as i see it - Pt. IV

[ara baliozian]

Monday, September 12, 2005

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Millions of Armenians believe Turks are guilty of genocide, and millions of Turks believe Armenians are liars, traitors, and killers of innocent Turks. I am not questioning anyone’s credibility here. What I am trying to do is point out the ease with which millions can be brainwashed.

*

Human nature continues to elude me. No matter how hard I try I cannot understand why millions of people are fascinated by individuals who hit a ball with a modified stick.

*

When I was young, ambitious, and hungry for knowledge, I wanted to master all the sciences, arts, letters and languages of the world. I know now that human knowledge is as vast as the ocean and all I can master is one drop of it.

*

Every Armenian should carry a sign with the warning: “Contradict me and make an enemy for life!”

*

As a child I was taught obedience but I was not warned against kissing ass.

#

[Takoush]

Monday, September 12, 2005

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*

When I was young, ambitious, and hungry for knowledge, I wanted to master all the sciences, arts, letters and languages of the world. I know now that human knowledge is as vast as the ocean and all I can master is one drop of it.

*

Every Armenian should carry a sign with the warning: “Contradict me and make an enemy for life!”

 

#

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Ara: Yes, your first paragraph is very true. However, I see with your knowledge and talent that you have mastered a great deal!

 

Re your second paragraph, although it's quite true. However it is very much also amongst 'odars' non-Armenians. I guess the very few with wide shoulders do believe and can withstand in the doctrine of the late Eleanor Roosevelt, who said; it is good and beneficial to differ. Many cannot or would not.

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

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The morally superior does not feel the need to assert moral superiority.

*

Asserting moral superiority is the surest symptom of moral inferiority.

*

What separates the civilized from the barbarian is degree of awareness. To share one’s understanding means to share one’s awareness.

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The barbarian is convinced he knows everything he needs to know even when the idea of civilization is beyond his compass.

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It is not easy convincing barbarians that they are barbarians.

*

The barbarian does not feel the need to ask questions because he already has all the answers.

*

A religious or philosophical system has nothing to do with reality and everything to do with its power to shape our perception of reality.

*

Faith may also be defined as an advanced and refined form of cobra fascination in which common sense, reason, even the instinct of self-preservation are paralyzed and perverted. How else to explain the fascination of Western intellectuals with totalitarian communism and Stalin? Or terrorists who kill and commit suicide in the name of Allah?

*

All men of faith will agree with me provided I agree with them that their own faith is an exception to this general rule.

*

Americans are suspicious of philosophers but they are more than willing to tolerate the sophistries and perversions of lawyers and politicians. They seem to be unaware of the fact that if it’s not philosophy (love of wisdom) it is bound to be philomoronism.

#

[ara baliozian]

Ara:  Yes, your first paragraph is very true.  However, I see with your knowledge and talent that you have mastered a great deal!

 

Re your second paragraph, although it's quite true. However it is very much also amongst 'odars' non-Armenians.  I guess the very few with wide shoulders do believe and can withstand in the doctrine of the late Eleanor Roosevelt, who said; it is good and beneficial to differ.  Many cannot or would not.

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dialogue or dialectic has been a central theme in western philosophy -- from socrates and plato to marx and sartre; but among us it has been more like a heresy. / ara

[ara baliozian]

p.s.

 

also, the american political system is based on dialogue between opposing parties...but then this is true of all democracies...and throughout our millennial history, we have not experienced democracy, that is to say we have had no use for dialogue, compromise, and consensus. and what we have today is a combination of oligarchy and kleptocracy.

[phantom22]

Ara,

 

Thank you. I have FINALLY realized why I am so uncomfortable in this forum.

 

I was raised in an odar culture. My parents, traumatized by their experiences during the Genocide, pushed their children into the odar world. So we learned that dialogue, "give-and-take" so to speak, is part of any normal discusssion. It is obvious that this flexibility is not part of the psyche of some here. Therefore, I am no longer an Armenian.

