as i see it - Pt. I

[ara baliozian]

ON PREJUDICE

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

Prejudice is very probably the most abundant commodity in the world and

the least acknowledged.

As an Armenian I see nothing positive in the history of the Ottoman

Empire, and yet it lasted six centuries. By contrast the Soviet Empire

lasted only six decades and very probably it claimed many more victims.

Does that mean the Turks were more competent or compassionate political

leaders than the Soviet commissars schooled in Marxism? Is Marx to be

blamed for failing to foresee the abuses his system would generate?

As a former brainwashed Catholic and present agnostic, I see nothing

positive in the history of the Catholic Church – from its destruction of

Greek and Roman monuments, brutal persecution of heretics, warlike Popes,

the Inquisition, its alliance with corrupt and oppressive monarchies to

its support of fascist regimes in our own days; and yet, it has lasted so

far two millennia with millions of adherents throughout the world.

My disapproval of the Catholic Church turns into downright loathing when

I view the history of Islam – from its imperialist warlike beginnings to

its present tribal rivalries and jihadism.

We are all children of prejudice, which means we all have our blind spots

and those who claim to have none are the blindest of all.

[ara baliozian]

DISSENT AND CENSORSHIP

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

If someone you know makes a mistake, you correct him. If he makes the

same mistake again, again you correct him. But after correcting him three

or four times you give him up as incorrigible.

Why is it that some of my readers never give up correcting, attacking and

insulting me? Is it because they consider me corrigible? I doubt it. I

suspect the answer to that question lies elsewhere. They attack and

insult me because I expose them as dupes. Their goal is not to correct me

but to defend their status as undupes – and in their futile efforts to do

the impossible they reveal themselves to be perennial dupes infatuated

with their own infallibility, which amounts to saying, enamored with an

absent factor or nothingness.

And if you were to ask, why is it that you too refuse to give up

correcting and criticizing our leadership? My answer is: All power

structures will have dissenters and there will be dissent as long as

there is free speech. There will also be dissent against dissent or

censorship.

[ara baliozian]

SAINTS AND RASCALS

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

No saint has ever assessed himself as a saint, and I have never heard a

good man say "I am a good man." If you ever hear anyone say "I am a

saint," you can be sure of one thing: he is a rascal. And yet there are

those who think all they have to do to be a good Armenian is to assess

themselves as one, or to think or to believe to be one. It never even

occurs to them –and it doesn’t occur to them because they are stupid as

well as dishonest -- that before one qualifies as a good Armenian one

must first qualify as a good human being; and the criteria by which a man

is seen as good are universally acknowledged. It follows that to be a

good Armenian means to allow one’s actions and way of life to speak for

themselves. Which is why, whenever an Armenian portrays himself as a

patriotic Armenian, I immediately assume him to be a charlatan and a

bloodsucker with political ambitions; and for reasons that I won’t bother

explaining because they are obvious to any objective observer with some

experience in Armenian affairs, no one can be as dogmatic, arrogant,

narrow-minded, intolerant, and in one word, repellent than an Armenian

with political ambitions.

[ara baliozian]

DUPES AND OTHER RASCALS

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

How does one explain the existence of people who believe everything their

own propaganda says but dismiss the propaganda of the opposition as a

tissue of lies? Or religious leaders who preach war against heretics and

infidels knowing full well that they too are seen as heretics or infidels

in the eyes of other religious leaders? And what about Armenians who say

"The only good Turk is a dead Turk!" and consider themselves morally

superior to Turks who say "The only good Armenian is a dead Armenian"? Or

Armenians who say patriotism is a good thing if it is Armenian but a bad

thing if it is Turkish? And then there are people who take mullahs and

their version of history seriously. But then, in what way are they

different from readers (and millions of them too) who until very recently

believed everything PRAVDA and IZVESTIA said but didn't even bother

reading the NEW YORK TIMES or the WASHINGTON POST? And what is one to

make of dedicated patriots who preach confrontation and war so long as

they happen elsewhere and at a very safe distance for themselves and

their families. And who could be more contemptible than the man who is

outraged when you treat him the way he treats you?

[ara baliozian]

DUPES / #2

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

The secret, perhaps even the unconscious, desire of my hostile readers

and kibitzers is to make me give up in disgust by making themselves as

disagreeable as they can. I take great pleasure in the knowledge that I

must be a constant source of disappointment to them. But sometimes I

can't help wondering: What is it that I share with this type of Armenian?

