suat: I get the impression from your post that you have an argument that the Jews are responsible for their own deaths in the Jewish Holocaust during WWII. Explain, please.

A question for A. Baliozian... I recall reading an essay you had written in which you criticize A. Toynbee's version of history. Winners write the history, and Toynbee's approach was to focus on large power struggles rather than on human rights, and never holding govts morally responsible...that's what I remember. I didn't know then how much I would need that essay now. I just started a class, "History of the Middle East" through Fresno Pacific University. I am 80 pages into the text, and it seems to be written by a Turcophile. Bernard Lewis is listed in the References. And how is the Armenian Genocide addressed? It is given all of three sentences! "...throughout eastern Anatolia the Turks were threatened by the insurrection of their embittered Armenian subjects, who disrupted communications and formed volunteer groups to help the Russians. Others joined the Russian Armenian forces. The Turks took a terrible revenge by ordering the deportation of the entire Armenian population from eastern Anatolia to northern Syria. Hundreds of thousands were killed, and many more died of hunger, exposure and disease. Between one and a quarter and one and a half million perished. Armenian nationalists still seek revenge against representatives of the Turkish state." That is it. No holding them morally responsible. Imagine writing a book on European history and giving only 3 sentences of this nature, which blames the victims, regarding the Jewish genocide of WWII! I plan to write a reasoned and yet impassioned letter to the entire Board of Regents of the University and request a better history text. But I need your help. What was the name of the article you wrote re Toynbee? And do you have any history texts to recommend for a class of this nature?

Humankind gravitates toward domination because of our focus on "What's best for me?" This SELF focus causes competition, jealousy, suspicion, and hatred toward others. To "protect" ourselves, individually, and collectively, we gravitate (as in irresistible pull) toward a power that injures and destroys others. When this power reaches the ability to use the option of making others comply with selfish desires, then it is used. The Turkish go'vt has been based on this domination model. It filters from the top down, to the police, village chief, to the father in the home. But human nature compels us to think for ourselves, to follow our own desires, to pursue our lives as we see best. So domination always produces resistence. To keep their people's natural desire for more self-determination in check the Turkish go'vt manipulates public opinion through the press they control, and re-directs their peoples discontent to other ethnic groups and blame, scapegoats for their problems. One example is blaming the Armenians, at least in part, because they have not been allowed in the EC. They have also bought the silence of some Turks by making them crime partners in their own violence and cruelties. Moral guilt arises from within when they have engaged in state sanctioned and encouraged acts of petty bullying, harrassment, and vicious attacks on smaller ethnic groups. One example is the threatening grafitti around the Armenian and Greek churches in Istanbul, or the human urine thrown into the church services of the few remaining Christian churches. For this moral guilt the Turks see the Government as their shield and protector as they sing in unison, "I'm not guilty, the victims are to blame," etc. The Armenian people have been historically, a Christian people. In a world where push always comes to shove, how are we different? Remember Christ standing before the court of Pilate. He described His kingdom as one in which His followers refused to use physical force to prevent his arrest or advance His cause. The Kingdom of God advances with a power that heals and restores as it brings an invitation to join. This power changed the world. The example I would ask Armenians to research is the fall of the communist governments of Eastern Europe. In Poland the Catholics marched around the government buildings every week, shouting, "We forgive you." They continued even after their priest was found floating in the river with his eyes gouged out and his fingernails pulled off. In East Germany Christians lit candles and prayed, and marched in the streets praying, until one day the Berlin Wall collapsed like a rotten dam. What if Christians used that approach? What if we really loved our enemies? If the world despises in it's never ending struggle for power, we love. If the world uses shame, criticism, and personal attacks, we offer reconciliation. If the world seeks profit and self-fulfillment, we seek sacrifice and service. Forgiveness is not "forgive and forget." It speaks the truth. It continues to call the other side to repentance. It is not saying it is okay, or even forgiveable. But we forgive, because, if we are Christ's followers, we know what it is to be forgiven. What if each time we talked to a Turk we dispensed God's love? What if we marched in front of the Turkish Embassy this April 24 with placards that read, "We forgive you"?Would this reverberate in their soul more than our other approaches? How long can hatred stand in the face of an assault of grace?