as i see it - Pt. IV

[ara baliozian]

Mr. Baliozian,

 

Is it illusion, delusion or mass psychosis that elicits a response from the collective Armenian psyche to feel that we are a "race" separate from the rest of humanity?

style_images/master/snapback.png

 

it is dangerous to separate ourselves from the rest of mankind in order to assert superiority.

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

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

OUR GREATEST ENEMY

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

Gostan Zarian (20th-century author): "Our political parties have been of no political use to us. Their greatest enemy is free speech."

*

Avedik Issahakian (20th-century poet): "Our three curses: earthquakes, bloodthirsty neighbors, brainless leaders."

*

Yeghishe (5th-century historian): "If a nation is ruled by two kings, both the kings and their subject will perish."

*

To those who say, "Yeghishe was wrong because after 1500 years of his prediction we are still around," I say: "We may be around, yes, but one could also say that we have been perishing the death of a thousand cuts."

*

Nixon and Watergate, Reagan and Iran Contra, Clinton and Monica: politicians never admit errors of judgment until caught in the mesh of an inflexible justice system. If it were up to our Ramgavars, all Tashnak leaders would be forced to resign on grounds of criminal misconduct, and vice versa - all Ramgavar leaders would hang from the nearest tree for their support of a criminal regime in the Homeland.

*

That's one reason why these two entities cannot engage in dialogue. There is no honor among charlatans.

*

As an anti-partisan, I would like to see leaders of both parties cross-examined by an unbiased panel. Will that ever happen? One can only hope and pray. But I have every reason to suspect that both parties would rather disband than admit any errors of judgment. Their only defense so far: "We are not perfect, no one is." Ask them to expand and they will say "No comment," or words to that effect. They admit their imperfection only to appear more human - that is to say, more perfect in their humanity.

*

I began by quoting a medieval historian and two contemporary writers. Let me conclude by quoting three more intellectual leaders:

*

Raffi (1835-1888): "Those who are responsible for our safety are themselves a gang of criminals…We are like sheep without a shepherd."

*

Nigoghos Sarafian (1905-1973): "Our history is a litany of lamentation, anxiety, horror, and massacre. Also deception and abysmal naiveté

mixed with the smoke of incense and the sound of sharagans."

*

Shavarsh Missakian (1884-1957): "I see charlatanism and cheap chauvinism everywhere but not a single trace of self-sacrifice and dedication to ideals and principles."

*

It is to be noted that Shavarsh Missakian was himself an intellectual as well as a Tashnak political leader.

#

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, February 10, 2005

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

ON HISTORY AND HISTORIANS

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

A capitalist version of American history is to be trusted as much as a communist version of Russian history. Likewise, since nationalism is also an ideology, a Turkish version of Turkish history is as trustworthy as a Greek version of Greek history, or a Jewish version of Jewish history, or a Palestinian…and so on and so forth.

*

There are those who maintain the Armenian version of Armenian history is an exception to this rule. I am not one of them.

*

But to speak of an Armenian version of history is a misnomer because we don’t have one but several – provided we define history not just as what happened by why.

*

In one version of our history, General Antranik is represented as a great military leader and a hero. In another, he is described as a war criminal. And in the General’s own version, Armenian political leaders are the real war criminals who should be crucified because they must be held partly responsible for the massacres.

*

Why does the average Turk trust Turkish historians more than any other? For the same reason that the average Greek, Jew, Russian, American, and Armenian trusts his own historians.

*

Historians are motivated not by love of truth, but, at best, by love of God and Country; and it is a universally acknowledged fact that, in a world where gods and geographic boundaries are in conflict, my god and my geography will be closer to the truth than my enemy’s.

*

As he is drowning while Smyrna is in flames, a Greek character in BIRDS WITHOUT WINGS by Louis de Bernieres, is quoted as saying to an imaginary audience: “Don’t misunderstand me, it isn’t that I think Greeks are worse than Turks, what irritates me is that they think they’re so much better when really they’re exactly the same.”

Such admissions are made only in works of fiction written by foreign writers. I was born and raised in Greece and I now live in a Canadian city with a substantial Greek community, and I have never heard a Greek expressing sentiments remotely similar to these and I doubt if I will live long enough to hear an Armenian admit that Turks too are human beings who deserve to live.

