as i see it - Pt. IV

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, March 27, 2005

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A SCI-FI SCENARIO

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Imagine the following scenario: the Ottoman Empire is an Armenian empire and the time is at the turn of the last century. The Empire is in deep trouble, surrounded as it is by powerful enemies from without, and from within, hostile tribes with territorial ambitions. The Empire has already been amputated and is about to lose its intestines to hyenas like Turks, Kurds, and Greeks.

*

Next, imagine you are the Minister of the Interior and Defense and you have two options: You either issue an order that says: “Exterminate anyone who threatens the territorial integrity of our beloved homeland,” or, “Treat everyone within our borders, including Turks, with the same consideration and compassion that you would treat members of your own family.”

*

Speaking for myself as an Ottomanized Armenian, I would not hesitate to issue an order of extermination, not because I hate Turks, but because I love my fellow Armenians too much and I have taken an oath to defend and protect the territorial integrity of the nation. On the other hand, I also have no trouble whatever imagining a nice, tenderhearted Armenian minister, like most of my critics, adopting a different, and a more civilized approach.

*

It takes all kinds and I am willing to concede that I am not, and I have never thought of myself as being, a role model and an authentic Christian who takes the central message of his religion, (which is love, including love of enemies) literally. It is not that I could never love Turks. The truth is, I can’t even stand fellow Armenians who disagree with me. And in this, I am different from my critics, all of them, needless to say, authentic Christians who love and forgive not only their enemies (including Turks) but also fellow Armenians who sometimes refuse to behave like parrots by echoing their sentiments and thoughts.

#

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

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We will enhance our credibility in the eyes of the world on the day we show a willingness to admit that the Turks are not as bad as we say they are, and we are not as good as we would like to appear.

*

When we say everything the Turks say is a lie, and everything we say is the truth, the only people we succeed in convincing are ourselves.

*

If I were to identify myself as a morally superior person to you, would you believe me? My educated guess is you would laugh at me. You would insult me. And you would be right. What makes anyone think that if we identify ourselves as morally superior to any other nation, including Turks, odars will be favorably disposed to accept our own assessment of ourselves as true?

*

And if you were to say, we are morally superior if only because we are not guilty of genocide, I will say, neither are Gypsies, Estonians, Latvians, Patagonians, and many other nations and tribes. That’s because, as a rule, genocides are committed by nations that have the military might to do so.

*

By the way, and in passing, if you ask Azeris, you will be told in no uncertain terms that Armenians too have been guilty of ethnic cleansing (which happens to be a more recent synonym of genocide).

*

The truth is no one likes to be told he is morally inferior to anyone; and to brag about moral superiority is the surest way of provoking universal contempt, and what’s even worse, of forfeiting all credibility.

*

I trust my judgment. But I trust the judgment of better men than myself even more. When someone like Toynbee, Zarian, General Antranik, and Saroyan express an opinion that contradicts mine, my first reaction is not to say they are wrong but to question my own dogmatism, and dogmatism is something that should always be questioned.

*

No one disputes the facts that (one) 9/11 happened, and (two) Muslim fanatics from the Middle East were responsible. Even so, the U.S. Government held exhaustive hearings to determine the failures on the part of its own agencies.

*

We all agree that (a) the Genocide happened and ( the Turks were responsible. What we don’t know is where we went wrong. Why did General Antranik say ARF leaders should be crucified? What did Zarian mean when he said our political parties had been of no political use to us? Why did Toynbee say our territorial demands had been unjustified? After visiting Turkey, why did Saroyan say Turks are people like any other people?

*

As long as these questions remain unanswered, we will know only a fraction of the truth -- and “a fraction of the truth” happens to be one definition of propaganda.

#

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

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To hate Turks is wrong because it means hating the guilty as well as the innocent, Turks as well as half-Armenians.

*

After reading my first book, half of which was about the Genocide, a Canadian friend said: “I have a Bulgarian friend, who hates Turks too,” thus implying no one else does. That came as a complete surprise to me. Born and raised among Greeks (who also hate Turks) I was under the impression the world was unanimous in sharing our hatred.

*

What does the average Canadian know about Turks? Next to nothing. What does he know about Armenians? Even less. But a Canadian knows something we don’t know. Hating is wrong, and hating a nation is racist. A Canadian has also inherited the Anglo-Saxon mindset that says, “We don’t have enemies, only interests.”

*

Opinions are only opinions. They are not articles of faith. Opinions may change, but articles of faith, like diamonds, are forever.

*

I know how to argue against opinions, but not against articles of faith, or against mullahs and bishops.

*

Faith I respect even when I don’t share it. But faith in slogans and clichés I consider being symptoms of primitive thinking worthy of jungle dwellers.

