In Reference To: "who Are You?"

[TheArmenianPirate]

You know, I sit here and I read what everyone here has said so far. No matter how I look at it, all I see is what I have seen all my life. A group of Armenians composed of Diasporans and Benicks trying to self-righteously legitimize them selves as the Armenian that has “cared more”. Every single one of you has a distinct outlook and philosophy yet no matter how all these outlooks are stacked-up, they never seem to want to agree with one another due to the personal pride that each and EVERY one of you can’t muster up the courage to look beyond. Yet, each view tells the composite portion of a grand truth, but many of you do not want to admit to this and insist on attacking one another as well as quibbling over social table scraps of “who is/was right and who is wrong”.

 

Diasporans state that they have survived in harsh environments and maintained their Armenian heritage, and they are right in saying this, many of them have in fact done this without question, my own parents being no exception. Benicks such as Yerevanian, claim they have suffered while many in their place would have chosen to flee during the tough times of our homeland, and this is also a just and rightful claim. Many fellow Armenian Benicks have suffered and are still suffering in my Armenia, yet a good number of individuals here do not even have an understanding of being Armenian as a definition. Instead, most individuals’ notion of “Armenianism” and its roots are so vastly diluted by pop-culture forces that it does not surprise me how most of the youth on these boards are confused about their own Armenian lineage, heritage, and culture. This is a forum named HYEforum, yet, even some of the MODERATORS, are such bleeding pacifists or articulate socialites that they wouldn’t know Armenianism as a lineage, heritage, and culture if it backhanded them in the face, but I’ll digress on that topic . . . . . .for now.

 

Some of you propose that it is the act of powerful individuals that only matter in stirring up the necessary change. Others among you say that it will take group effort to overcome our strife as a people. You are both WRONG. There are those among us that must lead, take the first step, and risk many things in order to introduce and bring forth new ideas or rejuvenate existing ideas. There are plenty of solutions available to our people, but when an individual steps forth, those that are corrupt and lack a soul snuff out the light from our just leader’s eyes. These corrupt individuals many times are already themselves leaders that do not want to be dethroned and you all know who they are. Fear of being targeted manipulates and prevents those individuals that do not have what it takes to lead from at the very least following those that put them selves on the line as meaningful and righteous leaders. All of you must realize, leaders and strong individuals need the support and love of their followers in order to stay strong, protected, and effective. Yet many of you are too prideful and blindly stubborn to see or admit to this fact. There are many who have had great benevolent intentions for our people and they did put themselves on the line for all of us, in the end, we left them vulnerable due to our fears of being targeted, not caring, being “too busy” with “life”, becoming millionaires, “rollin in the benz”, etc, etc, thus lots of leaders, writers, and political activists with good intentions were assassinated via “accidents” or blatantly killed by corrupt HYE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS! Corruption is strong, but the people will ALWAYS be stronger, it is THE PEOPLE that a corrupt individual fears; because when the people put their foot down and say “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”, no corrupt entity, group, or person can stand in the way of those people!

 

If only Armenians would realize their own individual potential and step out from behind the socialite curtains they all hide under, HOW MANY MORE Monte Melkonians must do so much as INDIVIDUALS, bleed for us, and ultimately die alone in their efforts of doing what was said to be “impossible” by pacifistic cowards so that all you folks that are “too busy” can pick yourselves up and dedicate a miniscule amount of time for your people in some way or through some action?! This was ONE man, he brought the French prison system to its knees and had every Turkish national and official looking over their shoulders day and night. What will it take for all of you to stop this ridiculous madness of ParskaHye/LipanaHye/Hayastanzi or Benick/Diasporan nonsense and instead just call each other “HYE” with efforts for our people in some manner?! WAKE UP! What will you do when there is not much left about being Armenian to even WHINE about the way some of you women complain about men and vice versa? Will you be content and happy then knowing that you are not part of ANYTHING as an individual?! Will you look at your grandchildren and smile knowing they cannot associate themselves with anybody else outside of the droves of Pop-culture propaganda that by then will govern their minds? We are YOUTH, the ultimate force in any time, there is no future without us, the closest thing to being a god on this earth is being young full of whim and vigor with the ability to mold the environment around you in any way you wish! So why not ACT for your fellow Armenians everywhere instead of constantly looking elsewhere into other culture’s yards with pathetic longing when your own is rich with lineage, heritage, greatness, fortitude, struggle, triumph, art, and culture? The slumber is over, it’s time to awaken your own self-worth as a young modern Hye.