Edited September 14, 2005 by phantom22

[ara baliozian]

BOOK REVIEW

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By Ara Baliozian

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THE FACES OF COURAGE: ARMENIAN WORLD WAR II, KOREA, AND VIETNAM HEROES. By Richard N. Demirjian. Introduction by Art Sarkisian. Illustrated. 656 pages. Ararat Heritage Publishing Company (P.O.Box 396, Moraga, CA 94556-0396). 2003. $36.95.

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

This mammoth compilation based on extensive interviews may come as a surprise to readers whose image of Armenians is that of passive victims of Turkish atrocities during World War I, but not to historians like Toynbee. Speaking of Urartu (ancient Armenia) we read the following in his STUDY OF HISTORY: "Militarily, Urartu was the most effective as well as the most resolute, of all Assyria's opponents in the last millenium B.C." Further down: "The Assyrian Empire never succeeded in conquering the rival Empire of Urartu."

Armenians have played key roles in the military careers of the Byzantine, Ottoman (as Janissaries), and Soviet Empires. According to Steven Runciman, "The Armenians provided many of Byzantium's most vigorous rulers," among them Basil I, "a Napoleonic figure" (Oswald Spengler).

In the Middle Ages, the most highly paid and feared mercenaries were Armenians. In Art Sarkisian's introduction we read, "out of more than 400,000 Soviet Armenians who served during the war, 250,000 were killed, an appalling death-toll for what was then a republic of less than two million inhabitants." And, "62 Soviet Armenians were promoted and bestowed the ranks of field marshals, admirals and major generals. More than one hundred Armenians servicemen were awarded Heroes of the Soviet Union (equivalent of the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor), and two of these received the honor twice."

Very few of the names in FACES OF COURAGE will be familiar to the average reader. Of the nearly fifty names, I recognized only those of Edward Alexander (diplomat and author), Anne Avakian Bishop (journalist), Vahe "Buck" Kartalian (actor), Carl Mahakian (film and sound editor, producer, and book collector), Moorad Mooradian and Joe Vosbikian (both regular contributors to the ARMENIAN REPORTER), and Barry Zorthian (whose multi-faceted contributions and activities in politics, international affairs, and the media are too numerous to list here). They all tell their own stories, invariably absorbing, sometimes harrowing, and always admirable.

If I were to sum up this volume I would say that it is a heroic enterprise about remarkable heroes that will dispel once and for all the image of Armenians as victims.

Himself a commanding officer of the 334th Military Intelligence Detachment, Richard Demirjian is the author of several other reference works, among them ARMENIAN-AMERICAN/CANADIAN WHO'S WHO OF OUTSTANDING ATHLETES, COACHES, AND SPORTS PERSONALITIES, 1906-1989, and TRIUMPH AND GLORY - ARMENIAN WORLD WAR II HEROES.

#

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, September 15, 2005

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The private conversations of a former Canadian Prime Minister have been published in a book. A big scandal!

Politicians, even when they happen to be megalomaniacal wheeler-dealers, must sound like elder statesmen with vision. They are not supposed to have private thoughts and feelings that may reflect badly on others and themselves. But perhaps this is true of all of us. White man must speak with a forked tongue. To say out loud what one thinks is a luxury very few people can afford. Good manners compel us to pretend, distort, and lie -- unless of course we deal with a subordinate or someone who is dependent on our goodwill.

*

We spent 600 years kissing Ottoman derriere and now we compensate by hurling verbal abuse at them. And when we die our epitaphs will read: “Here lies an Armenian who hated Turks.”

*

In one of his books Puzant Granian writes: “Whenever Armenians are mentioned, so is the Genocide, as if our sole contribution to world civilization had been victims of Turkish massacres.”

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We have become a nation with a score to settle, and we divide the world into those who are for us and against us. As for the rest (the overwhelming majority) who are not even aware of our existence, we dismiss them as ignorant rednecks.

*

And I ask myself: What do I really know about other people and places? I know that there is something rotten in the State of Denmark. What else? I know that the word “bugger” has something to do with a supposed birth control method practiced by Bulgarians. I may know more about Greeks because I was born and raised there. But what do I really know about Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Patagonia. Tierra del Fuego, the Inuit, Estonians, and so on and so forth…

*

I remember as a boy I was taught to brag about the Golden Age of our literature but I wonder how many of us have read a single golden masterpiece?