*

For 600 years we were colonized, ruled, and oppressed by “bloodthirsty barbarians.” What does that make us?

What if the Turks colonized our subconscious too?

What if we feel and think like Turks and we don’t even know it?

What if to justify our hatred of Turks we turn into Turks?

What if Turks are ahead of us because they no longer feel and think like Turks?

What if hatred is to the soul what cancer is to the body?

What if to hate Turks means allowing them a permanent place in our psyche?

Please note that I am not asserting articles of faith, only asking questions.

#

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

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ON WAR

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May I remind our promoters of hate and war that we live in the kind of world where big fish eats little fish, which means that a sardine cannot eat a shark.

*

I don't trust politicians in general. I trust Armenian politicians even less. I happen to be of the opinion that if Swiss hotel managers ran our country and our political parties in the diaspora, we would be better off.

*

Our history is one long episode of defeat and degradation because our political leadership has shown itself to be incapable of learning from its blunders. Some of them even think the best way to deal with blunders is by not admitting them.

*

Ideologies of hate and violence end up doing more harm than good: think of Sultan Abdulhamid II and the Ottoman Empire, Mussolini and Italy, Hitler and Germany, Stalin and the USSR, Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

*

Luckily mankind has also produced partisans of non-violence - the Buddha, Socrates, Christ, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, who were not idealistic daydreamers living in the clouds, but infinitely more pragmatic than their counterparts who relied on violence to realize their grandiose fantasies.

*

When we promote hatred we operate on the false assumption that if we treat our enemies the way they treated us, we will acquire the keys of the kingdom.

*

He who hates must be constantly on guard not to allow himself to feel, think, and behave like his enemy.

*

If some day an Armenian Talaat were to succeed in defeating and exterminating the Turkish nation, I for one would be ashamed to identify myself as an Armenian.

#

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, March 31, 2005

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BOOK REVIEW

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CORRESPONDENCE. Volume 2. LETTERS TO GOURGEN MAHARI AND ANTRANIK ANTREASSIAN. By Shahan Shahnour. Collected, edited, and annotated by Krikor Keusseyan. 227 pages. Boston: Mayreni Publishing (50 Watertown St., Watertown, MA 01472). 2005.

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In his preface, Krikor Keusseyan writes: “The CORRESPONDENCE is a mosaic of opinions and judgments on art, literature and politics.” What makes these opinions eminently readable is their objectivity. Obviously, they were not meant for publication. If they have been published it’s because of Krikor Keusseyan’s steadfast admiration of Shahan Shahnour. But let the author speak for himself.

*

On Siamanto: “A plagiarist who translated Maeterlinck’s verse word by word and passed it on the unsuspecting reader as his own. No one is aware of this, and it was by pure chance that I stumbled on it.”

*

On Simon Simonian: “There is about him the odor of the shopkeeper.”

*

On Arshak Chobanian: “He is an untrustworthy, self-centered careerist.”

*

On Hagop Oshagan: “He is incapable of writing an accessible, clear sentence.”

*

On his fellow Armenians: “I will not comment on my adversaries. As for my so-called friends: if you only knew the acts of stupidity, cowardice, and duplicity that I have witnessed.”

*

On Gostan Zarian: “He describes nature well. The problem is, the principal subject of literature is not nature but man.”

I disagree with Shahnour here. Zarian’s portrait of Charents in his BANCOOP AND THE BONES OF THE MAMMOTH has Dostoevskian penetration. There are, moreover, unforgettable portraits and sketches in all his works – Martiros Saryan in THE TRAVELLER AND HIS ROAD, Zabel Yessayan in the WEST, Lawrence Durrell in THE ISLAND AND A MAN are three that come readily to mind.

*

Shahnour was born in Istanbul but spent most of his life in French hospitals, sanatoria, and retirement homes. In a letter to Mahari he has this to say about his fellow French-Armenians: “They are all well off now, but they can no longer be said to be Armenians. Which is why all that talk of repatriation in the Yerevan press strikes me as so much empty verbiage.”

*

At one point in his career, Shahnour adopted the pseudonym Armen Lubin and published several critically acclaimed volumes of prose and verse in French. In another letter to Mahari he writes: “I have heard it said that I write in French to make a little money. What nonsense! Writing poetry has at no time been a source of income to anyone, be it in France or anywhere else for that matter.”

*

About himself: “I have committed many thoughtless acts in my life, or so they tell me, but no one can testify that these acts have been to the detriment of the nation, only to myself and my reputation, both of which are of no consequence to anyone else but me.”

*

On our dime-a-dozen pundits: “Shopkeepers drop in on me out of nowhere and take it upon themselves to deliver lectures. What do they know about conditions of life in France? What do they know about literature? To learn and to know are two different things. They have learned some things but they lack intuitive knowledge. What am I supposed to do with them? Tell them to shut up? But that’s against my temperament.”

