as i see it - Pt. IV

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

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SEPARATING FACT FROM FICTION

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When I was young I believed everything I read in our history books. I was shocked when I heard a Mekhitarist scholar say that there is more fiction than fact in the works of our historians. I know now there is some nationalist, religious, ideological or philosophical bias in all historians.

“The Soviet period of Armenian history is highly controversial,” writes Manuel Sarkisyanz in the preface to his MODERN HISTORY OF TRANSCAUCASIAN ARMENIA (Leiden, 1975). What makes the Soviet period controversial is ideology, of course, and where ideology enters, propaganda and bias are sure to follow. Elsewhere, on page 209, we read: “British propaganda in the United States was publicizing the Martyrdom of the Armenians to enflame American conscience – which, in 1917, contributed to American willingness to enter the war against Germany. For this purpose an enormous amount of information on the Armenian massacres and the alleged German responsibility for them was published in the interest of the Entente. As it was meant to serve the Allied war effort, much of it contains anti-Turkish and anti-German bias.” It is this very bias that is at the source of Turkish denialism and American reluctance to call a spade a spade.

Speaking of ideology and bias, here is another passage, on page 323, that may not be flattering to our collective ego: “The War [World War II] also caused an improvement in the position of the Armenian Church in the Soviet Union. The Communist regime needed the Churches to endorse its war effort.”

Further down, on page 326, Sarkisyanz tells us, the regime’s influence reached far beyond the borders of the USSR: “The pro-Soviet Archbishop Tiran Nersoyan was, in 1944, appointed from Etchmiadzin to be Prelate of the Armenian Church of North America. He endorsed Communism as ‘leading to a Christian ideal’ and had written that ‘what the clergy is…on the spiritual level, the Communist Party is on the worldly level of politics and economics.’” You may, if you wish, call this bias fueled by ideology. But I would agree with my Mekhitarist teacher in calling it fiction bordering on fantasy.

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

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PARAGONS OF VIRTUE

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Armenians divided?

Not so! We are just about the most united people on planet earth.

Armenians intolerant?

Wrong! As the first nation to embrace Christianity, we are the most compassionate, tolerant, understanding people in the world and anyone who says otherwise is a lying Turcophile moron and very probably a paid agent of Ankara.

Armenians dupes?

It’s common knowledge that we are the smartest people on the face of the earth and it takes seven Jews to fool an Armenian. I dare you to name another nation that can boast of a Mikoyan, a Gulbenkian, a Kirkorian, not to mention our Jack S. Avanakians, Khartakhians, Khembelians, Kheyarians, Abdalians, Avazakians…

Armenians corruptible?

We may have our share of rotten apples, like you, but on the whole, when it comes to standards of honesty and personal integrity, we are the envy of the world.

Armenians have a highly developed spirit of contradiction?

If that means we don’t take no sh** from nobody, especially Turcophile bastards like you, then yes, certainly, why not? I consider that an asset, not a liability.

Armenia a mafia democracy?

You are alive, aren’t you?

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, October 11, 2007

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RECAPITULATING

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German democracy works because Germany was denazified – a long, painful, expensive process carried out by the Allies. Something similar could be said of Japanese democracy. If Armenian democracy has been a failure so far it may be because no one bothered to de-Ottomanize and de-Stalinize us. As a result, we continue to be at the mercy of wheeler-dealers whose conception of leadership is similar to that of sultans and commissars – not as servants of the people but as their masters.

*

Because the writing on the wall is in invisible ink, we pretend not to see it. And whenever someone says, “I can see it and I will read it for you,” our first instinct is to shut him up.

*

We in the Diaspora are so absorbed in past massacres that we are blind to the two “white” massacres that are taking place today – namely, assimilation in the Diaspora, exodus in the Homeland.”

*

Speaking of our wheeler-dealers and their dupes who parade as superpatriots and accuse anyone who refuses to parrot their propaganda line of treason: consider the following passage in Polybius written more than two thousand years ago. The Greeks were divided, Polybius explains, because all men with genuine leadership qualities had been “systematically thrust into the background and hampered. When at length they did obtain leaders of sufficient ability, their power quickly manifested itself by the accomplishment of that most glorious achievement, the union of the Peloponnesus.”

*

Moral I: we may be unique (who isn’t?) but our problems are not.

*

Moral II: Wheeler-dealers are not in the business of solving problems but in perpetuating them.