Why is it that what strikes me most is not that which unites us but that

which separates us? Could I ever be – would I ever want to be – a member

of a tribe within a tribe? Will they ever qualify as members of the human

race?

And what I find most astonishing about them is their stubborn refusal to

acknowledge the fact that six centuries of Ottoman oppression has done –

must have done – irreparable damage to our collective unconscious. They

think all they have to do to resolve our Ottoman complex is to ignore it,

to pretend they are not products of history but self-creations. But

reality can't be fooled. Reality has its own inflexible laws. Reality

makes demands on us which we cannot ignore. Sooner or later we must come

to terms with our past and the world in which we live. Because the more

we isolate ourselves and the louder we extol our nonexistent virtues, the

more we expose ourselves as dupes of our own chauvinist propaganda.

[ara baliozian]

MY SHITUATION

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

1. When my plumber heard that I was a writer, he said he too was writing a

book. "How come I've never heard of you?" my dentist demanded when told I

was a writer. "Do you write novels like Stephen King?" a young thing

wanted to know. Which is why I no longer identify myself as a writer but

as a retired church organist, and I'd rather identify myself as an

unemployable misfit than an "Armenian writer."

2. "You are a writer!" some of my readers remind me, meaning: "You ought to

be ashamed of yourself for saying such things!"

3. I don't write to achieve literary immortality or, for that matter,

popularity. My aim is much more modest. I write to be a pain in the

perforation, and judging by the kind of feedback I get, I am a brilliant

success.

4. Hostile kibitzers generous with insults: they are not my real enemies.

They are more like parrots repeating recycled crap, or monkeys serving an

invisible organ grinder. Organ grinders: my aim is to be a pain in their

derriere.

[ara baliozian]

DUPES / #3

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

 

1. Who takes chauvinists seriously?

Only chauvinists of the same tribe.

No one appears more ridiculous than a chauvinist to a chauvinist of

another tribe.

A Turkish chauvinist and an Armenian chauvinist: whenever they confront

each other they will do so with the absolute certainty that the other is

either a fool or a liar, and very probably both at once and a dupe to

boot.

2. Chauvinists don't reason. They scream; and the louder they scream the

deafer they become to the voice of reason.

Men of reason may engage in dialogue; they may even compromise and reach

a consensus – which doesn't mean agreement but willingness to work

together towards a common goal. But chauvinists are as capable of

dialogue as two men screaming at the top of their lungs are capable of

finding any merit in the other’s screams.

3. And as long as there are chauvinists, we shall have wars and massacres in

the name of truth, and whenever truth is on the other side, in the name

of God or Allah.

4. Progress? What could be more oxymoronic (with emphasis on the last three

syllables) than chauvinist progress?

[ara baliozian]

SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

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

A writer should not write what everyone thinks but what everyone will

think. As for our charlatans who recycle chauvinist crap: it is not that

I don't believe in what they say; I don't think they believe it

themselves. The only reason they go on parroting empty verbiage and

abusing anyone who dares to contradict them is that that▓s one way of

discharging the Turkish venom that all Armenians carry in their blood √

which amounts to saying: they go on preaching Armenianism and practicing

Ottomanism with the arrogance of all those who are too stupid to suspect

that anyone could be smart enough to see through them; and because

objective analysis exposes them as dupes and phonies, honesty is not one

of their favorite words, neither is objectivity.

And life goes on: nothing changes, nothing improves, except for the

number of the disenfranchised and the alienated.

[ThornyRose]

Unrelated, but - what are those??

By the way, Sir, I still enjoy reading most of your stuff! Stating the obvious but prickly! Keep up the good work!

[ara baliozian]

QUESTIONS

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

As children we are brainwashed to believe that to believe is better than

not to believe. But then, how does one explain the massacre of countless

giaours (infidel dogs) in the name of Allah? And if you were to explain

that away as a peculiarity of Islam or the bloodthirsty Turk, what about

the religious wars and massacres of Christian Europe and Byzantine

Empire? -- not to mention the savage persecution and torture of heretics

and warlike Popes.

We are also brainwashed to believe that to have ideals is better than to

have none. But then, how does one explain the millions of innocent

victims of nationalism, fascism and communism?