#

[ara baliozian]

Friday, April 01, 2005

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BOOK REVIEW

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LA VIE COMME ELLE EST (Life as it is): Short stories. By Krikor Zohrab. Translated into French by Mireille Besnilian. 110 pages. Marseilles. Editions Parentheses. 2005.

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A highly respected lawyer, politician, editor, and author, Krikor Zohrab (1861-1915) is remembered today as one of our ablest short story writers. Writes Hagop Oshagan: “Zohrab is one of those rare individuals who do the work and live the lives of eight or ten men and excel in each. He is the most brilliant, accomplished and enduring figure in the Realistic movement of our literature.”

According to Mesrob Janashian: “Zohrab viewed conservatives as hidebound obscurantists. He attacked the Armenian establishment of Constantinople – the Church as well as the bosses. He constantly urged the youth to adopt progressive Western ideas. Even when he went to extremes, he at no time passed the bounds of reason and common sense.”

In American terms he might best be imagined as a hybrid of President Kennedy (Zohrab was likewise assassinated at the height of his powers), and Hemingway – though as a short story writer he is more like Guy de Maupassan in his subtle depiction of feminine psychology, and Anton Chekhov in his sympathetic treatment of the lower classes.

The collection under review contains some of his most widely admired stories. Their translation is so elegantly executed that they read as though they were originally conceived and written in French.

*

The recent study of Armenian women writers by the Canadian academic Victoria Rowe, and now this translation by Mireille (not an Armenian) Besnilian, may suggest that odars are more interested in our literature than our academics and pundits from the Middle East, most of whom happen to be fluent in half-a-dozen languages (or so they tell us), who are, it seems, too busy with far more important projects to have any time left for translating our writers, a great deal of whose works remain terra incognita not only to odars but also to the overwhelming majority of Armenians in the Diaspora who cannot read Armenian.

#

[ara baliozian]

#

Saturday, April 02, 2005

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QUOTATIONS FROM

SHAHAN SHAHNOUR'S

CORRESPONDENCE, VOLUME II.

Collected, edited, and annotated by Krikor Keusseyan.

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On Vazken Shoushanian:

"I have read only one book by him, an epistolary novel, which is a definite failure because it happens to be a youthful work. Has he written anything better? I asked this question to an associate of his, Nartuni, who answered: "He is a worthless man. He will write nothing of any value."

I don't accept this verdict at face value because these two Tashnaks can't stand each other."

*

On Antranik Zaroukian:

"When he was young, he was a fanatic Tashnak. And more. He confused swearing with reasoning. He is wrong if he thinks I hold a grudge against him. No, never! Even if he had remained an obstinate partisan I could not have harbored vengeful thoughts in his direction, only pity and scorn."

*

About the shenanigans of the Jerusalem Monastery:

"Among other thing, Nartuni told me all about the wheeling-and-dealing in Jerusalem and the scandalous conduct of our Holy Fathers there - their alcoholism, contrabandism, womanizing, gambling, thievery…He knows them well having spent some time in their company. He tells me these high-ranking ecclesiastics are themselves former orphans [survivors of the massacres] gathered from the desert. Alas!"

*

On our press:

"In order for our press to play a useful role in our social and political life, there must be such things as public opinion and collective memory, in whose absence blunders will be forgotten and incompetent leaders glorified."

*

On the literary scene in the Diaspora:

"Our literary market place is now in the hands of senior citizens - Vratsian, Chobanian, Oshagan - individuals who don't have to work for a living and they have all the time in the world to write and write…Let them write so long as they don't give us a headache with their endless arguments and senile problems."

*

In my recent review of this book I neglected to mention that half of it consists of endnotes, that can be read as a brief introduction to 20th-century Armenian history and culture. In addition to being a dedicated fan of Shahnour, Krikor Keusseyan is a meticulous scholar whose comments are as informative as Shahnour's observations and insights.

#

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, April 03, 2005

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It happened twice last week. To settle an argument in their favor, two readers (both parading as authentic and patriotic Armenians) quoted Ottoman sayings, in Turkish too! Figure that one out, if you can.

*

Armenianism as it is understood and practiced today is simply Ottomanism by other means – the same unquestioning reverence to mini-sultans (instead of a single Sultan), and the same contempt for the fundamental human right of free speech.

*

You either live the way you think or the way someone else thinks. If you choose the second option, make sure that someone else is not your enemy.

*

Some readers approach my writings as lovingly as a starving cannibal spicing a fat missionary.

*

Commissars and mullahs are philistines, that is to say, killers who adopt an ideology or religion to legitimize their killer instincts.