*

Moral III: Where wheeler-leaders are the dominant minority, charlatans will flourish, and the agenda of charlatans is not exposing problems but covering them up. After all, who would want to send money to individuals who are better at creating problems than in solving them?

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Friday, October 12, 2007

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ARMENIANS AND BOLSHOI BOLSHEVIK B.S.

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During the Soviet era we were brainwashed to believe the Russians were our Big Brothers (no, not in the Orwellian sense). Even some Russian intellectuals dismissed this preposterous claim as ridiculous in view of the fact that Armenians pre-existed Russians by a good number of centuries. I was reminded of this Big Brother b.s. the other day when I read in one of our discussion forums something to the effect that we should be grateful to our Big Brothers because if it hadn’t been for them we would have been wiped off the map. What we are not told in this context is that during World War II 350,000 Armenian boys died fighting in defense of Russia.

Questions: How many Russians died in defense of Armenia? Is it one or two? Who, pray tell, defended whom? It seems to me the more accurate question to be asked in this context is: How many Armenians did the Russians murder in cold blood in defense of their own Big Lies?

*

After World War II our pro-Soviet leadership in the Diaspora encouraged Armenians to repatriate. Cardinal Aghajanian openly opposed this move – an act of courage on his part since he had a sister living in Georgia (some believe this may have been the main reason why he was not elected pope in 1958). And speaking of Russians murdering Armenians (with the full cooperation of Armenians, of course): after the Bolsheviks had systematically exterminated our political, intellectuals, and ecclesiastical leadership in successive waves of purges, there were pro-Soviet Armenians in the Diaspora who went on preaching Big Brotherhood. If, after “purging” our intellectual elite in Istanbul, Talaat had declared he had done it to save Armenian literature, Armenian culture, and the Armenian identity, I have every reason to suspect some Armenians would have believed him, provided of course he had also awarded these dupes a medal, a title, and a steady income. We may be dumb but we also know how to take care of number one.

*

I remember a pro-Soviet Armenian archbishop in New York in the 1980s telling me, “There is no future for you in the Diaspora. But if you repatriate they will take good care of you there.” Take good care of me in what sense, I wondered. The mafia takes care of its own too.

*

The Catholicos of Etchmiadzin had better luck with Zarian. He promised to have his complete works published in Yerevan and informed him of all the fringe benefits that writers enjoy there. And Zarian, who ought to have known better (in two of his major works, TRAVELLER AND HIS ROAD and BANCOOP AND THE BONES OF THE MAMMOTH, published in the 1920s and ‘30s, he had exposed the aberrations and crimes of the regime) allowed himself to be seduced by the siren song of the Catholicos and moved with his family to Yerevan, where even his application for membership in the Writers’ Union was rejected.

*

In Jason Goodwin’s THE SNAKE STONE (London, 2007), a stateless Polish diplomat in 19th-century Istanbul, delivers the following line to Yashim, a eunuch: “Together we make a man, you and I. For you are a man without balls, and I am a man without a country.” Some day if a novelist ever writes about an Armenian character, my hope is he will not describe him as a man without balls, without a country, and without a brain.

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, October 13, 2007

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READING, WRITING, THINKING

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Once, recently, when I said something to the effect that our writers were my role models, one of our Turcocentric ghazetajis took me to ask for my arrogance. “How dare you compare yourself to our great writers?” said he. Of course, I had done nothing of the kind. But I will gladly amend my statement by saying I may or may not know anything about literature, but I do know something about honesty and being an honest witness. And were not our writers honest witnesses?

*

My advice to those who have not yet mastered the alphabet: Do not attempt to read between the lines.

*

Armenians, who hate to read, love to read our brown-nosers. Knowing this, our brown-nosers dish it out with a trowel, and they are believed because their credibility stands on a higher level than the credibility of our writers.

*

Justin Kaplan, biographer of Mark Twain: “The first rule of biography: shoot the widow.” If anyone ever decides to write a biography of one of our bishops, he shouldn’t worry about shooting widows. What he should worry about is being shot at by one of his loyalists.

*

There is only one worse thing than a wheeler-dealer parading as a statesman, and that’s a man of the cloth getting involved in politics. I cringe whenever I see a mullah or a bishop shaking hands with a “statesman.”