If we place faith and idealism in a historic context, we have no choice

but to conclude that they are both systematically used (abused?) to

satisfy man's killer instincts.

Man is a wolf who thinks by following the dictates of a closed system of

thought (an organized religion or ideology) he will be as innocent as a

lamb even as he butchers his fellow man.

Man is a compulsive liar who even as he does the devil's work he is

successful in convincing himself he is an angel because he is an

instrument of God's Will.

Homo sapiens? How about homo ignoramus?

[ara baliozian]

OUR PROBLEMS AND THEIR SOLUTIONS

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

It never fails.

At least once a week a reader writes to let me know that

what we need now is less criticism and more solutions.

Instead of demanding solutions from our leadership,

these readers demand solutions from me

as if I were in charge of our destiny as a nation;

and no matter how often the solutions are formulated

(more honesty, less charlatanism;

more tolerance, less dogmatism;

more solidarity, less tribalism;

more dialogue, less monologue)

they pretend not to have heard them.

They ignore the simple fact that

so long as our leaders portray themselves as infallible

("We have done nothing wrong!

It's not our fault but that of the Turks, the West, the opposition┘"

√ which happens to be the quintessence of charlatanism),

they will also go on ignoring the root of our problems.

But, as I have said before and it bears repeating,

our real problem is not the absence of solutions but the question:

Will there ever come a time

when dishonest men will accept an honest solution?

[ara baliozian]

ON FAITH

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

Without faith (or, for that matter, ideals and principles) a man is like

an egg without a shell. Faith is an irreplaceable gift and a source of

great strength. Faith can even remove mountains provided it is and

remains a personal possession that expresses itself in deeds as opposed

to dogmas. Because as soon as it is translated into dogmas, it means

crowds, organization, hierarchy, bureaucracy and a power structure; and

power structures are invariably hijacked by cynical opportunists who

believe in nothing but the acquisition and enhancement of their own

authority and prestige. Christianity was debauched by warlord-Popes as

surely as Marxism was gang-raped by the likes of Stalin and Beria, and

Islam is prostituted (or is it pimped?) today by mullahs who promise 72

lays and as many lies, as ignorant and gullible crowds chant "Death to

infidel dogs!" which might as well mean genocide! And if you think I am

being alarmist, consider what happened to us in the Ottoman Empire. I for

one have no doubt whatever that if these fanatic Muslims had the power

today, not only they would reduce two continents to rubble in the name of

Allah but they would also celebrate its anniversary as their greatest

military triumph.

[ara baliozian]

MY PRINCE

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

Dissidents and critics like Chomsky are an asset to any society, culture,

or power structure; but as a citizen I would feel very uncomfortable if

they were to occupy positions of power. I would hate to see someone like

Chomsky in charge of American foreign or domestic policy, or, for that

matter, in charge of anything except a course in linguistics. I have

nothing against academics as such. But when it comes to foreign policy, I

would prefer a historian to a linguist; and when it comes to economic

policy, I would prefer an economist to a musicologist or theologian.

My ideal political leader is just an ordinary joe with at least two

competent advisers in every department or branch, provided of course they

represent different schools of thought.

As for charismatic leaders with messianic ambitions: I divide them into

two and they both spell trouble: the lucky megalomaniacs (like Alexander

the Great and Napoleon), and the unlucky ones (like Hitler and Saddam

Hussein), who make a name for themselves at the expense of countless

nameless victims.

[ara baliozian]

FASCISM VERSUS DEMOCRACY

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

Anti-intellectualism is one of the main pillars of fascism.

Fascist regimes systematically exterminate or force into exile

their best brains.

By forcing scientists like Einstein and Fermi to emigrate to America,

fascists handed the Allies a military victory which could have been

theirs.

The difference between fascism and democracy is about the same as the

difference between tolerance and intolerance,

victory and defeat,

and ultimately life and death.

A more democratic and less Stalinist USSR

would have made of Marxism a far more universally popular ideology.

Tribalism is authoritarian, elitist, undemocratic.

Tribalism also means division, fragmentation, and fascism.

Tribalism does not have to be defeated because it defeats itself.

My own personal loathing of fascism is such that

I have no doubt whatever in my mind that

a dictator is more dangerous than a thousand serial killers,

and fascists do not represent the people,

only its criminal and lunatic fringe.

