respect

[ara baliozian]

RESPECT

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

"Armenians will respect you only

if you become a success in odar circles,"

I am told again and again by well-meaning friends.

Maybe, but why should I care to have the respect

of readers who don’t respect their own judgment? -- readers

so confused, ignorant and base

that they must look up to odars for guidance

-- the very same odars

who are invariably dismissed by them

as uncivilized, ruthless, double-talking brutes.

[MJ]

Ara, this is an incredibly correct observation. However, it is good, in my view. It raises the plank. Imagine that the "local" appreciation was enough. In that case, the entire Armenian Art would've reduced to painting Mt. Ararat, the entire Armenian poetry and literature would've reduced to "Menk kich enk baits hay enk," etc.

 

Hovhanness Toumanyan writes in one of his publicistic articles that "If Ayvazovski had lived in Armenia, under the best scenario he would've become a local precinct teacher (giughakan themi varzhapaet)." By "living in Armenia" I don't think it has to be understood geographically, but embracing and limiting to the local set of values and and criteria. The same concerns Diaspora.

 

Spending most of my life in Armenia, I have found that indeed "No one is prophet in his own country," which is good. This is a challenge to meet, and this is a vehicle of progress.

 

However, the negative part of it, as also observed by you above, is that with all this, everybody else looks "barbarian" to us, and we find that "when we had theater, others were walking on the trees." This is the troubling part of Armenian upbringing. The two approaches, in fact, contradict to each other. No surprise, right? We are controversial people, in general.

 

We forget that the entire Armenian Culture is a derivative of the eastern and western cultural mix. We forget that even Mesrop Mashtots had to spend few years in Alexandria, so that to invent our alphabet. We forget that the crux of the Golden Age of Armenian Culture is a mere Armenization of the Hellenic Philosophical Thought.

 

There is nothing wrong with being a derivative culture. That's what most of the cultures are. The problem is the ignorance, and the problem is the absolutisation of the mediocrity.

 

Now imagine that it was not the case that you had to be recognized by the "odars" first, so that to be recognized by the fellow Armenians. The result would've been such garbage in the areas of Armenian Art, Science, and Culture, in general.

[ara baliozian]

We are a contradiction that refuses to be resolved.

Result?

Stagnation, decline, degeneration, and "we are few!"

Actually, that’s a big lie.

We are not few!!!!!!!

Our assimilation and mortality rates are high.

And they are high because we refuse to resolve our contradictions.

A vicious circle!

A dead end!

And result #2?

Death by white or red massacre! / ara

[MJ]

Ara,

That may be true. However the inherent contradiction may also serve as a driving engine of progress.

There are at least a couple of options available to us in the wake of the existing fundamental contradictions idiosyncratic to our nation and apparent in our history.

We may refuse to resolve them, and may proclaim that there are no contradictions with us, and in fact the contradictions are inherent in the rest of the world - "they (the world) don't understand/appreciate us." This will result in arrogant expressions of self-pity or victimological self-destruction - maybe even both. Eventually this would lead to where it has lead for about a millennium - assimilation, and an accelerating one.

We may also recognize our contradictions, while attempting to understand their driving sources. In my view, this attempt would lead us towards an assessment of our national ideology, and hopefully, the de-ideologization of our existence.

To expect that the older generation is going to change its ways and means is very naive. That generation has been mentally dead for long time. It was not apparent because we didn't have sovereign country. The sovereignty of Armenia has exposed their death. However, there is a great chance that the younger generation - the "Generation Online," might be much healthier than the older ones.

The history has given us another chance - an incredible chance to build Virtual/Vertical Armenia anchored at the Republic of Armenia. It wouldn’t be easy, but it is the last chance. It would depend on our determination and our aspirations.

[ara baliozian]

Dear friend:

Seventy years ago we had intellectual giants;

we have none today.

This to me represents not progress but decline.

[MJ]

Ara,

 

I am ready to concede that we don't have giants today, and we had some 70 years ago. But we didn't have them 90 years ago. I think the giants "come" when the time is ripe for them. When one looks at the history of the Soviet Armenia, and considers the Armenian post-genocide climate, it becomes apparent that the hope for the future of Armenia has given birth to giants. If there is no hope, who cares about the giants? What purpose would they serve?