*

A boozed up British academic with ulterior motives and with the financial assistance of the Gulbenkian Foundation calls Armenia “the Cradle of Civilization” and we believe him. As Saroyan was fond of saying, “Ahmot!”

#

[ara baliozian]

Friday, September 16, 2005

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The roles we play in life are seldom ours. We adapt and we conform, which means we accept guidelines imposed on us by others. To be a good Armenian means to accept definitions and values formulated by others.

*

During and after World War II Germans were divided into good and bad Germans. Thomas Mann disagreed with these distinctions. Every German, he said, carries within him qualities that were both good and bad. He went further and wrote an essay about Hitler titled “A Brother.” Perhaps we will mature as a nation only on the day we call Turks “our brothers.”

*

Armenian role models come in all sizes and shapes. Armenians who say, “the only good Turk is a dead Turk,” unwittingly echo Talaat for whom the only good Armenian was a dead Armenian.

*

Sometimes I am criticized and even censored by self-assessed patriotic Armenians on the assumption that they are infallible and as if, as a human being with his share of limitations, I were not entitled to be fallible. But if I were to accept their definition of a good writer as one who is infallible, I would be no better than a self-righteous, dogmatic megalomaniac, a Stalinist without Stalin, a Nazi without Hitler, and a fascist without Mussolini. Which is why I feel justified in saying I’d rather be wrong as a human being than right as a fascist.

#

[Takoush]

Friday, September 16, 2005

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

The roles we play in life are seldom ours. We adapt and we conform, which means we accept guidelines imposed on us by others. To be a good Armenian means to accept definitions and values formulated by others.

*

During and after World War II Germans were divided into good and bad Germans. Thomas Mann disagreed with these distinctions. Every German, he said, carries within him qualities that were both good and bad. He went further and wrote an essay about Hitler titled “A Brother.” Perhaps we will mature as a nation only on the day we call Turks “our brothers.”

*

Armenian role models come in all sizes and shapes. Armenians who say, “the only good Turk is a dead Turk,” unwittingly echo Talaat for whom the only good Armenian was a dead Armenian.

*

Sometimes I am criticized and even censored by self-assessed patriotic Armenians on the assumption that they are infallible and as if, as a human being with his share of limitations, I were not entitled to be fallible. But if I were to accept their definition of a good writer as one who is infallible, I would be no better than a self-righteous, dogmatic megalomaniac, a Stalinist without Stalin, a Nazi without Hitler, and a fascist without Mussolini. Which is why I feel justified in saying I’d rather be wrong as a human being than right as a fascist.

#

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Ara:

 

You know, although my father was married quite late in life and therefore he was much older than me when I was born, nevertheless he was a mere child when all his family were annihilated by the then Turkish government and the author of the massacres; Talaat ***** and his friends. My father's family were quite well off

in the old country. First the Turkish gendarmes killed my father's father, his uncles and his 80 year old grandfather; then after that his mother, grandmother and his uncles' wives they all went to one of their Turkish servants' house to hide. The Turkish family took them in and looked after them well until after a while the government announced that whoever's hiding any Armenians in their house, their house will be set on fire. Only after that that they let go of the women and the children except my father. He was only a child but they have kept him and made him work for them. My father stayed with that Turkish family who were his father's servants for about 3 years. Then one day his young adult maternal aunt and uncle appeared and sent him to a brave Armenian woman who in turn sent my father to the American orphanage. Thank goodness, otherwise he would not have survived.

 

I have told you this story for a reason. I guess, to backup your philosophy about hating or not hating all the Turks. It is true that I also hate the then Turkish government who annihilated all my race/nationality in a most atrocious manner. We lost a great deal as Armenians. We have lost the core of our good people, we have lost our thousands old anscestral sacred lands, we have lost our money, our belongings and goods, all our wealths and our peace of mind and sanity. We have lost our culture, our thousands of churches and monasteries, our 36 year old Taniel Varoujan and many many more poets, writers, smart brave and genious creatures who could have wrote and created a great deal more if they weren't killed mercilessly.