[ara baliozian]

LIVE AND LOYN

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

1.

According to the Soviet historian Ivan Ivanovich Popov (b. 1911), author

of the widely used textbooks THE ORIGINS OF CAPITALISM ( 617 pages.

Index. Bibliography. Moscow, 1938) and THE HISTORY OF MANKIND FROM THE

BEGINNING TO THE PRESENT (589 pages. Illustrated. Index. Bibliography.

Stalingrad, 1949), Abel was assassinated by agents of the Mossad and Cain

was framed with the connivance of the CIA.

2.

According to the Muslim historian Ibrahim Abdullah Haivanoghlu (b. 1922)

the War of Troy - the one described by Homer in his celebrated epic poem

THE ILIAD was instigated by American foreign policy. What really

happened was this: In their unending search for new markets, the

Americans wanted access to the Black Sea, and when the Trojans refused to

cooperate, agents of the CIA abducted Helen and spread the rumor Paris

had done it. The Greeks declared war against Troy even though they were

fully aware of the fact that Paris couldn't have done it for the simple

reason that he was a homosexual. But the Greeks declared war anyway

because Washington had promised them a fat foreign aid package, which

they needed badly on account of tourism (Greece's main source of foreign

currency today) not having been invented yet┘.

3.

According to the celebrated Armenian-American philosopher Jack S.

Avanakian

(b. 1919), mankind may be divided into two categories: the fools and

fanatics on the one hand, and on the other, the slightly less foolish and

fanatical. As for the reasonable moderates and the wise: they are like

Nessie - the Loch Ness monster: everyone has heard about them but no one

has actually seen one.

[ara baliozian]

NOTES / COMMENTS

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

1.If your opponent is a man of reason, you may reason and come to terms

with him. But if he is a man of unreason, he my misinterpret your appeals

to his reason as weakness and redouble his efforts to achieve total

victory (his) and complete destruction (yours). I speak from experience.

I write for Armenians.

2.Twenty years ago I wrote a book in which I flattered our collective ego.

It became a best-seller. I no longer write books because I know something

I didn't know then: It is better to read a good book than to write a bad

one.

3.Between fame and indifference to fame, I consider the second as the

greater and more valuable possession.

4.The worst thing about being an Armenian writer is being read and insulted

by imbeciles. The best thing is being read and insulted by imbeciles too

-- and knowing that at another time and place they would have betrayed

you to the Ottoman or the Soviet police.

[ara baliozian]

KABUL HAS FALLEN

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

1.There are so many parallels between what's happening in Afghanistan today

and what happened in Armenia after World War I: I wonder, why is it that

none of our pundits speaks of them?

2.Tribal people condemn themselves to perpetual ignorance and survive only

as perennial losers simply because they refuse to learn from the lessons

of history.

3.Tribal people brag about their heroes and martyrs, their idealism,courage, and dedication to principles; sometimes even about how smart they are; but they are too ignorant and backward to see that there is no

such thing as a tribal principle: only tribal charlatanism.

4.Tribal people know how to hate the enemy, but what they know even better

is how to hate their own kind. The Armenian Assembly speaks of reconciliation with the Turks. Will it ever speak of reconciliation with the ARF? Shortly after World War I, the ARF itself spoke of reconciliation with the Turks. What about reconciliation with the

Armenian Assembly? So far I have not heard even a whisper in that direction.

5.Like all tribal people, we love to mourn our countless heroes and martyrs but even as we mourn we alienate many more and refuse to see that as far as the nation is concerned, they too (the alienated and assimilated) are

casualties √ casualties not of war and massacre, but of our own tribal charlatanism.

[ara baliozian]

TRIBALISM OBSERVED

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

Lawrence of Arabia was infatuated with the Arabs; but in his SEVEN

PILLARS OF WISDOM he analyzes them so objectively that he might as well

be speaking of Armenians towards whom he felt no affinity.

The Arabs, he tells us, view the world in "primary colors, or rather [in]

black and white." They are dogmatic. They despise doubt. They deal only

in certainties, in truth or untruth, belief and unbelief. Their thoughts

are "at ease only in extremes." They don't think with their brains but

with their instincts. They don't trust institutions, only individuals. He

further speaks of their "hardness of belief, almost mathematical in its

limitations and repellent in its unsympathetic form." They are "a

limited, narrow-minded people. They invented no systems of philosophy."