*

Whenever a Jewish writer says anything critical of Jews, he is told: “If Hitler were alive today, he would enjoy reading you.” And whenever I try to humanize Turks, I am accused of covering up the Genocide. It comes with the territory, I guess -- the territory being an attempt to view the past without bias.

#

[DominO123]

I doubt if I will live long enough to hear an Armenian admit that Turks too are human beings who deserve to live.

style_images/master/snapback.png

 

Turks too are human beings who deserve to live.

 

You just lived long enough to "hear" it Ara.

Edited February 10, 2005 by QueBeceR

[Med]

Now that is cruel!

[Arvestaked]

Such admissions are made only in works of fiction written by foreign writers. I was born and raised in Greece and I now live in a Canadian city with a substantial Greek community, and I have never heard a Greek expressing sentiments remotely similar to these and I doubt if I will live long enough to hear an Armenian admit that Turks too are human beings who deserve to live.

 

I think this statement is very presumptuous. People do not walk around soliciting every opinion they have. Assuming that a given modern Armenian would consider a modern Turk unworthy of life, based essentially on the fact that Armenians are upset at past historical occurences, is extremely unfair. As a matter of fact, I do not personally know of an Armenian who would feel that way. How often have you asked people? Not many, I expect. And if you have asked, who did you ask? Did you pick and choose who you would have represent the Armenian population? Pick me. Turks are people like anyone else. I would make as much of an effort to save a Turk hanging from a cliff as I would any other person.

[Armen]

Dusken, don't expect to find fairness in fiction literature. Better learn what "metaphor" stands for.

[ara baliozian]

Friday, February 11, 2005

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

BACK TO SQUARE ONE

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

To qualify for membership in the EU and under mostly French pressure, Turkey is now willing to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. Henceforth, we are told, the Armenian Genocide will no longer be “a national taboo” subject in Turkey, and all mention of it will not be viewed as a crime punishable by law.

*

Before we celebrate our “paper” victory, however, let me warn the reader that this sudden change of heart comes with strings attached. Our genocide will be discussed in Turkish textbooks, yes, but it will be placed in its proper context, and the word context, as everyone ought to know by now, has the authority of making what is true, false, and vice versa.

*

Our genocide in context means equal space will be given to the suffering of the Turks. According to BIRDS WITHOUT WINGS by Louis de Bernieres, unspeakable atrocities were committed on all sides, including Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians, Russians, Kurds, and Armenians. At least a million Turks were deported from Greece and the Balkans under conditions similar to our own deportations. It is this fact that converted Toynbee from an uncompromising Armenophile to a modified Turcophile.

*

It will be remembered that Toynbee began his brilliant career as historian by publishing several books on the tyranny of the Turks and the massacre of the Armenians. But shortly after the war he stated that in these books he had told only a fraction of the story and when he wrote them he was not an independent agent but a member of the British civil service. He further explained that when he investigated the Turkish side of the story after acquiring Turkish friends and learning the Turkish language, he realized that Armenian demands had been unreasonable and Turkish actions if not justifiable than explainable. Even so, he at no time denied the reality of the Genocide.

*

After researching the subject for ten years, Louis de Bernieres reached the same conclusion.

*

Tolstoy’s own daughter, who was a nurse in Van during the Russo-Turkish war, writes in her memoirs that it was impossible to tell Armenian from Turk, or victim from victimizer, because both behaved in an indistinguishable manner.

*

My guess is the Turkish textbooks will reduce the events to a controversy of abstract numbers. If we claim our victims number two million, they will say theirs number more than that, and Armenophiles as well as Turcophiles will continue to believe what they like to believe, because no one is in a position to assert “I was there, I counted them, and these are the exact number of Turkish and Armenian victims.”

*

This much said, let me add that if we ever reach a consensus (which means working together rather than agreement) we may have to consider the Turkish side of the story. As for reparations: the Turks would have to borrow the money from the EU for 99 years with no interest.

#

[ara baliozian]

i am thrilled to know there are several enlightened armenians on this forum. / ara

[phantom22]

Mr. Baliozian,

 

You have distilled the "barn full of flowers" to it's essence in a small bottle. Whatever the arguments may be on either side, it all comes down to property rights of civilian Ottoman Armenians. The Turks can claim that Armenians died of disease or were killed by Kurds, but property issues must have government involvement. Government confiscation was based solely upon ethnicity and religion. How many dead Turks of the era had their property confiscated by the Turkish authorities?