 

After all these inhumanly atrocities were done towards a great nationality as it is the Armenians, and to this date the Turkish government covers up, puts it under the rug and deny and distort the facts and their responsibility about the Armenian Genocide. Yes, the Turkish people are not all liable and accountable for all these crimes and distortion of truths and horrible facts; however a great number of the Mongolian Turks are of Asian and of barbaric nature. They have known through the European history and even the Egyptian history how barbaric they were and I believe they still are to this date. See the movie 'Midnight Express' and please go to their prisons and I am sure you will see that much hasn't changed from what you saw in Midnight Express.

 

Yes all of the Turkish people are not accountable for all the crimes through centuries to us, to Europeans or even to the Arabs; but the facts are that a great number of Turks are of barbaric in nature and merciless. We have to be realistic to this fact and accept it. Accept also the fact that most Armenians are at the end of their wits with the Turkish government, with the money and land loving Jews and the Israelis and the rest of the world that are playing bitchy politics to brown nose the Turks, the Jews and the Israelis. We Armenians are at the end of our wits with the unjustice that is going on and on and on and on. Believe me, I am one of them. I may not hate all the Turks; but I sure don't want to be associated with them; because I know one day I will speak my heart and I'd rather stay away from them. My life on this earth is short as is everyone's; and I'd rather live and breath only and mostly with my brethren. I'd rather help my loving people, be it in the Diaspora, in Armenia, and thruthfully in both locales.

 

You have heard I am sure about the saying that "since life is short, I'd rather spend my valuable time only with the people that count". Such as the case with me and most Armenians. We would rather spend our short life with our people who do count for us. That is, living and being Armenian for as long as we live on this earth!

 

Anahid Takouhi

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, September 17, 2005

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There is a type of patriotism that gives patriotism a bad name. Example: patriotism that is an extension of one's salary. I once knew a professional propagandist who asked for a raise, was refused, and was never heard from again.

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If you are on the wrong path, sooner or later you will know about it. Even if you are the smartest man on earth, you cannot always predict reality's next move.

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Sharing one's understanding must also mean making the inaccessible accessible; otherwise it will be like serving a glass of water to someone who is not thirsty.

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You reject barbarism not by reasoning against it, but by behaving in a civilized manner. Sometimes the most effective refutation is silence.

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Even the wisest among us must teach himself to say "I don't know" and "I don't understand," because to be human means to have limitations.

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Totalitarianism in politics and dogmatism in religion recognize only one legitimate school of philosophy - deviate an inch and you are toast.

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When I think of all those writers and thinkers who were silenced and the strident voices of fools who are everywhere in our media and discussion forums, I want to hand in my resignation as a member of the human race.

#

[ara baliozian]

You have heard I am sure about the saying that "since life is short, I'd rather spend my valuable time only with the people that count". Such as the case with me and most Armenians. We would rather spend our short life with our people who do count for us. That is, living and being Armenian for as long as we live on this earth!

 

Anahid Takouhi

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my parents are survivors too.

you will find survivors of atrocities in all nations, including turks and germans.

all wars are atrocities.

but if you allow yourself to think too much about criminals and butchers, you end up being obsessed with hatred, grudges, and unsettled scores. that's why Gandhi once said "If you hate, you hurt yourself more than the person you hate."

 

my ideas run ahead of me.

i can never catch up with them.

i too think of massacres and victims...and i hope some day to be able to say with saroyan "I feel sorry for the turks." / ara

[Takoush]

Ahhh Gandhi, he might've been a follower of Jesus. Your doctrine or wish to be like Saroyan's is truthfully Christianity in its completeness. Yes, we are Christians and we strive to follow Christ to the extent that you're suggesting, but Ara sometimes it's doggone hard when it comes to such a nation as the mongolian barbaric turks who throughout centuries refuse to change for the better or to correct themselves from their wrongdoings and malicious behaviours. It's not altogether impossible; but it can be very difficult.

 

I am not as yet educated and knowledgeable as you are. Although I have talents,

but I am not as gifted as you are, though I wish to be. However, should I cease to discuss with you or others completely, or even be frightened to speak up my thoughts, my wishes and aspirations; because I am not as gifted or as knowledgeable? I wonder. Perhaps in your mind or some other gifted people such as yourself, I shouldn't.