They were easily manipulated by the Turks who "led them by subtle

dissension to distrust one another."

This book was published in 1926 and has been translated and read in many

languages. Which is why I smile whenever I am urged not to hang our dirty

linen in public. To think that there are still "smart" Armenians

(self-assessed, of course) who think we don't stand naked in the world.

[ara baliozian]

TALAAT & CO.

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

On several occasions readers have pointed out to me that Armenians have

many reasons to distrust Jews, one of them being that the Young Turks

were Jews from Salonica. According to T.E. Lawrence, better known as

Lawrence of Arabia, author of THE SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM: "The shallow

and half-polished committee of the Young Turks were descendants of

Greeks, Albanians, Circassians, Bulgars, Armenians, Jews – anything but

Seljuks or Ottomans." I suppose this may also explain why Armenians have

more than one reason to distrust their fellow Armenians in view of the

fact that Sultan Abdulhamid II was half-Armenian on his mother’s side.

To my anti-Semitic friends I say: Lust for power is thicker, much

thicker, than blood. If you want to distrust a category or group,

distrust, even loathe and hate, politicians or partisans who are

motivated not to serve their fellow men as public servants but to satisfy

their lust for power.

[ara baliozian]

ON AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY

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

The question is often raised: Why does American support corrupt despots?

I shall try to answer this question not as a pundit but as a layman who

follows the news and the occasional debate on TV and has read a handful

of books on the subject.

America has fought a murderous world war against dictators. The only time

it has supported corrupt despots is when the alternative would have been

dealing with a hostile Communist-style regime in the manner of Castro.

But if America democratized Japan and Germany, why not the Arabs and the

Latinos?

If America thrusts democracy on despotic regime, the very same people who

now criticize it for supporting despots, would criticize it for

interfering in the internal affairs of countries and violating their

traditional and cultural values.

Besides, according to a recent widely read study (Francis Fukuyama's THE

END OF HISTORY) all totalitarian systems are moving in the direction of

democracy on their own, very much like the countries of the USSR, because

it is becoming clear that individual freedom is the most reliable and

enduring source of strength (a truism that was known to the ancient

Greeks 2500 years ago).

For more on the complexities American foreign policy, see Kissinger's

Memoirs (in several thick volumes). Please note that Kissinger's mindset

is not American but Continental. Two of his role models are Talleyrand (a

minister of foreign affairs under Napoleon and Louis XVIII) and Toynbee

(the historian who authored several books on Turks and Armenians).

For the complexities of Middle-Eastern affairs, see T.E. Lawrence's SEVEN

PILLARS OF WISDOM. Far from being an adventures story, this is a highly

erudite work that bristles with detail.

Even better, compare American foreign policy to that of any empire known

to man - from the Roman to the Ottoman and Soviet - or nation of Europe

or Asia, from Franco's Spain and Mussolini's Italy, to Hitler's Germany,

De Gaulle's France, and Levon Der Bedrossian's Armenia

[ara baliozian]

THREE ASSERTIONS

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

1.

A decent man is my brother even if he happens to be a Turk.

A bloodsucker is my enemy even if he happens to be an Armenian.

As for charlatans and their dupes: they might as well be interchangeable

units and as such a race apart.

2.

I believe American policy-makers are fundamentally decent and able men

who, unlike the Pope of Rome, commit occasional blunders. Even so, they

try to do their best in an imperfect world at the mercy of despots,

sultans, mullahs, ayatollahs and assorted rascals with the ethics of

compulsive liars and the bloodthirsty instincts of serial killers. Theirs

is not an easy task, as anyone who has ever tried to do the right thing

in a crooked environment knows. In a world where Socrates was poisoned,

Christ crucified, and Gandhi assassinated, what chance does a decent

mortal have?

3.

The only thing my fellow Armenians and I agree on is that our feelings

are mutual. I don't care much about them and they don't give a damn about

me. So much so that if they choose to go to the devil √ and so far they

appear to have decided to do exactly that √ I will not stand in their

way┘not because I don't want to stand in their way but because Armenians

who have made up their minds are unteachable as well as unreachable.

[ara baliozian]

U$A / 2

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

1.

