Those Marvelous Armenians

[Aratta-Kingdom]

California Courier Online

 

Those Marvelous Armenians

By Muhammad Khaled

This article first appeared in Arabic in Al-Khaleej newspaper in the UAE. It

was translated by Nouritza Abu Jamra into English for The California Courier.

 

Recognition and apology to heal the historical wound. The constraints of the

past will be forgotten and the focus will be on the future.

They are more than friends, they are brothers. They moved to "Bilad Al-Sham"

Syria in 1915, during the forced deportation by the Ottoman Ittihad and

Taraqqi Organization as part of the racial cleansing of the courageous people who

were once described by the Ottoman rulers as "The Honest Nation." This was the

second wave of racial cleansing that started in late 19th century. It is

reported that one-and-a-half million Armenians were massacred.

Borders, homes and hearts were opened for them in Syria, Lebanon and

Palestine, where one could witness on their faces the pride of an honest refugee.

Three decades later, the same expressions were witnessed on the faces of

Palestinian refugees in South Lebanon, where on the entrance of a tent the following

aphorism was displayed, "If you are on their land, show gratification. If you

are in their neighborhood, salute them. And if you are in their homes, carefor

them."

In a short period, Armenians became honest citizens of these countries with

equal opportunities and responsibilities.

On the international arena, Armenians such as Russian Foreign Minister,

Lavrov; the world-renowned composer, Khachaturian; the inventor of the MIG fighter,

Ardem Migoyan; the Chairman of Supreme Soviet Council, Anastas Migoyan; the

famous writer, William Saroyan; actor/singer, Charles Aznavour; Chief of the

Soviet Army during World War II, Marshall Bagramyan; the Palestinian artist,

Paul Giragosian; the atomic scientist, Dolikian; the human computer, Gharibian;

the inventor of MRI, Simijian; the tennis player, Andre Agassi; the

actor/singer, Cher; Mr. 5% of the oil industry, Gulbenkian; and father of plastic

surgery, Vartan Kazanjian. In Egypt for 65 years, five Armenian ministers held the

Foreign Ministry portfolio. Armenians since 1861, took part in the

administration of Mount Lebanon Governorate "Jabal Lebnan." Out of eight governors, four

were Armenians. It is also reported that during the scholastic year 1982-1983,

the first Iraqi student to score 599 out of 600 points in high school final

exams was an Armenian - Zaven Bandisian.

The historical pain of Armenians is the massacre of one-and-a-half million of

their people by the Turkish regime at the end of the 19th and early 20th

centuries. The unrelenting and continuous efforts of Armenians to speak about

these massacres has resulted in the recognition of the genocide by 30 countries,

and more are to follow.

What should the Arab position be? Religious and international groups declare

that "A believer is a brother of another believer, a Muslim is a brother of

another Muslim, a Christian is a brother to another Christian, a Jewish

individual is a brother to another Jew, and a Buddhist is a brother to another

Buddhist. But above all these statements, there is a more comprehensive saying which

states that, a human being is a brother to another human being and that truth

prevails and nothing surpasses it.

Armenians and Turks are two brotherly nations to Arabs and the law of Omar

bin Al-Khattab should prevail between them. What is that law? In the year 642,

Arabs invaded Egypt under the command of Amr bin Al-Aas and started building

the city of al-Fustat, now Cairo. There were plans to build a big mosque but

this plan could not be completed because a small house owned by a Jew on the

land, where the mosque was to be built. They offered to buy the house from the

Jewish owner who refused the offer. The owner was offered another land and was

promised to build a house for him and again he refused. Then the authorities

confiscated the house and proceeded with building the mosque.

Next, the Jewish man went to Khalifa Omar and presented his case. During the

Friday prayer, the governor Amr bin Al-Aas stood up and read Khalifa's

message: "From the Khalifa, Amir al-Mu'minin, Omar bin Al-Khattab, to Amr bin Al-Aas:

'Return to this Jewish man his house. The mosque can be diverted but fairness

should never be diverted.'"

Amr bin Al-Aas placed the Khalifa's letter on his head and said, "The

Khalifa's order is to be obeyed." This is the golden measure that should beused to

weigh issues. We address our Turkish brothers and tell them that it should not

be a problem for the present Turkish generation to acknowledge and apologize

for the actions of their previous generation. The present generation shouldnot

be blamed for the mistakes of another generation.

Recognition and apology will help heal the historical wounds of Armenians and

will give them a chance to look forward to the future instead of being drawn

to the past. We call upon these two fine nations of Turkey and Armenia to live

together in peace, to strengthen their political relations, and to pursue

their joint interests. We are aware that, having occupied Iraq, the presentUS

administration is playing the Armenian and Kurdish 'cards,' against Turkey and

Iraq.

We have great confidence that the wise Turkish leadership will be able to

snap out of being slaves to the past and get rid of Turkey's national fanaticism.

At the end, only righteousness prevails. No doubt they know the saying, "the

right prevails even if everybody was against it and the wrong remains wrong

even if all stand by it." Stalin's statement of "killing one man is a murder,

killing one million is a statistic" is acceptable no more.

The national homeland of Armenians is the Republic of Armenia and Yerevan is

its capital. In 1828, Tzarist Russia captured Armenia from the Persians and

later it was attached to the Soviet Union. Armenia became independent in 1991.

Armenia has an area of 30,000 Km², a population of 3.3 million and Diaspora

Armenians are estimated to be about 5 million. In 301 AD Armenia accepted

Christianity and made it the official religion of the state.

The Ottomans named the Armenians "the honest nation" due to their honesty,

loyalty, good neighborliness, and their good citizenship in the Ottoman Empire.

In 440 AD, an Armenian scholar invented the Armenian alphabet and translated

the Bible from Assyrian to Armenian.

[Johannes]

Just to remind to our good brothers; that nowadays Armenia is only 10 % of Armenia, so the origin of problem is the robbery of Armenia. Every one wish, peace prevails, the question is; do the world need a peace without justice?

Another question to our brothers; must armenians accept this?