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, September 18, 2005

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Armenians are smart, progressive, civilized, compassionate, peace-loving, creative, brilliant…as long as you agree with their own assessment of themselves. Disagree with them and out pops the yataghan.

*

When as a boy I read Baronian and Odian, I thought they were writing about Armenians of the Ottoman period – Armenians with fezes, mustaches, and shalvars. It was much later that I realized they might as well be our contemporaries. Flattery, subservience, double-talk, and worship of money are as much with us today as they were under the sultans. Even the final lines of letters from organizations presided over and subsidized by our multimillionaires echo Comrade Panchoonie’s celebrated punch line – “Mi kich pogh oughargetsek” (Send us a little money). As the French are fond of saying, “Plus ca change plus c’est la meme merde.”

*

What have we learned from the Genocide except to publish memoirs by survivors and anti-Turkish commentaries by our dime-a-dozen pundits?

*

We sometimes confuse perseverance in error with principle, and success in the market place with statesmanship. Perseverance in error is arrogant obstinacy (“I am right because I say so and anyone who says otherwise is an enemy of the people”); and success in the market place is cunning. To see more in them is a symptom of ignorance compounded by subservience: subservience to anyone with more money or power (even when he happens to be a moral moron).

#

[ara baliozian]

Ahhh Gandhi, he might've been a follower of Jesus.  Your doctrine or wish to be like Saroyan's is truthfully Christianity in its completeness.  Yes, we are Christians and we strive to follow Christ to the extent that you're suggesting, but Ara sometimes it's doggone hard when it comes to such a nation as the mongolian barbaric turks who throughout centuries refuse to change for the better or to correct themselves from their wrongdoings and malicious behaviours.  It's not altogether impossible; but it can be very difficult.

 

I am not as yet educated and knowledgeable as you are.  Although I have talents,

but I am not as gifted as you are, though I wish to be.  However, should I cease to discuss with you or others completely, or even be frightened to speak up my thoughts, my wishes and aspirations; because I am not as gifted or as knowledgeable?  I wonder.  Perhaps in your mind or some other gifted people such as yourself, I shouldn't.

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you are doing fine. i would be the last man on earth to silence anyone.

and by the way, i am not a religious person.

and my thoughts. ideas. and sentiments are far ahead of my gut.

i feel as you do, but i also feel that there is a better way..../ara

[Takoush]

Sunday, September 18, 2005

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*

What have we learned from the Genocide except to publish memoirs by survivors and anti-Turkish commentaries by our dime-a-dozen pundits?

*

We sometimes confuse perseverance in error with principle, and success in the market place with statesmanship. Perseverance in error is arrogant obstinacy (“I am right because I say so and anyone who says otherwise is an enemy of the people”); and success in the market place is cunning. To see more in them is a symptom of ignorance compounded by subservience: subservience to anyone with more money or power (even when he happens to be a moral moron).

#

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What we should learn from the aftermath of the Genocide is to have complete and absolute empathy towards each other. Something we still have to learn and achieve that we haven't as yet. We lost much of our wars and freedom going back in history; because every prince or most of them was for himself and not for unity and respect to the whole entity and the good of the country. That's why we have lost our wars and let the enemy win us over (I mean the Mongolian Turks) and whoever else that took over Armenia. What we should learn from the Genocide is to be thinking about the whole entity of every Armenian and of our goal as a nation and not for the mentality of "just for me and me alone"; but we must think of the whole picture and the end result, which is our sacred cause and country.

 

Your second paragraph is a true picture of our people and even this forum that still exist to this date. As much as I hate to accept it, but it is completely true and it's unfortunate. My hope is that we can perhaps learn from these thoughts and try to be more tolerant, more open minded and perhaps we can start tolerating each other and learning from each other as well.

 

How true it is that since I was a little girl to this date, I have seen within the Armenian community how most people (except the very few) fawn and enslave to the rich and famous. For a human being it's a degrading state to be in and certainly not a desirable attribute. I sure hope most of our people start to change those bad habits so that we can start looking better and certainly feeling better about ourselves too.