 

With that said, we must ask, “what does it take to unite a group?” The answer is CONSENSUS and the shedding of PERSONAL PRIDE. Though these answers seem obvious and simple to most, the actual implementation takes a lot of courage from the individual that must choose to view things as they really are and to do away with their own ego which continually drives them to “prove” that they are right for the sheer sake of “coming up on top” in a debate. Instead, they should simply realize that they speak only part of the truth while another person may be presenting a different portion of the same truth, NOT an entirely “different view” but rather, a fragment of a grand vision that is representative of what is REALLY going on. What this means is that nearly ALL of you are to some extent mentioning things that are VERY valid and VERY true, but NONE of you are expressing the truth of our people’s situation in ALL of its entirety. This is a very difficult fact for many of you to admit, because inherently you are driven by your ego or pride in putting your mindset into the discussion and pushing it further and further as “being right”.

 

You have to stop blaming each other and stop this madness! Neither Benicks nor Diasporans are at fault here, because they are ONE IN THE SAME, Hye. The blame to be attributed must be made to those that decided to wipe us out of our own land for their own gain. Those that migrated out of our homeland faced certain death and responded to such a situation by at least trying to preserve themselves and stay alive. All of you must realize that NONE OF US are at fault for the scattering that took place. Some of us did what we must to survive, however, that does not mean that those that left should forget or discount those that stayed and conversely those that stayed should not persecute and attack those that left. NEITHER party is at fault and NEITHER party is “more Hye” than the other, if you are from Hye/Hye parents and this tradition has been kept up throughout your lineage then you are just as much a Hye as any Benick or Diasporan.

 

During one of my visits to the Los Angeles area, what I found very disturbing is how some Benicks have taught their children to classify ParskaHyes or LipanaHyes as “Muslim Armenians”, not just in the context of an Armenian that happens to have lived in Iran or Lebanon due to the Genocide, but rather, this implication is made as if those Parska Hyes are actually NOT true Hyes from Hye/Hye parents when in fact their whole lineage stems from Hye/Hye marriage; similar stereotypes are made of LipanaHyes simply because they dwell in Lebanon. This is so horrifically WRONG and it’s a way to ensure that our youth stays sub-divided in the future under the banner of the same stereotypes as our parents have made of one another, all of you need to make the realization that this is just sheer insanity.

 

If we are to truly progress and preserve ourselves as a people and stir up change, it must be done TOGETHER! There is NO EXCEPTION to this rule, don’t be foolish enough to believe that we can stay segregated under preposterous sub-divisions of Benick/Non-Benick or ParskaHye/LipanaHye/Hayastanzi and still be able to do anything for ourselves or our ancestral homeland as Armenians. The youth MUST break away from this cycle of categorization and realize the ultimate truth that there is only ONE category, ARMENIAN, NOT “parska-hye”, NOT “lipana Hye”, NOT “Hyastanzi”, and sure as hell not “the noble” Benick that stayed and the “treacherous” Diasporans that fled.

 

We, as youth, must also ALWAYS remember that we are here now in a place that is not Armenia, but that does not mean that we can slowly just forget our lineage, heritage, and culture simply because our surroundings are pleasant, comfortable, and modern. This is the trap that some individuals almost enjoy falling into because it is a little easier to undertake versus actively putting effort into Armenian preservation. These very same “eager to abandon Armenianism” individuals must realize that although at times it takes a bit more effort to preserve one’s own identity, if that is lost, the difficulty of showing effort will pale in comparison to the nightmare of having lost your identity as an Armenian through intermarriage, lack of effort, laziness, etc, etc. What’s worse is blame attributing discussions such as the one in that other thread help further segregate us from each other yet in the same breath we want to progress as a people. How can we progress anywhere when we’re too busy blaming each other as Benicks and Diasporans for things that NEITHER party is even responsible for? The answer is simple; we CANNOT progress with such antics! DO NOT blame each other for staying or leaving when neither “staying” nor “leaving” would even BE an issue if we were not forced to make such a choice due to Turkish transgressions against our people! THEY are the ones to hold responsible for this situation, NOT Diasporans that fled to survive, and NOT Benicks that stayed and suffered!

 

I also couldn’t help but notice another thread about connections to Ethiopia. Before questions such as that are posed, it is very important for the topic starter to define the level of connection they are implying. Could there possibly be historic affiliation of Armenians with Ethiopia in the form of Hyes from ARMENIA after the genocide settling there? Yes, of course, just like the type of settlements that occurred in Iran, Lebanon, or Iraq, but that does not necessarily tie us in lineage to any of those ethnic groups in any way; Iraqi, Persian, Lebanese, or Ethiopian lineage are completely separate from those of Armenian. So when you want to connect Armenianism to any other group in a manner of lineage “divergence”, there are no existing groups today that can correctly claim that Hyes have diverged from them, mainly because we tend to pre-date nearly every single one of the groups we supposedly “diverged” from, and the ones we actually diverged from are long gone and extinct cultures.