*

In his travel impressions of the Caucasus, Alexandre Dumas pere (of THE THREE MUSKETEERS fame) says something to the effect that, Armenians have a reputation of being untrustworthy. When I first read this a few years ago, I thought, “What an anti-Armenian bastard!” But after being hoodwinked, flimflammed, and bamboozled by a number of Armenian wheeler-dealers, including an archbishop, I have been reconsidering my position.

*

Who cares what a minor Armenian scribbler thinks? My tentative answer: Only readers who cling to major lies.

*

If I have achieved immortality in the minds of some readers, it’s because I have insulted them. An injured Armenian has the memory of an elephant and the venom of a Turkish viper.

[phantom22]

You initially trust your fellow Armenian. After they hood-wink you, they expect your appreciation towards them for hood-winking you. If you fight for your rights, they become your enemy. This is especially true of members of the clergy.

[ara baliozian]

Monday, April 04, 2005

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Our knowledge is limited and our ignorance infinite. Only fools and fanatics forget this.

*

Writing for Armenians sometimes feels like swimming across a Brazilian river teeming with piranhas.

*

I am beginning to think of death as liberation. Writing for Armenians may have something to do with this.

*

If an Armenian has a choice between reading the lines and reading between the lines, he will invariably choose the latter even if what he reads there has nothing to do with what is written.

*

Armenians who say Armenians are smart get on my nerves. I can imagine what they do to odars. Because to say we are smart is to imply the rest of the world is less smart.

*

As for being smart in the marketplace, frankly, like most people around the world, I prefer to deal with honest men. I have dealt enough with smart ones to know the world would be a better place without them. And I look forward to the day when Armenians will be known not as smart in the marketplace but as honest everywhere. Call me an incurable optimist. Call me a fool.

*

There is a big difference between being the right man at the right time and the wrong man at the wrong time. Being an Armenian writer means being the wrong man at the wrong time everywhere and all the times.

#

[ara baliozian]

i couldn't have said it better! / ara

 

 

 

You initially trust your fellow Armenian. After they hood-wink you, they expect your appreciation towards them for hood-winking you. If you fight for your rights, they become your enemy. This is especially true of members of the clergy.

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[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

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The first time I met an honest Armenian who made sense, I thought he was crazy. That’s how thoroughly brainwashed I was. It took me a number of years to realize this.

*

An assertion and its contradiction are only two steps on a road that stretches to infinity. But in an Armenian context, they might as well be dead ends leading to a cul de sac.

*

Armenians may be divided into two camps: the alienated and those who alienated them (fools and fanatics, charlatans, chauvinists, and panchoonies). It is my ambition to alienate the alienators. But after twenty years of trying, I find this uneven battle to be similar to that of a sardine against a school of sharks.

*

Intolerance is quintessentially Ottoman. We should teach our children to be intolerant only of Ottomanism.

*

Happiness consists in choosing your brand of misery, accepting it as an inevitable fact, and getting used to it.

*

Against a dismembered and disintegrating Ottoman Empire, we had Russia, the Great Powers, and God on our side. We thought we were invulnerable. And we were dead wrong! What have we learned from this blunder? After thinking, ‘Who could be more harmless than a minor Armenian scribbler?’ some readers go out of their way to verbally abuse me on the assumption that I am in no position to retaliate.

*

We can truly say of the brainwashed: “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they say because they understand nothing and they know even less.”

*

Writes Shahan Shahnour in a letter to a friend (I am now translating and paraphrasing from memory): “Blind faith has been the source of our downfall. What we need most today is the kind of common sense that can discriminate right from wrong, and good from evil. What we don’t need is the empty verbiage of partisan rhetoric. In the words of Arpiar Arpiarian, ‘if we can’t be useful to this nation, let us at least refrain from doing it any harm’.”

*

The headline of a recent article in LE POINT (Paris, March 10, 2005) reads: “Is Prime Minister Erdogan a successor of Ataturk who wants to make of Turkey the first secular Muslim state, or is he a Muslim head of state who wants to introduce Islam into Europe?” Further down we read: “Of the 2 million Armenians in Turkey, 1,5 million were exterminated in the 1915 genocide. There are no more than 40,000 or 50,000 Armenians left in Turkey today.” The article goes on to speak of the desecration of 5th-century Armenian churches in Kars.

#

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

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Every other Armenian I meet these days is convinced he is the only authentic Armenian who knows what's best for the nation and everyone else is at best a disoriented second-class citizen who should assume a passive stance and follow his guidance. Which is why I refuse to write as an Armenian. Instead, I write as a human being or, to be more precise, as a former Armenian who is trying very hard to recover his humanity. And if you think I am being too critical of my fellow Armenians, I suggest you stop speechifying and start listening.