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, February 12, 2005

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

BLACK AND WHITE

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

The more I read about the past, the more I treat the Hollywood version of it with suspicion. In real life the good guys don't always come in white and the bad guys in black. I am not implying our enemies may not be as bad as we think they are. I am willing to concede that they may even be infinitely worse than any of us can imagine. I for one have no sympathy for serial killers and I believe lethal injection is too good for them. What I am saying is that we may not be as good as we assess ourselves to be.

*

GRAY AND BLACK

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

Engaging in verbal massacre and adopting the fascist method of treating dissent may even change the color of our wardrobe from white to gray, and the distance from gray to black is shorter than we think, or short enough for those who believe in human rights to feel ill at ease in the company of self-righteous charlatans who pretend to have all the answers. And they pretend to have all the answers because the answers happen to endow them with a sense of moral superiority. They forget that some of the worst crimes in the history of mankind - among them our genocide - were committed in the name of God and patriotism.

*

ON GOD

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

There are two schools of thought: the first says God created man in His own image; the second says it is the other way around: it is man who created God in his own image. I disagree with both schools. I suspect man created the devil in his own image and called him god.

*

BRAIN-DEAD THINKERS

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

Readers who demand that I write what they think operate on the assumption that their thinking days are over and henceforth they will rely on the old brain and reject anything that may be alien to it.

*

ON PATRIOTISM

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

No amount of patriotism can justify hooliganism and fascism. Patriotism justifies nothing, not even patriotism.

*

TWO QUESTIONS

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

Why is it that in our environment it is dangerous to have an opinion, unless it is someone else's opinion and preferably that of a boss, bishop, or benefactor.

*

Why is it that common sense is so uncommon?

*

OVERHEARD

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

"It is better to be hated by a democracy than to be loved by a dictatorship."

#

[ara baliozian]

the turks claim their own properties were confiscated by greeks, bulgarians, serbs, ...and christians in general.

 

questions of property can be tricky...american indians can claim New York, Washington, Ottawa, and a great many other cities as their own too...

 

our claim over historic armenia means redrawing the map and going back 600 years. try to give the same treatment to europe, america, or australia... and see what happens.

[phantom22]

Mr. Baliozian,

 

While we have to go back at least 600 years to find Armenian jurisdiction over any part of present day Turkey (with the exception of Kars and Ardahan), we have only to go back to 1915-1922 to find legal confirmation of bank accounts, property, etc. confiscated from Armenian Ottoman citizens.

 

Many Armenians were only nominally Armenian. For most purposes you could have considered them Christian Turks. Some were Catholic, were European in outlook, had joint Turkish/Christian names and were totally enmeshed with the Turkish hierarchy. They were killed nevertheless and all their worldly possessions confiscated.

 

You and I are talking "apples and oranges" here. The outcome of what transpired prooves that the Turkish arguments have absolutely no justification. Armenians were targeted en masse solely for their ethnicity without regard for their political viewpoints. Krikor Zohrab had saved the life of Talaat, but the authorities had no regard for that.

 

If the Turkish minority had been treated poorly in the Balkans and Greece, then it is those governments who should make amends to them. Bottom line is that Turkey should not be able to prosper on the carcasses of butchered Armenians.

Edited February 12, 2005 by phantom22

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, February 13, 2005

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

THROUGH THE EYES OF THE WORLD

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

Henry Brooks Adams, American historian (1838-1918): “Politics has always been the systematic organization of hatred.”

*

We had the sympathy of the world in 1915, and we may still have it today, 90 years later. But let us not ask for more lest we are thought of as beings whose greed knows no bounds.

*

“Truth shall set you free,” we are told. If true, what shall lies, propaganda, and hatred lead us into?

*

Wars are blunders. World War I was a colossal blunder. The blunders and crimes of World War II on both sides are too many to catalogue here.

*

If our genocide has become a controversial topic today it may be because we emphasize what happened to us, and the Turks concentrate on why they did what they did. We say they slaughtered us by the million, and they say we were guilty of treason because we supported the enemy and even fought side by side with the Russians and the French. And, in time of war, treason is a capital offense.

*

I remember to have read somewhere that some Armenians in Istanbul cheered openly whenever news of Russian victories reached the capital, in the same way that Palestinians cheered on 9/11.