[Takoush]

you are doing fine. i would be the last man on earth to silence anyone.

and by the way, i am not a religious person.

and my thoughts. ideas. and sentiments are far ahead of my gut.

i feel as you do, but i also feel that there is a better way..../ara

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Thank you Ara. You have mentioned two people that I have always admired. Gandhi and William Saroyan.

[ara baliozian]

Monday, September 19, 2005

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Our lives are long lists of blunders and it makes no difference whether you are the leader of a mighty empire or an ordinary Joe who can’t make ends meet. The only difference is that if you have power or money on your side, you can afford to hire PR men, lawyers, and pundits, who will make your blunders look like an integral part of a vision whose sole aim is to further the interests of the people. If, on the other hand, you are like myself, an ordinary Joe, even idiots will call you an idiot.

*

But as the invasion of Iraq and more recently Katrina have shown, even the President of the mighty U.S. cannot always be successful in misrepresenting his failures as triumphs of statesmanship.

*

What have been some of the major blunders of our own leaders? When this issue was raised in reference to the Genocide, I once heard one of our so-called pundits say: “What we have here is an extremely complex concatenation of events and conditions, and none of us is in a position to know what happened behind the scenes.” Of course, no one will ever know everything there is to know about any historic event. We do know however that a million and a half innocent civilians were slaughtered in 1915, and more recently about the same number emigrated from the Homeland in search of minimum-wage employment in foreign countries, including Turkey; and as I write, more millions are being alienated and assimilated.

*

Where does the buck stop? The politically correct answer recycled ad nauseam by our dime-a-dozen pundits: all our misfortunes and tragedies must be ascribed to Turkish barbarism, and geographical, historic, cultural, and social conditions beyond our control. But if you were to ask our writers (from Khorenatsi in the 5th Century to Zarian in our own days) they would give you an entirely different answer. They would say the buck stops within us, beginning with our lack of solidarity; and solidarity is a responsibility not of the people but of its leadership.

*

Could solidarity have prevented the Genocide? I will let facts speak for themselves. At the turn of the last century our leaders in the Ottoman Empire were divided between those who said revolution was a necessity imposed on us by history, and those who said any revolutionary activity would result in the wholesale massacre of defenseless and innocent civilians. There was no dialogue, compromise, and consensus. Both sides adopted a dogmatic stance; and when that happens, those who are right become powerless, and those who are wrong prevail.

*

As for the people, they had no say in the matter. No one asked for their opinion. Throughout our millennial history the voice of the people has been an absent factor in the decision-making process. The only time we hear about them is when they are slaughtered, drowned, or buried beneath badly constructed buildings.

#

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

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When conflicting interests escalate, even Abel will behave like Cain.

*

To Blacks "white man is the devil." Gandhi once called the British "a satanic force." Jews have their anti-Semites and Palestinians their Jews. Tutsis have their Hutus, and we have our Turks. And the merchants in the temple had Jesus.

*

The evening news. An angry mob of merchants around the TV camera all shouting at the same time, anxious for their 15 seconds of fame:

-I was minding my own business when this madman barges in with a whip screaming profanities!

-A lunatic, that's what he is.

-An anarchist.

-An enemy of free enterprise.

-Gave me a bloody nose!

-Blinded me in one eye.

-He should be arrested and fried.

-I say crucify him.

-I am a law-abiding, respectable entrepreneur. I have never done any harm to anyone. I pay my taxes. What the hell does he want from me anyway?

-That wild-eyed fanatic is still running amok vandalizing the place.

-He broke my cell phone. Has anyone called the cops?

-He pushed me, I fell and broke two teeth.

-For all I know he could be a terrorist.

-Maybe even Al Qaeda.

-Blinded me in one eye.

-Broke my arm, he did.

-Has anyone called the cops?

-I have no insurance. My inventory flew the coop . I am bankrupt.

-Does anyone know who he is?

-I think he's Joe's son.

-Which Joe?

-Joseph the carpenter.

-Can't be. I know Joe. He is a quiet fellow, a law-abiding citizen like the rest of us here.

-I have heard it said that his real father is a Roman soldier.

-That figures.

-Where the hell is the police?

-I called 911 ten minutes ago.

-They are never around when you need them.

-This town is going to hell. No law and order.

-I pay my taxes like everyone else. I am entitled to some protection.