I have an 81-year old born-again Armenian friend (whose every other sentence is a quotation from the Scriptures) who believes Armenians were massacred because they were evil.

"Now that I have placed a safe distance between myself and my fellow Armenians, I feel much better," writes another friend from his deathbed.

I could go on, but I rest my case.

And to those who love to quote Ottoman sayings in order to settle an argument in their favor, I ask: "Did you know that the most frequently quoted saying among Armenians is not in Turkish but in Armenian, and it is: "Mart bidi ch'ellank!" (We will never acquire the status of human beings, or, We will never recover our humanity.)

To our partisans (in whose eyes the Party can do no wrong), dime-a-dozen flimflam pundits, and loud-mouth panchoonies, I say: Next time you open your mouth, ask yourself: "Will my words alienate a fellow Armenian?" And if alienation leads to assimilation and assimilation is "white massacre," please feel free to rephrase the question.

#

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, April 07, 2005

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When a Turk says something bad about Armenians, I reject it as the opinion of a brainwashed hostile witness. But when an Armenian says something critical about his fellow Armenians, I examine my own heart on the grounds that nothing Armenian is alien to me.

*

Propaganda is the medium of all power structures, ideologies, and political parties, and its aim is not to enhance tolerance and understanding, or to promote cooperation and peace, but to mislead the masses by appealing to their emotions. Propaganda is designed to lobotomize the brain.

*

I am not one of those who say Armenian propaganda is good and Turkish propaganda bad, which is close to an African chieftain’s definition of good and evil as quoted by C.G. Jung in his autobiography (“When I steal my enemies’ wives, it’s good. When he steals mine it’s bad”). I say all propaganda – regardless of race, color, and creed – is either bad or worse.

*

I don’t expect to be popular with someone after I tell him he may not be as loveable as he thinks he is, which is what I have been doing with my fellow Armenians, some of whom think they are cute characters in a Saroyan story, as opposed to one in a Baronian novel. We know now that even Saroyan was not Saroyanesque.

*

The problem with our partisans and propagandists in general is that they operate on the assumption that if they repeat a slogan often enough, no one will dare to question it.

*

I began by believing that Armenians can do no wrong and ended by believing they can do nothing right. I do hope some day I will also believe they are as good or as bad as the rest of mankind, including Turks.

*

There are those who think if a writer wants to be popular, he should entertain popular ideas. But popularity thus achieved is no better than prostitution.

*

We make ourselves ridiculous if, as the offspring of men who survived centuries of brutal oppression and massacres, pretend to be too fragile to handle the views of a minor scribbler. I have said this before, more than once, but it bears repeating, for “to know is to remember” (Socrates).

*

Perhaps my quarrel is not with readers but with myself, my younger self, when I was innocent and naïve and therefore an ideal target for manipulators.

#

[ara baliozian]

Friday, April 08, 2005

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Shahan Shahnour to a partisan: “You search for the enemy without; I search for him within.”

*

Love is incomprehensible, but hatred can be defined, explained, legitimized, and promoted. Which is why nations declare war, not love.

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After a lifetime of unceasing labor Socrates declared himself to be ignorant. After being exposed to partisan propaganda, an Armenian thinks he is Socrates.

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Armenian political controversies: harlots quarrelling in public to prove their virginity.

*

If you write a hundred lines, an Armenian will find a word with which he will disagree and ignore the rest.

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There is a type of Armenian who cannot accept the fact that not all Armenians think as he does. There it is, the source of our intolerance and divisiveness.

*

I repeat myself? So does propaganda. Complain about that, if you can.

*

Most Armenians don’t even speak Armenian. Others are alienated. Still others are so tribalized that they might as well be foreigners to one another. “In our diversity is our strength!” say Canadians. Our unspoken slogan: “In our diversity is our weakness.”

*

To argue with an Armenian means to reinforce his prejudices and misconceptions in addition to acquiring a new enemy for life.

*

We become transparent when we take refuge behind clichés, slogans, and predictable platitudes.

*

The American government recently announced that it has a “Department of Disinformation,” that is to say, a department of lies. Somewhere in his memoirs Chateaubriand writes that every political leader “has the power to annihilate truth.” Ask one of our partisans and you will be informed that such despicable conduct is foreign to the ethos of our leadership.

#

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, April 09, 2005

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CONFESSION

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May I confess that I am not equipped to deal with the kind of critic who, after cutting you down to size, moves in and slits your throat to make sure you got the message. Then there is the critic who thinks he can bury you beneath an avalanche of infantile platitudes on the assumption that all Armenians are retards like himself. I am not sure which is the kind of critic that I find more offensive to the point of paralysis.