*

We say our victims number two million. The Turks say their own victims number more than that. The Turks further assert we made territorial demands on a dismembered and moribund empire.

*

Consensus may be reached only if both sides compromise and admit that in time of war objective thinking, reason, common sense and decency become obsolete commodities.

*

This much said, let me also mention the fact that there were many decent and distinguished Armenians who opposed the actions and policies of our revolutionaries. Artin Dadian, an important player in the Ottoman administration, begged them repeatedly not to engage in acts of terrorism. General Antranik warned them not to cooperate with the Young Turks. They were both ignored.

*

As for the people in general: most of them, especially those in the interior provinces, were functional illiterates who lacked political awareness. Others considered the Ottoman Empire as their only homeland. Still others (mostly merchants and the upper classes) were against the revolutionaries. To complicate matters even more, many others (no one quite knows the percentage) were the offspring of mixed marriages. And when I say mixed marriages, I don’t just mean Armenians and Turks, but also Armenians and Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians, Armenians and Kurds, Armenians and Jews, Armenians and Circassians, and so on,

*

In this connection I should also cite the cases of Krikor Zohrab and Roupen Sevag, the first a lawyer, writer, editor, and political leader, and the second a doctor and author. Zohrab trusted the Turks to such a degree that he saved Talaat’s life by risking his own. The second, when asked by his German wife to quit Istanbul and emigrate to Europe because she did not like the Turks, reassured her by saying deep down Turks were nice folk and she had no reason to mistrust them. Both were slaughtered by the Turks.

*

Confused? So is the world, except perhaps those who are in the business of organizing hatred.

*

It is not that the world doesn’t know the truth, the world doesn’t even care to know or listen. The world has problems of its own and it can’t be bothered with old tribal feuds and “ancient history.”

*

Speaking for myself, I say: As we lecture the world on our genocide in 1915, let us not ignore the two genocides or “white massacres” that are taking place today, even as I write these lines: namely, the exodus from the Homeland and assimilation in the Diaspora.

#

[phantom22]

Mr. Baliozian,

 

Any community, region or state which can not cultivate an adequate number of jobs that provide a decent wage that allows for basic needs will experience an exodus of population. When it's borders are closed, there will be illegal emigration.

 

As for assimilation, this is caused by the myopia of Armenian cultural leaders who do not understand the intricacies of engendering Armenian identity while accepting the host cultures. Put the young in a "cultural prison" and they will escape. The majority do.

[ara baliozian]

Monday, February 14, 2005

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

ON THE PERPLEXITY OF EVIL

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

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) American political philosopher: “Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.”

*

The knowledge that I now have faithful readers willing to scold me whenever I stray from the straight and narrow allows me to relax and write with greater freedom.

*

I write not as an Armenian but as a member of the human family, and what is even more to the point, I don’t consider that an act of treason.

*

For every truth there are a thousand lies, for every propaganda line there is another that contradicts it, and the world is a mess because the majority of mankind prefers a convenient lie to an inconvenient truth.

*

From Arnold J. Toynbee I learned that an incompetent leadership can make a bad situation worse.

*

From Louis de Bernieres I learned that the Turks victimized their Christian minorities in Turkey because as Muslim minorities in the Balkans they had been victimized by Christians.

*

From Tatyana Tolstoy I learned that, given the right combination of circumstances, an Armenian will behave like a Turk. Or, as Puzant Granian once put it more bluntly: “There is a Turk in all of us.”

*

Tatyana Tolstoy, Arnold J. Toynbee, and Louis de Bernieres do not deny the reality of the Genocide. What they do perhaps is make the perplexity of radical evil less incomprehensible.

*

The problem with ideologues and partisans is that their arguments convince no one but themselves and members of the club.

*

Long before the Genocide, Raffi urged Armenians to get out of the Ottoman Empire because, he explained, the Turks had no respect for human life. (Remember that the sultans had their male offspring, except one, strangled with silk cords to avert civil war).

*

Shortly before the Genocide, Krikor Zohrab urged Armenians to get out because, he explained, this time around, the Turks were planning a campaign of total extermination. “Zohrab effendi is exaggerating,” they said.

*

In retrospect, exodus from the Ottoman Empire would have been the preferred course of action, as it is today from the Homeland.