-Blinded me in one eye he did…

-Broke my nose and at least two ribs.

-I am ruined.

-I say, crucify him!

#

[Takoush]

Ara:

 

You know, just recently I was thinking about the same things you're writing about. However, based on what I know about the Ottoman Turks before and during Abdul Hamid's time and beyond, life for the Armenians was touch and go. They were unsure most of them from day to day; their beautiful daughters and wives were victimized and raped. They were extremely taxed and also killed on the way. Be it from the Kurds or the Turks. So first Henchagian Gousagtsoutyoun formed then Tashnagtsoutyoun formed to fight on the mountains and take the matter in their hands, and I am sorry if I am being redundant here for you as I know that you probably know just as much and even more about all this. However for them, it was like catch 22, damned if you do it and damned if you don't. We can blame the gousagtsoutyouns, but then again the poor Armenian people didn't have a government or a king to look after them and support them and make them feel secured.

 

That's why from the bosom of the people Raffis were born to create leaders and committees to head the poor people. Alas, unfortunately things were horrible already then it became even worse. What could they have done? If we think about it now, it was very hard situations. They thought that they could arm the people and help them that way, but the enemy acted faster and in a more atrocious and malignant manner.

 

It's very sad our history isn't it Ara. It breaks your heart. Sometimes when I think deep and much about it I feel a lot of anger and despair. But then again I say no "WE ARE HERE, WE WILL STAY AND WE WILL MULTIPLY"!

 

I appreciate your words and thoughts, you make us think more and inspire us. God bless you!

 

Always Anahid Takouhi

Edited September 20, 2005 by Anahid Takouhi

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

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Not guilty by reason of insanity is a plea reserved for individuals with diminished capacity. It does not apply to political leaders with an unlimited capacity to kill millions. Which may suggest that man may be successful in dealing with minor and isolated aberrations but faced with major scandals he is helpless by reason of cobra fascination.

*

Men of faith and brainwashed dupes in general have an unlimited capacity to rewrite history and make the guilty look innocent and vice versa.

*

There may come a time when politics or the exercise of power will be seen as an unmistakable symptom of mental instability and anyone harboring political ambitions will be too ashamed to admit it in public.

*

Do we need politicians? As long as they have the power, they will be successful in convincing us that we can't live without them.

*

You may have noticed that the heads of the most efficiently run states are almost anonymous. And the more headlines a political leader makes the more damage he inflicts on his fellow countrymen and the world.

*

It has been suggested that the U.S. would be better off if Swiss hotel managers ran it.

*

It is worth remembering that once upon a time barbers were also surgeons, and to whisper or suggest that kings and queens were not need was a capital offense punishable by decapitation.

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[ara baliozian]

Thursday, September 22, 2005

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Political parties don’t like admitting blunders, especially major ones. After World War I Germans blamed their defeat on Jews. There are pro-German historians today who believe Hitler was a great statesman, the Holocaust a figment of Zionist imagination, and Churchill a war criminal. I once heard a Stalinist blame the collapse of the USSR on Solzhenitsyn and his kind of “hyena with a fountain pen,” and “running dog of the bourgeoisie.”

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The rule is, political parties are never wrong. They might be willing to compromise and admit minor tactical errors, but never major or catastrophic or apocalyptic defeats and disasters.

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Are our own political parties exceptions to this rule? Are they right when they say conditions at the turn of the last century in the Ottoman Empire were so unbearable that revolution was their only option? What they avoid saying is that they confused the verbal support of the West with the certainty of military intervention, and they were so sure of the demise of the “sick man of Europe” that they were blind to the possibility of wholesale massacres.

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If conditions were unbearable, why is it that Zohrab, one of the most astute observers of his time, who had many Turkish friends, among them Talaat, did not quit Istanbul and save his own skin? Why is it that a friend of Yervant Odian returned to Istanbul from Egypt even when he knew he was a wanted man? Why is it that Siamanto returned to Istanbul from the United States? Why is it that Roupen Sevag wrote a letter to his German fiancee who had said she did not look forward to life in Turkey because she did not like Turks: “You don’t know them. Deep down they are nice folk.”