*

THE THREE PILLARS OF FASCISM

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The list of our blunders is so long that to admit even one would mean setting in motion a chain reaction. Hence our tendency to blame all our problems on outsiders and to cover up the prophetic warnings of our intellectuals. Hence, too, our anti-intellectualism, nationalism and anti-Semitism.

*

SPENGLER AND TOYNBEE

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What I find fascinating in Spengler and Toynbee are not the grand theories about the cyclical (Spengler) or non-cyclical (Toynbee) nature of history, but the gems of penetrating observations that are scattered throughout their works.

*

FROM TOYNBEE

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"If the predestinarian really believed in Predestination in his heart of hearts, he would turn quietist - which he does not - instead of turning rampant as he does."

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"Our hope lies in our recognition that love and righteousness have an absolute spiritual value and therefore an absolute claim on our allegiance, whatever their prospects may be."

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"The reproach of conscience is formidable - and this even for a hardened sinner - because our conscience speaks to us with an absolute authority from which there is no appeal."

*

FROM SPENGLER

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"When we use the risky word 'freedom' we shall mean freedom to do, not this or that, but the necessary or nothing."

*

"All genuine historical work is philosophy, unless it is mere ant-industry."

*

ARMENIAN PHILOSOPHY

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Is there such a thing? David Anhaght? I have not seen his name mentioned in any history of philosophy. And what do we know about him and his ideas? Or rather, what do I know about him -- except that he was invincible in argument. But then, so is, or thinks he is, every other charlatan, partisan, and dime-a-dozen flimflam pundit.

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[ara baliozian]

Sunday, April 10, 2005

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SUNDAY SERMON

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It seems to me, the only way to convince the Turks to change their tune about the Genocide is to make them an offer they can’t refuse by holding a gun to their heads. But since Americans are not willing to do that, and in view of the fact that we are in no position to threaten or blackmail them, I suggest the following maneuver out of this impasse.

*

We say to them: We know you are lying and we also know you too know you are lying, but we understand. After all, political thinkers and leaders from Plato to Machiavelli, and from Hitler to Leo Strauss agree that sometimes it is necessary to lie in the interests of the nation. We understand that and we want you to understand too that we cannot simply say, let bygones be bygones.

We therefore have the following proposal: Let us for the time being postpone the resolution of our differences and cooperate in all other matters whenever cooperation is to our mutual interests. We have nothing to lose but our feud.

May we remind you that if the Ottoman Empire lasted six centuries it’s because our best brains served in its administration, our boys shed their blood in its defense, and our girls gave birth to members of its political, diplomatic, and military elites.

Let us therefore declare a moratorium on name-calling. Perhaps in time we may be able to erode our differences and to reach a settlement that will be to our mutual advantage.

Let us adopt the British motto “We have neither enemies nor friends, only interests.” But if the British model is alien to our natures, let us refer to the examples contained in the Old Testament which the Koran paraphrases.

We have there two sets of brothers, one of which (Cain and Abel) ends in tragedy for both, and the other (Joseph and his brothers) in forgiveness and consensus.

It is up to you to decide which sets of brothers we adopt as our role models. And while we are reflecting on this choice, let us ask, which course of action would be more pleasing to your “merciful and compassionate” Allah and to our Lord Jesus Christ, who shed his blood for our sins and taught us to love our enemies.

*

Oremus!

#

[Nakharar]

I think what both sides really want is to banish the other from their psyche. Which given the current conditions is the best possible outcome. We can count ourselves lucky that we don't live together with the Turks anymore.

[ara baliozian]

Monday, April 11, 2005

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An Australian philosopher on the radio this morning: “Judging by our newspapers, we don’t like to think

And I reflect: Judging by our weeklies, we love to think, but only about Turks.

*

When one of our weeklies advertises or reviews a book, the chances are it will be about the massacres.

*

Whenever I read still another reference to the massacres, my hatred of Turks is enhanced; so is my image of myself as a perennial victim, and my view of the world as a cynical place populated by swindlers who care much more about money and power and less about principles, ideals, and truth.

*

The more we think about the moral failures of the world, the less time is left to reflect on our own. Hence, the tendency of some of us to believe they are la crème de la crème.

*

Philosophy in Greek means literally love of wisdom. But if I were to define philosophy today, I would say it consists in an attempt to introduce sanity in an insane world.

*

The irresistible charm of money and power: Imagine if you can a Jacqueline Kennedy or a Maria Callas falling in love and marrying an unemployed and slum-dwelling Onassis.

*

An Armenian clings to what he was taught as a child the way a drowning man is said to cling to anything, including a snake.

*

Chauvinism: When a damaged ego brags, all I hear is the rattle of bones.

*

To say we did nothing wrong is to condemn ourselves to learn nothing from our blunders. To say we did nothing right means to have a better chance to rise from the ashes.