When on Sept. 11 Palestinians danced with joy at what had happened in New

York and Washington, they did so not because they hated America but

because they were misled to believe they did by their ignorant mullahs.

There is some degree of ignorance in all anti-Americanism. I speak from

experience. I too was anti-American most of my life.

2.

It is the easiest thing in the world to hate America by concentrating on

its negative aspects and ignoring the positives; and one doesn't have to

look hard to find the negatives because America will point them out long

before its enemies do.

3.

For a while it was fashionable to hate America in the name of an

ideology, such as Communism or Nazism, all of which have been exposed as

morally and politically bankrupt and have been discarded on the garbage

dump of history. But nothing evil ever dies. Stalinism and Hitlerism have

now been replaced with Muslim fundamentalism or jihadism. What could be

more absurd than a Christian hating America in the name of Islam?

4.

It has been said that there are more Jews in New York than in Israel. But

I think that’s a myth. It has also been said that there are 6 million

Irish in Ireland but 60 million in America. But I suspect that’s another

myth. There are also millions of Arabs, Armenians and Turks, and they all

live side by side in peace. They may write the occasional angry letters

to the editor or engage in debate on radio or TV but that’s as far as

things go. This is an important positive aspect about America that

anti-Americans choose to ignore and because they ignore it they condemn

themselves to misunderstand America.

5.

United States of America could also be called United Races. Colors, and

Creeds of the World. America represents the world and mankind as a whole

more than any other nation on earth. To hate America is to hate mankind.

6.

To those who say "We don't hate Americans, only America’s foreign

policy," I say: "What if its foreign policy enjoys 90% popular support?

Does that mean you hate only 90% of Americans and love only the balance?"

[ara baliozian]

NOTES / COMMENTS

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

 

1.Whenever I am urged to give ‘em hell, I am tempted to quote Truman:

"I don't give ‘em hell. All I do is speak the truth and they think they

are in hell."

2.Lust for power is as base as subservience.

3.No one can be as dumb as he who has assessed himself as smart.

4.The worst American politician is better than the best mullah, ayatollah,

sultan, or tyrant if only because he won a majority vote and he is

accountable to the people as opposed to himself alone or Allah.

5.Nothing can obstruct one’s vision as effectively as a bloated ego.

6.Nothing would give me as much pleasure as loving my enemy because nothing

would give him as much pain.

[ara baliozian]

DEFINING RACISM

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

When T.E. Lawrence, in his analysis of the Arab mindset uses such

descriptive terms as "dogmatic," "tribal," and even "repellent," is he

being racist or objective?

When Raffi writes, "Treason and betrayal are in our blood," is he being

racist or honest?

When Zarian confides in his diary, "Armenians survive by cannibalizing

one another," is he being racist or critical?

Even more to the point: Are Lawrence, Raffi, and Zarian expressing

concern or being hostile?

When a chauvinist emphasizes the positive and covers up the negative, is

he being honest, objective and impartial or self-serving, deceitful or

racist?

 

ON RACISM / 2

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

1. The more a man identifies himself as a member of a specific religion,

nation or tribe, and the more he forgets being a member of the human

race, the more he dehumanizes himself in the eyes of his fellow men.

Likewise, the more he labels his fellow men as members of a specific

race, color or creed, the closer he gets to being a racist.

2. Biologically speaking, all men are 99% alike.

To stress the 1% at the expense of the 99% is racist.

3. Chauvinism and racism might as well be synonymous.

4. Racism is charlatanism compounded by moronism.

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, November 18, 2001

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

1. There are people who take care of number one and to hell with the tribe.

Others take care of the tribe and to hell with the nation.

There are also people who take care of the nation because they know in

doing so they will take of the tribes within that nation and themselves.

You may now draw your own conclusions.

2. One of the advantages of being an Armenian writer is that no one

overestimates you. On the contrary, they go out of their way to

underestimate and even insult you; they even reduce you to dust and like

dust you have no choice but to rise.

3. Both the strong and the weak believe God is on their side; but the strong

can prove it, whereas the weak can only hope and pray….

4. Both the rich and the poor believe God is on their side but the poor

believe it because they have been brainwashed to believe it by religious

leaders who are hirelings of the rich.

5. To be an Armenian means to talk tough and to kick ass: to talk tough

about the Turks and to kick Armenian ass.