*

Our partisans lament the fate of our silenced writers in the Ottoman Empire and the USSR even as they themselves silence anyone who refuses to recycle their propaganda line.

*

If an Armenian ignores the Turkish side of the story, in what way is he different from a Turk who is brainwashed to ignore the Armenian side of the story?

#

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

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

Anonymous: “There should be no enmity among seekers after truth.”

*

You cannot engage in dialogue with someone who thinks good manners to not apply to him because he speaks in the name of God and Country.

*

We will not reach a consensus with the Turks so long as we call them Asiatic barbarians, cold-blooded murderers, and bloodthirsty savages. Diplomacy requires a different vocabulary.

*

On the subject of vocabulary: Do we have a word for consensus? If we do, when was the last time you saw it in print? Why is it that there is so much talk of “corruptsia” and so little of consensus? Is it because we have an abundance of the first and a scarcity of the second?

*

To qualify as an Armenian writer you need the skin of a crocodile, the obstinacy of a mule, and the lifestyle of an ascetic.

*

Where the human rights of dissidents and minorities are not respected, the tyranny of the majority can be as ruthless as the tyranny of sultans.

*

“There is a Turk in all of us.” You want proof? Follow a discussion in an Armenian forum.

*

Our partisans alienate two, brainwash one, and call it preserving the Armenian identity.

*

In an environment of philistines who view literature as a waste of time and a matter of complete indifference, to have a reader’s scorn and to be exposed to his venom must be seen as a step in the right direction.

*

When it comes to understanding the past, it is better to begin with doubts than with certainties.

*

A monologue cannot lead to consensus.

*

Our partisans think to question the partisan line or to deviate from it even by a fraction of an inch is an act of treason.

*

It is said, “all men naturally desire to know.” But history tells us most men persecute those who may know something they don’t know.

#

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

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

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) American writer: "HISTORY. An account of events brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools."

*

It is also written: "History is made by hoodlums and written by dupes."

*

Turks view history as the propaganda of the victor. We view it as the consolation of the loser - the idea that the whole world is rotten to the core except us. Some day both Turks and Armenians may realize that history ought to be an objective account of the past, which means, devoid of all partisan, patriotic, nationalist prejudices, fallacies, distortions, and misconceptions.

*

Today a Turkish historian who dares to be critical of Turkish conduct at the turn of the last century is called a "pro-Armenian bastard." And any Armenian who questions the wisdom of Armenian actions is vilified as a " pro-Turkish hireling." The (verbal) massacre continues…

*

Our revolutionaries did not ask the people if they wanted a revolution. Neither did the Turks ask them if they wanted deportation and massacre. That's the problem with authoritarian rulers. They think the people are sheep and they the shepherds who sometimes also double as butchers.

*

If Armenian cannot agree with Armenian, how will he ever manage to agree with a Turk?

*

I have committed many blunders in my life, probably many more than there are stars in heaven, and I will continue to commit them until the day I die. I understand blunders and the ease with which they are made. What I find difficult to understand are self-assessed morally superior individuals whose conduct has been, continues to be, and will ever be beyond criticism and reproach.

*

We will be more credible in the eyes of the world (who may or may not give a damn one way or the other) if we claim to be only 99% right. If, on the other hand, we paint ourselves all white and our enemies pitch black, we may succeed only in raising doubts in the minds of the jury.

*

We don't judge a man by his opinion of himself. Why should we judge a nation by its propaganda?

*

Some day if I ever compile a list of common fallacies, I will begin with this one: "To think that what you believe must be true."

*

I have no interest in convincing or converting anyone. I am neither a preacher nor a propagandist; I am simply writing down thoughts that I would have been afraid to confide even to myself ten years ago.

#

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, February 17, 2005

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

FOOLS AND KNAVES

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

George Villiers (1628-1687), English writer: “The world is made up for the most part of fools and knaves, both irreconcilable foes to truth.”

*

ON TRUTH IN HISTORY

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

Gerald Brenan (1894-1987), British author: “You can’t get at the truth by writing history; only the novelist can do that.”

*

MEMO TO A READER

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

I never said Armenians are the scum of the earth – only Armenians who have assessed themselves to be as infallible as the Pope, as Magnificent as Suleiman, as wise as Socrates, and as invincible in argument as David Anhaght.