*

A reader once wasted a thousand words to explain that I had nothing to say.

*

Julian Barnes (b. 1946), English writer: “The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.”

*

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), Irish playwright and novelist: “There’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the fault of his feet.”

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[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

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Unhappy is the nation whose martyrs outnumber its heroes.

*

Our generation is lost. We grew up with too much hatred and we cannot imagine a world without it. Our task is now to educate the next generation to think in terms not of hatred but of interests.

*

One of my critics agreed with me today. I must be on the wrong path.

*

There is a familiar type of Armenian who thinks he is settling a score with Turks whenever he insults a fellow Armenian or slices a watermelon.

*

Maya Angelou (b. 1928), U.S. poet: “Life is a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.”

*

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987), French playwright: “Every man thinks God is on his side. The rich and powerful know He is.”

*

To be dehumanized also means allowing newspaper headlines and propaganda to shape your identity.

*

Sometimes the death of a nation is so gradual that it may easily be confused with survival.

*

It is a thankless task to inform readers that they are not as good as they think they are and that their so-called wisdom is nothing but a byproduct of blind spots, prejudices, limitations, fallacies, and misconceptions.

*

To speak of reality to individuals who live in a dream world means being the bearer of bad tidings.

*

We don’t need political leaders. We need public servants. Did we ever have them?

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[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

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One reason I don't trust those in power is that, whenever I had the power (an extremely rare occurrence that may have happened once or twice in my life), I behaved as ruthlessly as a Turk. I consider myself a more or less harmless person but I shiver to think what would happen if some day I acquired the power of, say, a sultan or a Talaat.

*

There are many Armenians who would like to say what I have been saying but they keep their peace because they don't relish the prospect of being verbally abused by their fellow Armenians.

*

To have a more balanced view of ourselves, we must also see as others see us, and by others, I don't just mean friends but adversaries. An Armenian who believes only in the judgment of Armenophiles is no different from a Turk who believes only in Turcophiles.

*

When I wrote what they expected to read, they called me a genius. When I wrote what must be said, I acquired the status of a non-person. When they called me a genius, I was not flattered; and as a non-person today I am more than ever aware of my personhood.

*

It is better to fail in a moral enterprise than to succeed in an immoral one.

*

Progress: For a number of years I worked for philistines; now, I am only insulted by them.

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[Armat]

Sunday, April 10, 2005

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SUNDAY SERMON

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It seems to me, the only way to convince the Turks to change their tune about the Genocide is to make them an offer they can’t refuse by holding a gun to their heads. But since Americans are not willing to do that, and in view of the fact that we are in no position to threaten or blackmail them, I suggest the following maneuver out of this impasse.

*

We say to them: We know you are lying and we also know you too know you are lying, but we understand. After all, political thinkers and leaders from Plato to Machiavelli, and from Hitler to Leo Strauss agree that sometimes it is necessary to lie in the interests of the nation. We understand that and we want you to understand too that we cannot simply say, let bygones be bygones.

We therefore have the following proposal: Let us for the time being postpone the resolution of our differences and cooperate in all other matters whenever cooperation is to our mutual interests. We have nothing to lose but our feud.

May we remind you that if the Ottoman Empire lasted six centuries it’s because our best brains served in its administration, our boys shed their blood in its defense, and our girls gave birth to members of its political, diplomatic, and military elites.

Let us therefore declare a moratorium on name-calling. Perhaps in time we may be able to erode our differences and to reach a settlement that will be to our mutual advantage.

Let us adopt the British motto “We have neither enemies nor friends, only interests.” But if the British model is alien to our natures, let us refer to the examples contained in the Old Testament which the Koran paraphrases.

We have there two sets of brothers, one of which (Cain and Abel) ends in tragedy for both, and the other (Joseph and his brothers) in forgiveness and consensus.

It is up to you to decide which sets of brothers we adopt as our role models. And while we are reflecting on this choice, let us ask, which course of action would be more pleasing to your “merciful and compassionate” Allah and to our Lord Jesus Christ, who shed his blood for our sins and taught us to love our enemies.

*

Oremus!

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Kudos to you Ara.One of the best from you.

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, April 14, 2005

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ON UNDERSTANDING THE ENEMY

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We will never understand an enemy if we dehumanize him, which is what politicians or politically motivated writers do. Understanding is a more demanding enterprise: it requires avoiding all labels, using the brain and ignoring the gut. When it comes to understanding Turks, we were brought up to use our gut.

*

TOYNBEE, LEWIS, DE BERNIERES

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Historians and writers like Toynbee, Bernard Lewis, and Louis de Bernieres are ahead of us in the understanding department because they can afford being objective. This doesn't mean they are denialists. They are not. They only appear to be to us because we have made of the Genocide a theology, which means that anyone who refuses to agree with us to the letter is labeled an infidel who should be condemned to burn at the stake.