 

These facts when expressed DO NOT automatically indicate that the person expressing them is being “prejudice” or “racist”. Does it sound ethnocentric? Yes, but there is not ANYTHING wrong with ethnocentrism, ethnocentrism by definition means to love one’s own culture more than others NOT because you think it is better or superior in some way, but because you feel a comforting familiarity and kinship with your own culture and your own lineage. Frankly, ANY person from another culture that righteously claims to not be ethnocentric themselves is lying through their teeth and is a HYPOCRIT. Don’t let media conditioning, with ideas of “ethnocentrism is equivalent to racism”, numb your minds to the point where you forget your own self-worth as an Armenian and the worth of your Hye lineage, culture, and heritage. So the hot heads here should THINK deeply first before jumping the gun with accusations of “you’re ignorant”, “you’re racist”, etc, etc, merely because another poster decides to defend his own culture, heritage, and lineage against a slow death, dilution, and manipulation. It is NOT “paranoia” or “schitzo” as one poster so naively put it if it is ACTUALLY happening folks, do not be so blind to these facts.

 

Hell, it doesn’t surprise me that some folks here think they are African-American ghetto denizens with their tipped caps, jerseys, and false ideals that they live in “ghettos” when in fact 99% of you come from middle class families with Hye parents and siblings. It’s what the entertainment media feeds your minds and you drink it all up like sheep, and those fellow HYE young individuals that do not buy into the media garbage, you label then persecute viscously, this needs to stop now. This phenomenon is not only a pity for Armenians but also for African-Americans, because the media moguls have reduced the efforts and struggles of men like MLK or Malcolm X down to dollar signs with dime a dozen “rappers” that wouldn’t know a ghetto or a black man's struggle if they were air dropped into these issues; just like the way most of you cannot even fathom the truth behind the worth of our people, culture, heritage, lineage, as well as potential and the importance of maintaining those things because you’re WAY TOO caught up with trivial cycles of pop-culture expectation, greed, “benzos”, “big houses”, “benjamins”, or “too busy to care” attitudes.

 

Every single one of you needs to re-evaluate and understand what it means to be part of an ethnic group as well as how important that is as an Armenian and then make the realization that once that is gone, you will NEVER EVER be able to walk into a room with individuals that are Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Jewish, Greek, Russian, etc, etc, and be considered their cultural equal, because you will not HAVE a culture, lineage, or heritage to represent yourself with.

 

Sometimes . . . .there are days I wake up and wonder if this small effort I make is even worth it, if I could just drop everything and walk away the way many so selfishly do. Then I remember guys like Monte, how in the face of ideal personal circumstances with an ideal life ahead of them, free of burdens, abandoned it all and chose to go through the hell that they did. After a brief moment I can’t even look at myself in the mirror anymore, because I become so riddled with shame, WHO am I or ANYBODY else in a similar position as me to complain about the social “burden” of preservation when men like him went through all that they did just so I can call myself “Hye” and have a small piece of land of my own? And for his work, I’m to abandon everything he slaved for years JUST so that I don’t have to put in a few hours a week into taking steps/actions for my culture, lineage, and heritage because I’m supposedly “too busy” the way some Hyes claim to be? NEVER.

 

I look at his picture and behind his eyes I wonder if he knew that one day a simple shell casing would claim his life after all those battles and struggles he went through did not, and maybe he knew what was coming, and eventually death did arrive; but I’ll be damned if after all he’s done I’m going to complain and whine about my own efforts which pale in comparison to his like a little coward the way some of you do with your quibbling, name calling, prideful egos, intellectual bravado, and “too busy” attitudes.

 

We all live in paradise yet still whine, moan, and complain about the small effort that is asked of us as young modern Armenians, then we alienate each other into sub-groups of “parskahye”, “hyeastanzi”, etc, etc while persecuting one another. After his decision to leave that paradise, Monte Melkonian lived a life in hell and achieved more than any of us can dream of for Armenians everywhere as an individual for EVERY Hye; ultimately being rewarded with a lonely road and eventually death, yet no one ever asked him or expected anything from him. So the next time some of you want to whine and complain about your “burdens” as young Armenians, why don’t you take a pen with some paper, and write out your “burdens” out to his mother in Fresno California, I’m sure she’ll understand “how difficult” it is for you to preserve your Hye lineage, heritage, and culture.

 

May you rest in peace my friend, your memory will always be kept alive.

 

 

-The Armenian Pirate

TheArmenianPirateBroadcast@hotmail.com