*

FREE SPEECH – ARMENIAN STYLE

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

Our partisans believe in free speech provided it freely consents to recycle their propaganda line.

*

FIRST CHRISTIAN NATION

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

Our religion teaches us to love our enemies. Not being a preacher or a hypocrite (but I repeat myself), I would never go as far as advocating love. I would only suggest that we think of them as fellow human beings, or, if we must think of them as bloodthirsty savages, let us at least take care to feel, think, and speak like civilized beings. And if we can’t do that either, let us not brag about being the first Christian nation, or a Christian island in an infidel sea. Let us allow the possibility that we too, like the rest of mankind, are capable on occasion to give in to the temptation of speaking with a forked tongue.

#

[ara baliozian]

Friday, February 18, 2005

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

ON BEING A GOOD CHRISTIAN

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

Only after we learn to love our enemies, we may learn to love our friends. As for loving our fellow Armenians: that may take a little longer.

*

GENOCIDE GENESIS

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

600 years ago we gave up the struggle and said to them: “We surrender our destiny into your hands. Henceforth you shall be our masters. You may do with us what you will.” And they did. And they are now outraged when we reject their version of the story. After all, who has ever heard of a slave calling his master a liar, especially if the master happens to be one?

*

ANOTHER MYTH EXPOSED

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

We had the pen and they had the sword. The question we must ask is how many lives did our pen save?

*

CONFESSION

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

God may not always be on the side of big battalions, but in 1915 He was. Some say it was not God but the Devil. But as a disoriented skeptic myself, may I confess that I cannot always tell one from the other.

*

DEFINITIONS

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

An expert has been defined as one who knows more and more about less and less. By contrast, a charlatan may be defined as one who knows more and more about everything.

*

A BRIEF HISTORY OF

MODERN ARMENIAN LITERATURE

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

Modern Armenian Literature has been a blood sport whose survivors may be counted on the fingers of an unarmed leper.

*

SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

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

Helder Camara (1909-1999), Brazilian priest: “When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food they call me a communist.” That’s the way it has always been. Say “Yes, sir!” and you are a good boy. Ask questions and you are the lowest scum on earth.

*

AN UNFORGETTABLE LINE

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

Albert Camus (1913-1960), French playwright, novelist, essayist and winner of the Nobel Prize: “Everyone insists on his innocence, even if it means accusing the rest of the human race and heaven.”

*

APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA

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

When I speak of dupes and charlatans I speak of myself. I was a dupe once and like all dupes I engaged in charlatanism – in the name of patriotism, of course. Perhaps everything I write today is a confession and an apology.

#

[ara baliozian]

#

Saturday, February 19, 2005

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

CONFESSION

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

As a boy I was taught to brag about our cunning. I know now that where there is cunning, there will be dupes, and I had been one.

*

DUPES

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

We like to say and repeat that the West deceived us. We don't say we were taken in because we were dupes, and we were dupes because, unlike our enemies, we were inexperienced in the jargon of international diplomacy and we allowed our wishful thinking to control our judgment.

*

DISAGREEMENT

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

Gutter is not the best place for it, neither is censorship the only answer.

*

PATRIOTISM - ARMENIAN STYLE

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

Nicolas-Sebastien Chamfort (1741-1794), French writer: "Be my brother, or I kill you."

*

CENSORSHIP

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

It has been said that great countries produce great saints. One could also say that small countries produce petty internecine feuds. Our textbooks don't mention this because if they did they would be banned.

*

BAN THIS

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

After visiting Turkey, a friend of mine (a well-known Armenian-American poet) wrote me a letter saying he had been surprised to discover that Turks too qualified as members of the human race and that he had found them to be more likeable than Armenians.

#

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, February 20, 2005

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

Chinese saying: “Those who make idols, don’t believe in them.”

*

Who believes in TV commercials? Surely, not the gentlemen on Madison Avenue.

*

Propaganda is the language of politics, dissent that of honesty.

*

Who believes in partisan propaganda? Not even members of the party. Remember Hitler’s famous remark that people will believe in a big lie more easily than in small ones.

*

In my encounters with high-ranking members of our parties, they have exposed more dirt than all our dissidents combined.

*

Because I speak against lies and propaganda, I am called anti-Armenian, as if lies and propaganda were an integral part of the Armenian ethos.

