politics

[arabaliozian]

Re: politics

I am not saying we should forgive and forget -
only a saint can do that and none of us
qualifies. What I am saying is that I want to
live my life without reference to Turks and the
hope that some day they may see the light.
#

[lampron]

Re: politics

The rule is, if a politician and historian agree, they must be both wrong.

Armenian intellectuals, political party leaders and church leaders especially during the decades of the Cold war believed that "history" would correct all past injustices in the world and therefore there was little they they could do to alter the course of such a powerful universal force as "history", except carry on as normal and simply, wait

Any merit in holding such a belief?

Has this philosophy been updated?

[arabaliozian]

Re: politics

Saturday, October 15, 2016
***********************************
SENTENCES
*****************************
Speechifiers and sermonizers are hirelings.
They believe nothing they say.
*
Politicians and the 1% are natural born
co-conspirators.
*
New taxes means new loopholes.
*
We, the people, are sardines in a pool of sharks.
*
Democracy is a charade.
*
Clinton & Trump might as well be Siamese.
#

[lampron]

Re: politics

Monday, October 10, 2016
*********************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
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*
The American character was shaped not by
“All men are created equal,”
but by slavery, racism, discrimination
& “In gold we trust.”
#

How much of the Armenian character, that existed in the distant past
has been washed away by 600 years of ottomanism?

[arabaliozian]

Re: politics

Simone Weil (1909-1943), French philosopher: "I
would suggest that barbarism be considered as a
permanent and universal human characteristic
which becomes more or less pronounced according
to the play of circumstances."

[arabaliozian]

Re: politics

Monday, October 10, 2016
*********************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
*******************************
Maimonides: “Astrology is a disease
not a science.”
*
Peter Gay on Heidegger: “He gave no one reason
not to be a Nazi, & good reasons for being one.”
*
To write for Armenians means
to write for readers who know better.
*
The American character was shaped not by
“All men are created equal,”
but by slavery, racism, discrimination
& “In gold we trust.”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: politics

How many of my readers, I wonder, are familiarwith the name of Artin Dadian? -- a prominentmember of the Ottoman Administration under SultanAbdulhamid II, who wrote the following letter toour revolutionaries in 1898: "I suggest that today we exercise nothing butpatience and tolerance. First, Europe showscomplete indifference and says there is noArmenian question as far as they are concerned.Second, the threat of the complete annihilationof the Armenian nation has not yet entirelypassed, and third, the people are tired ofrevolutionary deeds and are ready to patch uptheir differences with the government in order toremain safe from further terrible events as havealmost wiped out our people from the face of theearth. Fourth, various organizations are fightingdifferent causes, each in their own way, and inthe middle of all this stands one pitiful ArtinDadian, who on the one hand begs the Sultan formercy by telling him that this would be the bestthing for his empire and on the other hand fightsbase individuals who in order to attain theirselfish aims are even willing to sell theirnation. I believe it will be proper, as I havementioned countless times before, for our peopleto patch up their differences with theSultan."(*)
************************************************** *********
(*)See THE ROLE OF THE DADIAN FAMILY IN OTTOMAN,SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND POLITICAL LIFE by Pars Tuglaci (Istanbul, 1993). #

[arabaliozian]

Re: politics

If you think you have all the answers it may be because you haven’t yet begun asking the right questions.

[arabaliozian]

Re: politics

What separates us from animals is reason, not
instinct. Animals have instinct too, and they may
even have a far more developed and refined
version of it that allows them to foresee
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: politics

REPLIES
TO A STUDENT'S QUESTIONS
************************************************** ***************
Question: Do you believe what the Turks did to the Armenians in 1915 was genocide?
Answer: I do.
Q: Do you believe it was a deliberately adopted and systematically implemented policy by the Turkish government? Why?
A: No doubt about that. It was planned and executed in cold blood. The evidence -- the testimony of survivors, eyewitness accounts, historians who have studied the record, not all of them Armenian, some of them even Turkish -- is overwhelming. Besides, no nation in the history of mankind has ever fabricated a genocide and believed in it for nearly a century.
Q: Do you know or have you ever met a survivor?
A: I grew up in a ghetto near Athens, Greece, populated by several thousand survivors. Most of them were not educated or literate. They didn't like to reminisce. Besides, they were engaged in the serious business of surviving World War II, the German occupation, blockade by the Allies, the Greek Civil War... The poverty was appalling. The housing a disaster area -- as bad as the worst slums in South America and India.
Q: Some say the so-called deportations were flight from the violence – true or false?
A: My father was a teenager in 1915 and he was lucky in that a friend of the family, a Turkish cop, warned the family of the coming deportations. He was able to flee the violence but only with the shirt on his back. My mother was only a tiny baby who ended up in an orphanage in Lebanon run by Catholic nuns.
Q: Do you think the Armenian genocide has had any impact on the world?
A: I don't! There have been more genocides in the last century than at any other time in the history of mankind.
Q: In your opinion, what is the most important thing you have heard concerning the genocide?
A: The unimaginable cruelty of the sadistic criminals – and they were criminals – who carried out the deportations.
Q: Do you believe that the deportations and marches of Armenians in 1915 were deliberately designed by the Turkish government to lead to the death of the deportees, or do you believe that it was unintentional? If so, why?
A: It was deliberate and intentional – no doubt about that. The only explanation I have is that, the Turks were convinced they were fighting for their own survival against overwhelming enemies from without as well as from within.
Q: What do you think is the most important thing that people can learn from the Genocide?
A: Like all belief systems and ideologies, nationalism can also be abused. It was in the name of nationalism that our revolutionaries challenged the might of the Ottoman Empire, and it was in the name of nationalism that the Young Turks thought the only way to defend the integrity of their nation was to exterminate the Armenians.
Q: What are your impressions of people who say it wasn't really a genocide?
A: People can be brainwashed to believe anything. Luckily not everyone is vulnerable to being brainwashed. There is now a generation of Turkish intellectuals that no longer believe what their politicians dictate.
Q: Did your mother or anyone you know who went through the genocide ever mention concentration camps, mass burnings, starvation or massacres?
A: Both my father and mother were among the lucky ones who did not witness or experience these things – except near starvation and abominable poverty in an alien environment.
Q: What is the single most important thing you would tell someone who questions the reality of the Armenian genocide?
A: Only this: state propaganda cannot be a reliable source of information.
#