*

BERNARD LEWIS

*****************************

In one of his first major works, titled THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN TURKEY, Bernard Lewis clearly states that 1,500,000 Armenians were slaughtered in Turkey during World War I. If he hesitates to call it a genocide it's because unlike Americans and Germans (in their treatment of Blacks and Jews respectively) Turks were not racists since they practiced intermarriage and allowed Armenians as well as Greeks, Jews and other minorities to rise in the administration of the Empire. It should be remembered that semantics plays a key role in the life of academics and lawyers whose function is to defend a thesis or a client.

*

TOYNBEE

******************

As one of the two greatest historians of the 20th century (Spengler being the other) Toynbee had no interest in defending a faction. Furthermore, as an anti-nationalist, he was even against all efforts to divide mankind into fractions based on race, color, and creed. His aim was to understand and explain the workings of the past, and his unspoken motto was "nothing human is alien to me." The criminal actions of the Turks were therefore explainable even if not justifiable. To explain the Genocide it is necessary to see it as a perfect storm in which a number of factors - such as the territorial ambitions of the Great Powers, Russians, Greeks, Kurds, and Armenians, the decline, fall, and dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, and World War I - a number of factors combined to trigger one of the most unspeakable crimes against humanity. It should be noted that unlike Bernard Lewis, Toynbee at no time hesitated to call it genocide even after he learned the Turkish side of the story.

*

LOUIS DE BERNIERES

********************************

De Bernieres's emphasis in BIRDS WITHOUT WINGS is on individual Turkish, Greek, and Armenian lives. Numbers of victims, though he cites quite a few of them, do not matter to him to the same degree that they do to Toynbee and Lewis. Instead he dramatizes and illustrates the manner in which political decisions affect individual lives. He is neither for nor against this or that faction. To him Turks as well as Armenians and Greeks are fellow human beings who should be judged as individuals and not as collective entities.

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[ara baliozian]

Friday, April 15, 2005

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Once in a while I am reminded that our failings are universal failings. Yes, of course, I agree, in the sense that all nations produce their share of wheeler-dealers, charlatans, and white trash, and I see no reason why we should be an exception to this rule.

*

To criticize Armenians is neither anti-Armenian nor Ottoman, but intolerance of criticism may well be both.

*

Diplomacy consists in saying “You may be right,” to someone who is an ass with a negative IQ.

*

Not to admit any blunders is to assert infallibility.

*

The blame game is a dangerous game because it stresses our dependence on others at the expense of our free will.

*

Overheard on the radio: “Propaganda is effective only if it is interesting,” -- provided it also flatters our vanity.

*

All ideologies and religions are based on one big truth and a thousand little lies.

*

Youth is a time of certainties, middle age of doubts, and old age of unanswered and unanswerable questions.

*

Francis Picabia (1878-1953), French painter: “My ass contemplates those who talk behind my back.”

*

We are not a nation apart; we are a fraction of mankind. Our language, our religion, our music, art and literature: if you subtract foreign influences and borrowings, you may end up holding an empty bag. But this is true of all nations, civilizations and cultures.

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[ara baliozian]

Saturday, April 16, 2005

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THEN AND NOW

**********************

We speak about what's done because we don't want to think about what's being done.

*

PROPAGANDA AND REALITY

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Compared to the incomprehensible complexities of reality, propaganda is more like a collection of traffic signs designed by simple-minded wheeler-dealers whose aim is to flatter our collective ego in order to achieve popularity and power. By contrast, reality is a foreign tongue whose meaning we can only guess.

*

THEM AND US

**********************

Speaking of Ottoman tyranny and misrule: my guess is, more Armenians quit Armenia in six years than from the Ottoman Empire in 600 years. There was a devastating earthquake and a war in Armenia, granted. But there were earthquakes and wars in the Empire too; and again, my guess is, more Armenian boys died in defense of the Empire than in defense of Karabagh.

*

UNDERSTANDING REALITY

***********************************

What matters, what really matters, is not what propagandists say but how the people vote with their feet. And the most important thing about a power structure or a country is not its ethnic origin, justice system, religion, traditions, values, or degree of tolerance and freedom, but grub - the ability to work and provide for one's family, even if a fraction of one's family is sometimes forcibly taken from us and compelled to serve alien houses and interests.

*

PAST AND PRESENT

**************************

We speak about the past because we can do nothing to change it; but we avoid speaking about the present because being passive, doing nothing, saying "Yes, sir!" and sitting on our butts come naturally to us. We may live in free and democratic countries but we continue to behave like citizens of the Ottoman Empire.

Lord have mercy.

Kyrie eleison.

Der voghormia.

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