*

Jingoism will always find a receptive audience among jingoes.

*

It is a thankless task to argue against someone who defends views that you held twenty years ago. Time was my refutation. Let time be his.

*

One of the most liberating discovering in life is the sudden realization that you are no longer dependent on the opinions of others, you no longer feel the need to impress anyone, and life until that moment has been no better than self-imposed slavery.

*

All arguments that make us feel better are arguments that flow from the go, and therefore false.

*

We brag about our superior intelligence, resourcefulness, and adaptability that allowed us to survive, but we never ask the question: “What if we were meant to be a nation of a hundred million?”

#

[ara baliozian]

Monday, February 21, 2005

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

We have writers, critics, critics of critics, and commissars.

Writers write, critics criticize, critics of critics criticize the critics, and commissars silence. In such an environment, everyone should be united against the commissars because if they violate the human right of a single writer, they may violate the human right of critics, critics’ critic, and members of the community at large.

*

If a writer is wrong, he can be corrected. Infallibility is not a precondition of free speech. If it were only the Pope of Rome would enjoy the privilege. But who will correct the commissar?

*

I for one am not surprised that the most celebrated Armenian literary work is titled LAMENTATION.

*

When asked why he was begging for alms from a statue, Diogenes is said to have replied: “To get practice in being refused.”

*

Writing for Armenians has enhanced my understanding and loathing of all authoritarian power structures, commissars, and censorship.

*

“United we stand.” If after centuries of defeat, degradation, and suffering, this simple message has failed to penetrate the thick skulls of our leaders, one is justified to question not only their competence and integrity but also, and above all, their sanity.

#

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

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

SOLUTIONS

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

All human problems have human solutions.

If so far we have failed to solve our problems it may be because they are beyond our income bracket. Consider the following as only a handful of examples:

Less arrogance, more humility.

Less propaganda and more objectively assessed facts.

Less jingoism, more moderation.

More understanding and tolerance, less insults and venom.

More compromise, less intransigence.

More whispering, less shouting, screaming, yelling, barking, bellowing and braying.

*

I don’t agree with most Armenians because I don’t agree with my younger self. I don’t mind admitting that I was wrong yesterday, I may be wrong today, and I may never know the truth in the future. Neither do I believe God has ever been or will ever be on my side.

*

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), American former slave and civil rights campaigner: “The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.”

*

Before we hope to reason together, we must learn to moderate our emotions. In practical terms this means: whenever you feel like slaughtering a fellow Armenian, force yourself to send him a declaration of love. The most effective way to prove you are a civilized being is to behave like one.

*

Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German-born theoretical physicist: “Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race.”

*

If the Turks are unwilling to consider our side of the story, let us not emulate them. Let us consent to listen to their side of the story. To listen is not to believe. But it is not quite true to say that they are not willing to listen to our side of the story, since they have already translated and published Dadrian’s book without cuts.

*

God save me from the Turk on the warpath and the self-righteous Armenian in defense of his prejudices.

#

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

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

To those who search for meaning in the past, may I remind them of Gibbon's definition: "History is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind."

*

A propagandist's unspoken slogan: "It doesn't matter if a lie is small, medium, or jumbo as long as it flatters the vanity of the collective ego and it makes us look good in the eyes of the world."

Men love old clichés and familiar platitudes for the same reason than they find old carpet slippers more comfortable than new boots. The sad truth is, we are more easily taken in by our own propaganda than the world.

*

If Turkey can be more useful to the West, the West will be on Turkey's side.

*

To rely more on our reason means to rely less on our emotions, sometimes even to be against our emotions.

*

Hatred cannot solve problems, it can only create new ones.

*

If hatred were taxable, we would be the poorest people on earth and our state the richest.

*

To remember the massacres means to continue being massacred every day in a dark corner of our psyche.

*

We should question the existence of truth as frequently as we question the existence of God, and after we establish its existence, we should wonder if it cares to be on anyone's side.

*

"You are no better than Asiatic barbarians and bloodthirsty savages! You should burn in hell for massacring two million innocent women, children, and old men!"

That's not the language of diplomacy.

The language of diplomacy goes something like this:

"We share 600 years of history, coexistence and cooperation. Let us make an honest effort to find out what it was that went wrong at the turn of the last century in order that we may enter another period of coexistence and cooperation that will be to our mutual benefit."

#