*

To our anti-Semites, I say: Leave anti-Semitism to anti-Semites. The world doesn’t need more of them. I have never seen a sign saying “Wanted: anti-Semites.” But if I ever do, I will be in touch.

*

As Brahms was fond of saying on his out from a party: “My apologies to those I may have failed to offend.”

#

 

[Armen]

Friday, October 12, 2007

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ARMENIANS AND BOLSHOI BOLSHEVIK B.S.

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

During the Soviet era we were brainwashed to believe the Russians were our Big Brothers (no, not in the Orwellian sense). Even some Russian intellectuals dismissed this preposterous claim as ridiculous in view of the fact that Armenians pre-existed Russians by a good number of centuries. I was reminded of this Big Brother b.s. the other day when I read in one of our discussion forums something to the effect that we should be grateful to our Big Brothers because if it hadn’t been for them we would have been wiped off the map. What we are not told in this context is that during World War II 350,000 Armenian boys died fighting in defense of Russia.

Questions: How many Russians died in defense of Armenia? Is it one or two? Who, pray tell, defended whom? It seems to me the more accurate question to be asked in this context is: How many Armenians did the Russians murder in cold blood in defense of their own Big Lies?

 

Ara, Russians are bad, realy bad. However, they don't have anything to do with the world crisis that's gonna start in a year or two, and may lead to a big war in the Middle East and elsewhere. This crisis is being slowly, step by step developed by Anglo-American policy centers. Iraq, Iran, oil prices, world financial and banking crisis, Kurdistan-Turkey etc. etc.

 

And the primary reason for this is not freedom or democracy, but America's economic and civilizational egosim. US is doing this to hamper the development of China, India, Russia and Brazil. To ensure its costly and comfortable lifestyle America now needs another world war far from its shores, somewhere in Eurasia.

Edited October 13, 2007 by Armen

[Louise]

Ara, Russians are bad, realy bad. However, they don't have anything to do with the world crisis that's gonna start in a year or two, and may lead to a big war in the Middle East and elsewhere. This crisis is being slowly, step by step developed by Anglo-American policy centers. Iraq, Iran, oil prices, world financial and banking crisis, Kurdistan-Turkey etc. etc.

 

And the primary reason for this is not freedom or democracy, but America's economic and civilizational egosim. US is doing this to hamper the development of China, India, Russia and Brazil. To ensure its costly and comfortable lifestyle America now needs another world war far from its shores, somewhere in Eurasia.

---------------

 

I agree with Armen. US and the spectre of peace !

[Louise]

Friday, October 12, 2007

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ARMENIANS AND BOLSHOI BOLSHEVIK B.S.

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

During the Soviet era we were brainwashed to believe the Russians were our Big Brothers (no, not in the Orwellian sense). Even some Russian intellectuals dismissed this preposterous claim as ridiculous in view of the fact that Armenians pre-existed Russians by a good number of centuries. I was reminded of this Big Brother b.s. the other day when I read in one of our discussion forums something to the effect that we should be grateful to our Big Brothers because if it hadn’t been for them we would have been wiped off the map. What we are not told in this context is that during World War II 350,000 Armenian boys died fighting in defense of Russia.

Questions: How many Russians died in defense of Armenia? Is it one or two? Who, pray tell, defended whom? It seems to me the more accurate question to be asked in this context is: How many Armenians did the Russians murder in cold blood in defense of their own Big Lies?

*

*

The Catholicos of Etchmiadzin had better luck with Zarian. He promised to have his complete works published in Yerevan and informed him of all the fringe benefits that writers enjoy there. And Zarian, who ought to have known better (in two of his major works, TRAVELLER AND HIS ROAD and BANCOOP AND THE BONES OF THE MAMMOTH, published in the 1920s and ‘30s, he had exposed the aberrations and crimes of the regime) allowed himself to be seduced by the siren song of the Catholicos and moved with his family to Yerevan, where even his application for membership in the Writers’ Union was rejected.

*

In Jason Goodwin’s THE SNAKE STONE (London, 2007), a stateless Polish diplomat in 19th-century Istanbul, delivers the following line to Yashim, a eunuch: “Together we make a man, you and I. For you are a man without balls, and I am a man without a country.” Some day if a novelist ever writes about an Armenian character, my hope is he will not describe him as a man without balls, without a country, and without a brain.

