politics

[arabaliozian]

Re: politics

Has anyone ever admitted to being a divider or the dupe of one?

[arabaliozian]

Re: politics

I have yet to meet a patriotic Armenian who did not harbor fascist sentiments.

[arabaliozian]

Re: politics

On the subject of our bosses, bishops, benefactors and those who look up to them as political and spiritual leaders, I will say what H.L. Mencken once said of Americans and their democracy: "The worship of jackals by jackasses."

[arabaliozian]

Re: politics

Alain: “There is no doubt whatever that on
certain occasions Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon
behaved like fools. It has been my aim in life to
avoid emulating them.”

[arabaliozian]

Re: politics

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

[arabaliozian]

Re: politics

ON THE 1%
*************************
We are told the 1% create jobs.
What we are not told is where would the 1% be
without the blood and sweat of the 99%?
And even more important:
who would wipe their asses
when they are too young and too old?
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[arabaliozian]

Re: politics

Again and again I am reminded that honey is more effective than vinegar. Yes, by all means. Let’s try the honeyed approach with the Turks for a change, not only because it is more civilized or effective but also because we have wasted vast amounts of vinegar without any tangible results.

[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.
#

[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

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