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We know now that our choice was not between passive acceptance of the “unbearable” status quo and revolution, but between passive acceptance and genocide; and this is not 20/20 vision but the clearly stated warning of our own leadership within the Ottoman administration.

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A final question: if conditions were unbearable, why is it that we produced many brilliant writers in Istanbul under the sultans and so far none under our own bosses, bishops, and benefactors in America?

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[ara baliozian]

Friday, September 23, 2005

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ON REVISIONISM

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The ultimate aim of revisionism is to project infallibility.

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Past blunders interest me only in so far as our present problems are rooted in them.

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To rewrite history means to ignore its lessons.

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There was a World War II because the combatants had their own versions of World War I.

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To rewrite history means to mislead the people into thinking they are in good hands even as they stand on the edge of the abyss.

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We are experiencing “white massacre” today (emigration from the Homeland and assimilation in the Diaspora) because we ignore the lessons of the “red massacre.”

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When leaders think of themselves as the brains of the people they will treat the people as dupes.

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Unless our leaders start thinking of themselves as public servants, their number one concern will continue to be number one.

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When 99% of the people perish and 99% of the leaders survive it is safe to assume there is something rotten in the state of Denmark. I am not casting aspersions on any particular set of leaders or state -- no, not even Denmark -- only enunciating a general theory.

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[ara baliozian]

Saturday, September 24, 2005

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Where everyone asserts the traditions of his own village, there will be no tradition. Likewise, where everyone asserts his own values, there will be no values. And finally, where everyone has his own version of the past, the study of history will be a useless enterprise.

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Armenians may be divided into those who believe there is nothing wrong with the status quo because we are in good hands; and those who say since we have always been divided we have never been in good hands, and consequently, all our misfortunes must be ascribed to our own incompetent leadership. If you belong to the first group, you may consider yourself a certified dupe.

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For more on this subject, see Khorenatsi's LAMENTATION, Raffi's historical novels, Avedik Issahakian's CORRESPONDENCE, Zarian's NOTEBOOKS, and my own DICTIONARY OF ARMENIAN QUOTATIONS, or simply count the number of our victims.

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However, if you are too busy with other far more important matters, read the following quotation by one of our most distinguished poets and novelists, Nigoghos Sarafian (1905-1973): "Our history is a litany of lamentation, anxiety, horror, and massacre. Also deception and abysmal naivete mixed with the smoke of incense and the sound of sacred chants."

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[ara baliozian]

Sunday, September 25, 2005

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SEMANTIC PERVERSIONS

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If you call a crook an honest man, he will be flattered. He will thank you and after congratulating himself he will think: “I am good. I must be doing something right.” When he says “good” he means bad; and when he says “right” he means wrong.

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An honest man doesn’t care to be called honest. He is too busy trying to survive in a dishonest environment to have any use for flattery.

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A really smart man doesn’t identify himself as smart. He doesn’t even talk smart. I have myself dealt with smart men who pretended to be idiots because they knew from experience the best way to take advantage of another is to let him think he is the smart one and no idiot like himself could ever hope to deceive him.

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When odars call us smart, we are flattered. We welcome flattery no matter how false. And when others fail to flatter us, we flatter ourselves.

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We identify ourselves as the first nation to convert to Christianity, but we avoid asking ourselves: How genuine is our faith? Do we love one another? Are we even tolerant of one another? As for loving our enemies…don’t make me laugh.

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We have become beggars for flattery and masters of self-deception. We call our military defeats moral victories thus asserting our moral superiority even as our own ablest writers tell us treason and betrayal are in our blood (Raffi) and we survive by cannibalizing one another (Zarian).

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Our leaders tell us we are in good hands even as they depopulate the Homeland and alienate the majority in the Diaspora.

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A handful of young hotheads, after taking over the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul, negotiate a safe passage abroad for themselves. That same day, in retaliation, several thousand innocent Armenians are slaughtered by a mob of enraged Turks, and to this day this fiasco is described as a heroic deed that made headlines around the world. Nobody wants to know if these headlines saved a single life or were of any practical value to anyone. The heroes are exalted and enshrined in the annals of our glorious past and the anonymous victims are reduced to the status of a statistical footnote and forgotten.

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