#

-------------------------------------

you say 350 000 Armenians died for Russia. It was not for Russia, it was for CCCR

 

---------------------

As to Kostan Zarian, he did a big mistake to return to Armenia. I am now reading (grâce à vous)

L'Ile et un homme" He writes: "Un jour sur deux est jour de fête "

 

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, October 14, 2007

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NEST OF VIPERS

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When it comes to our clergy and their contributions to our spiritual and intellectual welfare, no institution can rival the Mekhitarist order. And yet, writing nearly a hundred years ago, Daniel Varoujan has this to say about them: “The sermons of our clergy are as sweet as their prayers but their hearts are as black as their cassocks. There are some good souls among them who deserve our respect, granted, but the rest are a nest of vipers.” What Varoujan doesn’t tell us is that the “good souls” are invariably marginalized and rendered ineffective.

Varoujan was educated by Mekhitarist monks in Venice. So was I. It occurs to me now that they at no time emphasized the importance of unity and solidarity probably because they too had split into two independent branches, both of which are now bankrupt and moribund, not because they lacked popular and financial support but because they were taken in by smooth-talking crooks who stole their millions (perhaps even billions) by promising them greater wealth.

Because being duped comes naturally to us we feel the need to compensate by assessing ourselves as smart. But whereas our status as perennial dupes is a fact, our self-conferred superior IQ is fiction bordering on fantasy.

It has been said that once upon a time we were slaves; we are now slaves of former slaves. We could also say that, once upon a time we were dupes; we are now dupes of former dupes.

Here is another useful quotation by Daniel Varoujan: “What’s the use of acquiring knowledge and developing one’s esthetic judgment in a world run by ignorant scum?”

#

 

[ara baliozian]

-------------------------------------

you say 350 000 Armenians died for Russia. It was not for Russia, it was for CCCR

 

---------------------

As to Kostan Zarian, he did a big mistake to return to Armenia. I am now reading (grâce à vous)

L'Ile et un homme" He writes: "Un jour sur deux est jour de fête "

 

Even under the czars, the countries of the USSR were under Russian dominion.

As for Zarian: in his final diaries publsished posthumously he willingly admits he made a big mistake by returning to the homeland.

[ara baliozian]

Monday, October 15, 2007

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THE UNSPEAKABLE IN SEARCH

OF THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE

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Whenever I am accused of being an atheist, I say, “I don’t believe in the god of our priests.” That seems to placate my accusers, who are more than eager to change the subject.

*

No word, no being, no concept has been more mercilessly, consistently, and ruthlessly exploited and abused than that of god.

*

“Man cannot create a single worm, yet he has created ten thousand gods.” And all these gods have their followers who claim their god is the only true god.

*

There are those who see god everywhere. There are others who see only the absence of god. And then there are men of faith willing to slaughter one another on grounds that all gods except their own are phonies.

*

In all organized religions, obedience to god inevitably evolves to subservience to men who speak in the name of god. It is easy to speak in the name of god, but much more difficult to speak with his wisdom.

*

Where there is talk of god, the result will be intolerance, hatred, persecution, torture, terror, and slaughter, all of which must be god’s way of punishing the arrogance of men who dare to speak in his name.

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

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THEOLOGIANS AND MYSTICS

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One way to describe a theologian is to say that he is like an ant in a deep hole who claims he can describe what’s on the other side of the horizon as seen from the top of a mountain; or, he is like a man who searches for a black hat in a dark room, both of which (hat/room) are figments of his imagination.

As for interpreting the word of god: I urge you to read two classics in the field: Bertrand Russell’s WHY I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN, and G.B. Shaw’s preface to his play, ANDROCLES AND THE LION (which, like most of his prefaces, is longer than the play).

I wouldn’t be surprised if some day theological treatises are read the way we read science fiction today.

*

MYSTICS

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As Aldous Huxley explains in his PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY, mystics of all persuasions speak essentially the same language, and their two central messages are, (i) their visions or experiences are more real than reality, and (ii) they cannot be described with words.

My favorite mystics are the Zen Buddhists (who, by the way, happen to be atheists) and my favorite writer on Zen is not D.T. Suzuki but Arthur Koestler, and I quote from his THE LOTUS AND THE ROBOT: “Inarticulateness is not a monopoly of Zen; but it is the only school which made a philosophy out of it, whose exponents burst into verbal diarrhea to prove constipation.”