 

There is no shortage of intellectual capacity of Armenian individuals. But there is a complete lack of vision and perspective for the future of Armenia. If the vision is there, the giants will be born.

[ara baliozian]

Dear Martin:

I have been writing for Armenians

for more than a quarter of a century

and so far I have not detected a single sign of progress.

All the signs that I have seen

have been in the opposite direction.

This much said, may I add that,

nothing would give me more pleasure

than to wake up tomorrow

or ten years from now

(assuming I’ll live that long)

and to discover that I have been wrong. / ara

[MJ]

Dear Ara,

 

I don't think you are wrong in assessing what we can observe, now. It is just something new has happened about 10 years ago, which has not yet been fully comprehended.

 

It will take one generation, as much as this type of assessment may be correct, so that a new mentality and a new set of values may be established.

 

The generation, which has never believed in Armenia and in its future, and whose ideology has been based on the motto "being good Armenian means hating Turks – more you hate, better Armenian you are," cannot change over such a short period of time. In fact, I think they would never change. And I, personally, would not waist my energy trying to reform them. That generation, with some exceptions, as I have mentioned above, has been mentally and psychologically dead throughout its entire existence. And being exception has, by in large, meant alienating oneself from the Armenian identity.

 

An Encyclopedia Britannica of the 19th century has only few lines under the title “Armenians” and a picture of a farmer sitting on a donkey, with his wife on his side. Looking at the picture, you cannot tell what makes this couple not to be taken for a Turk or a Kurd.

 

Prior to 1918, Armenia practically has not had intelligentsia residing on its territory. The centers of Armenian Culture have been Tiflis, Istanbul, the island of St. Lazarus, and to a lesser degree - Moscow.

 

Since 1918, the evolution of Armenia has been overwhelming. Disappointed and disillusioned people like Martiros Sarian, Avetik Issahakian, Alikhanian, etc, have flown to Armenia. More importantly, within one generation, Armenia has been capable of successfully implementing on its soil the rich traditions of the incredible Russian Science, and has given birth to such giants as Viktor Hambartsumian, Giurzadian, Mergelian, etc. It has also given birth to giants like Tigran Petrosian, and so on. Why? I say because there was a vision in place, people did believe in the future of Armenia - however limited its scope, they were excited even by the mere fact of semi-sovereignty, and they wanted to build.

 

To someone who has not known Armenia, this may sound like either propaganda or exaggeration. But this is the reality. To those who have not known Armenia, everything that has taken place there is associated with Stalinism or Communism. However, the 70 years of Soviet Armenian history have been, by in large, glorious years – something that I, myself, have been in denial of during my youth. These years have perhaps been the longest period in the entire history of Armenia, when Armenians have been let to live in relative peace and create. The result has been an overwhelming success. With the decline of the Soviet Union, and the decay of its ideology, the attitudes and the ways of Armenians in Armenia have also declined (perhaps effective mid 70s) – effectively, starting from the Demirchian era.

 

However, those who have known Armenia and Armenians of the 1988-89, are aware of a temporary wakening of a nation with immense potential. Too bad that it has been put asleep, again.

 

I strongly believe that the giants are there – in their mothers’ wombs, in kindergartens or elsewhere. What we don’t have is that wakening call, and the leaders who would sound that call. What we lack are leadership, vision and perspective.

 

The existence of charlatans, or better to say, the survival of the charlatans and the “punchoonies” is a result of the vacuum created by the absence of a positive and realistic message and direction. For this reason, I hold not the charlatans and “panchoonies” responsible for our ills, but those capable men and women, who could’ve made a huge difference, but have decided to hide inside their “shells.”

 

Just look at our forum – you are the only professional Armenian writer participating in these discussions. Where are our other writers, academicians, historians, the other intellectuals, businessmen?

 

Let’s assume that this forum is not the proper format for them to come forward? Is there any other forum of any other format that they might find appealing to participate in?

 

[ April 13, 2001: Message edited by: MJ ]