Why

[ara baliozian]

WHY?

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

“Why do you criticize Armenians?”

I am asked once in a while by concerned readers.

“What do you hope to achieve?

Do you think you are being of any help to anyone?”

I write because we have been going downhill.

I analyze our situation to see

if there is anything we can do

to arrest this slide to the abyss.

 

To the skeptics who say

our situation is not as bad as all that

and that we are doing our best, I say:

Consider our record of the last century.

Tally the number of our victims.

Allow me to refresh your memory:

 

1,500,000 victims to the (“red”) massacres in the Ottoman Empire;

1,500,000 to miscellaneous revolutions, wars, civil wars and assassinations;

1,500,000 to assimilation (“white” massacre);

1,500,000 to earthquakes, successive waves of Soviet purges, diseases, etc.

1,500,000 to exodus from the homeland after independence.

 

Where do I get my figures?

They are only guesses -- very much like

the number of Genocide victims, which

according to some estimates it’s only 400,000 and

according to others 2,000,000.

 

Next question: How many of these catastrophes

could have been prevented?

To what extent are they reflections

of our own irresponsible conduct?

 

Genocide: a result of too much naïve reliance on the West.

Wars: we fought against Hitler’s fascism

to defend Stalin’s fascism and vice versa –

we fought on both sides

because we were taken in by both sides.

Assimilation: a result of divisive policies,

inept leadership, a politically naïve (again that word) community,

dogmatic (therefore intolerant) belief systems,

contempt for human rights,

and cynical opportunists who will say and do and anything

for a minimum-wage salary and an insignificant title.

Earthquakes: “Earthquakes don’t kill people. Buildings do.”

Exodus: a result of a corrupt and inept leadership.

 

Finally, I write to remind those who brag

about Armenians being this, that and the other:

We are not as good as we say we are

and when it comes to our writers

(starved, ignored, betrayed, driven to suicide,

exiled, silenced, and shot) we may even be lower

than a snake’s belly full of buckshot.

[arsev1357]

What is this fuss about criticizing or opposing the criticism????

It is true that our country is in its worst misery since the genocide. Many classify it as the second genocide, or an exodus...fine. The bloodsuckers have sodomized the people and reduced them to an animal existence. Everyone knows it,says it and forgets it. I guess people are just tired of it. Of course this pertains to Armenians in Armenia.

 

There is a pile of literature, articles in newspapers TV programs which endlessly examine and re-examine the "reasons behind" from every possible angle: the rotten big mouth Armenian character, turko-jewish conspiracy, the so called objective reasons (blockade, war) or the subjective ones mafia, corruption or anarchy that our people are so prone to and the list goes on.

Are you people from the Moon???

It is as if you know nothing about what is going on in Armenia.

the only papers u probably read is Azg or Asbarez. go to Armenia get to balls of the pain we are in today.

 

Let me get to my point:

I subscribe to most of what Ara says. He seems to be more oppiniated about things in Armenia and around it in general, though I did not like some of his generalizations. But it's ok we all like to sin I mean generalize. aren't we all philosophers.

To those who attack him: agian, he seems like speaking out of his pain.

The cancer has spread and only radical intervention will help. There is no place for patriotic broohaha anymore. We all need a kick in a head or the groin for that matter to realize the imminent danger of depopulation and decay.

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

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During an interview with the author of a book about

a recent African massacre,

when asked to explain why he had found it necessary

to include some gruesome details in it,

he replied: "I tried to write a sweet book

about a genocide but couldn’t make it."

Next, he was asked to explain the genocide:

"I can’t!" he replied. "I can only tell you

what happened and when.

I guess there is a saint and a murderer in all of us

and given the right circumstances

we can all behave like murderers."

This of course is only a tentative theory.

There is another one that says

all victims are saints,

and there are those who prefer this theory

not because it is superior but because

they are unwilling to concede that

there may be a killer lurking in their subconscious.

*

The only way to make friends with some Armenians

is to share their particular brand of insanity.

*

If you break a thousand rules

and you get away with it, the chances are

you will be broken by a rule

you didn’t even know existed.

*

There is a lot of talk about negotiating with Turks these days.

To those who contemplate doing so, I ask:

"Have you every tried to negotiate with an Armenian?"

Next question: "Do you believe in miracles?"

*

Knowledge and understanding promote doubt and tolerance.

Certainties are more often than not

symptoms of ignorance and prejudice.

*

If the truth is known by only one person,

the chances are it will be known by two,

and by the time they are both silenced,

it may be known by four or even forty.

*

There are written laws and unwritten laws

and sometimes the unwritten ones

are more vigorously enforced.

*

After a brief encounter with some politicians and writers

from the Homeland, a friend remarks:

"They are really nice people, aren’t they?"

And I reflect:

Leave it to a smart Armenian to judge a politician

by his smile and handshake,

and a writer by the cover of his books.