*

WHAT I THINK

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To those who say, we don’t want to know what others may have said on the subject; we want to know what you think. My answer is: I was brought up as a Catholic, which means, as a child I was thoroughly indoctrinated by priests, brothers, nuns, monks…the whole schmear. But I am no longer a child and long beards, big books, and solemn titles no longer impress me, and I respect an Eminence as much as I respect a Highness or an Excellency.

#

 

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

K-W RECORD

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October 16, 2007

 

In his commentary on the recent Congressional vote on the Armenian Genocide (U.S. motion will damage relations with Turkey – Oct. 16) Gwynne Dyer writes that, unlike the Jewish Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire was not premeditated – in his own words: “It was certainly genocide, but it was not premeditated, nor was it systematic.” What he fails to note is that the Genocide was not an isolated or a spur-of-the-moment improvised reaction. The systematic massacre of Armenians began in 1894 and was followed up by successive waves of massacres in 1895, 1896, and 1909. The disposition to massacre was there long before the Genocide of 1915. In what way, may I ask, genocide by predisposition is politically or morally more acceptable than genocide by premeditation?

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

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REFLECTIONS

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Writing for Armenians is like trying to share your crust of bread with individuals who dine on five-course meals in four-star restaurants.

*

Nothing exposes our degree of civilization more effectively than the manner in which we conduct our disagreements.

*

In a kleptocracy, plutocracy, and generally speaking in all undemocratic governments, charlatans prosper because the men at the top need them to legitimize their power; and where charlatans prosper, honesty will be outlawed.

*

Knowledge increases in one direction, ignorance in all directions exponentially. One way to explain why Jack S. Avanakian knows everything, Socrates nothing.

*

To how many of our charlatans I could say, it isn’t that I don’t believe what you say, you don’t believe it either, and the only reason you are saying it is to see if you can fool me and get away with it. Because that’s how you measure your IQ: the more people you fool, the smarter you are.

#

 

 

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, October 18, 2007

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MEMO TO OUR PUNDITS

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They were discussing the recent Congressional vote on the Armenian Genocide on CNN and I heard one of the talking heads say that Turks and Armenians hate each other and they have hated each other for a very long time. It is human, and therefore understandable, to hate the enemy, especially when he is guilty of an unforgivable, unacknowledged, and unatoned crime – and what could be more unforgivable than the massacre of innocent women and children? Understandable, yes, but also politically, diplomatically, and legally incorrect. Hatred and justice might as well be mutually exclusive concepts. For the ultimate goal of hatred is not justice but the total ruin and destruction of the guilty party.

All the Turks have to do to reverse the American initiative to recognize the Genocide is to emphasize Armenian hatred and the unreasonable demands it inspires.

Whenever I mention hatred to our Turcocentric pundits, they tell me I am wrong, they hate no one, they want only justice. Whether they believe this themselves or not is irrelevant. The truth is, so far they have convinced only themselves and no one else. I would therefore urge them to cease and desist. If they carry on as they have until now, they may do more harm than good to our cause. No one in his right mind wants a new gang of terrorists killing innocent civilians and endangering the lives of others who had nothing to do with what happened a century ago. Let cooler heads, preferably diplomats, historians, and experts in international law, handle the subject. But if these pundits are so addicted to their Turcocentrism that they cannot stop writing about it, I urge them to read Saroyan, Toynbee, and Turkish writers like Pamuk, Akcam, and Safak, all of whom have dealt with the subject without hatred. Saroyan went further and said he felt sorry for the Turks. After writing several books on the brutal tyranny of Turks and the Armenian massacres, Toynbee acquired Turkish friends, learned the Turkish language, and became a Turcophile; but went on asserting the reality of the Genocide in nearly all his future books, including the last one. As for the Turkish writers mentioned above: only a handful of petty bureaucrats, fascists, and fanatics accuse them of insulting Turkishness, and what leads them to do so is blind hatred. There is more than enough hatred in the world and the last thing mankind needs is more of it.

#

[Johannes]

Կրակը ինկած տեղը կայրէ: թուրքը հայի պէս չի կրնար զգալ, ոչ ալ հակառակը: Հայը՝ Հայաստանը կորսնցուց, թուրքը՝ Հայաստան շահեցաւ: Դիւրին է անզգամ ըլլալ, սակայն շատ դժուար է զգայուն ըլլալ: Զգայուն կըլլան սաստիկ անարդարութեան ենթարկւողները:

 

 

[ara baliozian]

Friday, October 19, 2007

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AN ARMENIAN DECALOGUE

& A PRAYER

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I.

Thou shalt not believe in white men for they speak with a forked tongue.

*

II.

Thou shalt not believe in self-appointed pundits and ghazetajis whose role models are not historians but other self-appointed pundits, ghazetajis, and partisan agitators for whom objectivity and impartiality are alien concepts.

*

III.

Thou shalt not hate thine brothers for hating them means adopting Cain as a role model.

*

IV.

Thou shalt not believe in charlatans who know everything but understand nothing.

*

V.

Thou shalt not believe in salesmen of bridges, used cars, and Nigerian royalties with vast fortunes.

*

VI.

Thou shalt not believe in those who read between the lines for the Writing on the Wall has only one line.

*

VII.

Thou shalt not play the blame-game for it is the favorite sport of baloney artists.

*

VIII.

Thou shalt not oppose or suppress free speech for fear of free speech is the worst kind of cowardice.

*

IX.

Thou shalt not believe everything thou readest in the papers.

*

X.

Thou shalt not believe the promises of politicians for they are written on water.

#

A PRAYER

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

Let us now pray for our million and a half who were victimized because their self-appointed, unelected, and non-representative leaders believed in the empty verbiage of white men.

#

 

[Louise]

Friday, October 19, 2007

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

AN ARMENIAN DECALOGUE

& A PRAYER

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

I.

Thou shalt not believe in white men for they speak with a forked tongue.

*

II.

Thou shalt not believe in self-appointed pundits and ghazetajis whose role models are not historians but other self-appointed pundits, ghazetajis, and partisan agitators for whom objectivity and impartiality are alien concepts.

*

III.

Thou shalt not hate thine brothers for hating them means adopting Cain as a role model.

*

IV.

Thou shalt not believe in charlatans who know everything but understand nothing.

*

V.

Thou shalt not believe in salesmen of bridges, used cars, and Nigerian royalties with vast fortunes.

*

VI.

Thou shalt not believe in those who read between the lines for the Writing on the Wall has only one line.

*

VII.

Thou shalt not play the blame-game for it is the favorite sport of baloney artists.

*

VIII.

Thou shalt not oppose or suppress free speech for fear of free speech is the worst kind of cowardice.

*

IX.

Thou shalt not believe everything thou readest in the papers.

*

X.

Thou shalt not believe the promises of politicians for they are written on water.

#

A PRAYER

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

Let us now pray for our million and a half who were victimized because their self-appointed, unelected, and non-representative leaders believed in the empty verbiage of white men.

#

----------------------------

 

Je suis tout à fait d'accord avec tout ce que vous dites, mais je ne vous réponds pas car vous

avez écrit que vous ne recherchiez pas l'approbation, mais la contestation. Meilleures pensées.

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, October 20, 2007

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TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE

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

Gostan Zarian: “The complex psychology of small nations. Their naïve and tragic readiness to entertain great illusions. Their tendency to see decisive historic moments in petty occurrences and insignificant details.”

*

After accusing us of being liars, they now tell us we speak the truth (which they knew to be the case all along).

*

It took them nearly a century to decide that the Genocide is not a figment of our collective imagination. Why the sudden change of heart? One possible explanation: the Dems demanded a raise from Turkish lobbyists and were turned down. The irony here is that the Americans didn’t want any Turkish money; only a partial refund…

*

Anonymous (American): “Our Congress is the best money can buy.”

*

Cui bono? Who benefits? Whoever gets your vote, that’s who.

*

Memo to our Turcocentric ghazetajis: If you think you have the persuasive skills to change a politician’s mind, I suggest you apply them next on our own.

*

Gostan Zarian: “What are we but a handful of persecuted exiles at the mercy of the wind, like dust clinging on stones on dirt roads and assuming their shapes – grateful whenever we fall on a vegetable planted by someone else.”

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, October 21, 2007

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MAXIMS & REFLECTIONS

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When gentlemen disagree, they apologize; when hoodlums disagree, they vandalize.

*

Bullying may work with children; reason has a better chance with adults.

*

If you are smart, don’t pretend to be smarter because you won’t fool even fools.

*

I don’t write to be believed – I am not a preacher. Neither am I a salesman. If what I have to offer doesn’t appeal to you, take your business elsewhere. Our marketplace has many peddlers that cater to all tastes, age groups, and IQs.

*

Speaking of bullies and charlatans, allow me to quote the elegant words of a Canadian poetess on publishers: “Just when you think you have been screwed every possible way, you run across someone who has read the KAMA SUTRA.”

*

I believe politics to be a filthy business because all power is filth, including our own.

*

Even when I paraphrase ideas expressed by la crème de la crème of our literature, I am contradicted by our crème de la scum.

*

An unspoken Armenian mantra: “We have no use for writers. We are smarter than any dozen scribblers combined.”

*

I have no need to read the mind of philistines. At eleven we are all philistines. Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against philistines. They are my bread and butter. All the good ideas I ever had came to me while reading them.

*

Suppress a trauma and the result will be a neurosis, or so we are told by Freud and Co. Our Turcocentric pundits do not suppress our trauma, they make an obsession of it. The result remains the same.

*

An Armenian discussion forum is a microcosm of the nation. Irreconcilable differences and divisions exist because fanatics exist – infallible men who speak in the same of god and do the devil’s work; and if it’s not god it is an ideology or dogma. The problem with ideologies and dogmas is that there will always be another brand of ideology or dogma that will stand in direct contradiction to them.

*

If I have said this before it’s because to repeat that which needs to be repeated is not redundant but necessary.

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Monday, October 22, 2007

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DEFINING TURCOCENTRISM

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

The aim of Turcocentrism is to remind us that the Turks occupied our lands, desecrated our holy places, forced our boys into the rank of Janissaries and our girls into harems, oppressed us for six centuries, butchered our ablest intellects, raped our women, eviscerated our children, massacred innocent civilians by the million, drove us out of our ancestral lands and into deserts to die of thirst, starvation, and disease. There is no end to the crimes they committed against us – crimes that remain unacknowledged and unatoned to this day.

Turcocentrism is more than an ideology; it is a theology whose god is the devil and the devil is the Turk. Turcocentrism is a reaction to Turkish criminal conduct, and in its extreme forms it is more akin to Ottomanism than Armenianism, and Ottomanism not in the Turkish sense of the word (as referring to a glorious imperial past) but in ours (as evoking defeat, degradation, and death).

“Where there is no vision the people perish,” we are told. In that sense Turcocentrism is not a vision but a nightmare, and as such it is a dead end. It is a wound that cannot heal. It is a trauma that cannot be analyzed, explained, understood, overcome, and forgotten. It is a cancer that cannot be treated. Even if they were to accede to all our demands – which they will never do – our score with them will never be settled because it cannot be settled. What are a few billion dollars and a slice of real estate compared to the martyrdom of millions?

Our choices are therefore clear and the Writing on the Wall unambiguous: Either we come to terms with this reality and look forward or we turn into pillars of salt.

#

 

[ara baliozian]

KITCHENER-WATERLOO RECORD

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

 

in

Opinion/Insight

 

 

 

Genocide is genocide

 

ARA BALIOZIAN

 

 

 

In his commentary on the recent U.S. congressional vote on the Armenian genocide (U.S. Motion Will Damage Relations With Turkey -- Oct. 16), Gwynne Dyer writes that, unlike the Jewish Holocaust, the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire was not premeditated. In his words: "It was certainly genocide, but it was not premeditated, nor was it systematic."

 

What he fails to note is that the genocide was not an isolated or a spur-of-the-moment improvised reaction. The systematic massacre of Armenians began in 1894 and was followed up by successive waves of massacres in 1895, 1896, and 1909. The disposition to massacre was there long before the genocide of 1915.

 

In what way, may I ask, is genocide by predisposition politically or morally more acceptable than genocide by premeditation?

 

Ara Baliozian

 

Kitchener

 

 

 

 

[Louise]

Monday, October 22, 2007

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

DEFINING TURCOCENTRISM

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

The aim of Turcocentrism is to remind us that the Turks occupied our lands, desecrated our holy places, forced our boys into the rank of Janissaries and our girls into harems, oppressed us for six centuries, butchered our ablest intellects, raped our women, eviscerated our children, massacred innocent civilians by the million, drove us out of our ancestral lands and into deserts to die of thirst, starvation, and disease. There is no end to the crimes they committed against us – crimes that remain unacknowledged and unatoned to this day.

Turcocentrism is more than an ideology; it is a theology whose god is the devil and the devil is the Turk. Turcocentrism is a reaction to Turkish criminal conduct, and in its extreme forms it is more akin to Ottomanism than Armenianism, and Ottomanism not in the Turkish sense of the word (as referring to a glorious imperial past) but in ours (as evoking defeat, degradation, and death).

“Where there is no vision the people perish,” we are told. In that sense Turcocentrism is not a vision but a nightmare, and as such it is a dead end. It is a wound that cannot heal. It is a trauma that cannot be analyzed, explained, understood, overcome, and forgotten. It is a cancer that cannot be treated. Even if they were to accede to all our demands – which they will never do – our score with them will never be settled because it cannot be settled. What are a few billion dollars and a slice of real estate compared to the martyrdom of millions?

Our choices are therefore clear and the Writing on the Wall unambiguous: Either we come to terms with this reality and look forward or we turn into pillars of salt.

#

---------------------

I never understood why Lot's wife was petrified to a statue of salt. Is it bad to be horrified by

what is happening ? or are we obliged to forget all the past. It is impossible to forget what our

grand-parents suffered.

Another thing I did not understand, Marc Nichanian said he did not like the word génocide.

By which word he wants to replace it ? I have not read his book yet.

 

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

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

S.O.B.s

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

It is said that the Roman senators attacked Julius Caesar with such blind fury that they injured one another. Moral: Even when the cause you are defending is right (Caesar had declared himself dictator for life) it never pays to go about it like a fanatic.

A fanatic may be thought of as harmless on the grounds that “he may be a son-of-a-bitch but he is our son-of-a-bitch.” But even his friends will reject a pathological case. During the Cold War Americans supported a good number of corrupt dictators on the above-mentioned s.o.b. principle. One such dictator was Saddam. Moral: An s.o.b. is bad news if not today than tomorrow, and if not tomorrow than the day after.

*

The great French writer, Céline, was such a pathological case of anti-Semitism that he saw Jews everywhere. At one point, during the German occupation of Paris, he even accused his Armenian doctor of being a Jew, and the poor fellow came very close to being shipped to a concentration camp. For more details, see PARIS: THE SECRET HISTORY, by Andrew Hussey (New York 2006), page 374.

*

When a character in Shakespeare’s HENRY IV says, “I can call spirits from the deep,” another replies, “Why so can I, or so can any man. But will they come when you do call them?” An Armenian who makes all kinds of extravagant claims on behalf of his fellow Armenians or against Turks will be contradicted not only by moderates but also by his fellow chauvinists. The result will be not dialogue but a dead end. Fanatics are not in the habit of admitting error. If they were, we would now be if not an empire than a serious contender. The very reasons that have made of us a beggar among nations continue to obstruct our path today, but we are too busy playing the blame-game and injuring one another to admit the obvious.

*

The Dalai Lama being honored in Washington and soon in Ottawa, reminds me of our own religious leaders who said “Yes, sir!” to notorious s.o.b.s like sultans and commissars ostensibly to save the church and the nation, but ended up saving no one and nothing, not even themselves.

#

 

[ara baliozian]

---------------------

I never understood why Lot's wife was petrified to a statue of salt. Is it bad to be horrified by

what is happening ? or are we obliged to forget all the past. It is impossible to forget what our

grand-parents suffered.

Another thing I did not understand, Marc Nichanian said he did not like the word génocide.

By which word he wants to replace it ? I have not read his book yet.

 

to be horrified is one thing, to be obsessed/fixated/paralyzed by the horror is another.

confronting a snake, a bird should escape rather than freeze thus making itself a better target.

a victim of rape will never forget her experience but she may learn to come to terms with it -- provided she wants to live a better life.

as for Marc: like most academics, he is beyond me too. you may have to direct your question to him.

[Louise]

to be horrified is one thing, to be obsessed/fixated/paralyzed by the horror is another.

confronting a snake, a bird should escape rather than freeze thus making itself a better target.

a victim of rape will never forget her experience but she may learn to come to terms with it -- provided she wants to live a better life.

as for Marc: like most academics, he is beyond me too. you may have to direct your question to him.

--------------------

 

Thank you Ara for your reply. I've read the testimony of a missionary who had been paralyzed

by a python.