notes and comments

[Sako]

Re: elegy

I wish he would just say what he wants to say clearly and move on instead of throwing 1001 riddles at us. I feel like I'm playing a game of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire! lol except the questions aren't very visible and it's virtually impossible to win .

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Sunday, July 12, 2009
*****************************************
THE POWER AND THE GLORY
************************************************** ****
One way to explain our status as perennial underdogs is to say that our ruling classes have spent more time, energy, and resources fighting among themselves and collaborating with our oppressors than serving the interests of the people. The reason why I think that way is that I have an instinctive loathing of all power -- be it the power of emperors, kings, sultans, popes, ayatollahs, bosses, commissars, and revolutionaries, especially failed revolutionaries who end up doing more harm than good, after which they waste the rest of their allotted time on earth rewriting history, brainwashing the people, and portraying themselves as heroes and our victims as martyrs. And what is even more outrageous, they are believed by some. And whenever a dissenter comes along – and our literature has been one of dissent – and explains things to us honestly and objectively, we either silence him or ignore him, sometimes we even betray him to the authorities, the very same authorities that have dehumanized us.
“Mart bidi ch'ellank / esh bidi menank.”
*
If I knew how to pray, I would go down on my knees and say:
“O Lord, I implore you from the depths of my heart,
help me to see that so far
everything I have said, written, and thought
has been wrong, and that our leaders
have been men of vision and humble servants of the people,
and all our dissidents have been
no better than the scum of the earth.
For thine is the power and the glory.
Amen.”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

They may have been but I really don't know that fact. But his book I believe is in English and Moushegh Ishkhan translated it in Armenian.

if i am not mistaken,
it was originally written in french.

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Of course not. That would not suit his propaganda in any way...




It has been mentioned in Persian history books/ newspapers numerous times but as I (as well as Anoush) mentioned they have no reason to glorify or brag about the gaffs of their Shah...

I found the following excerpt (originally in Persian and published in Iran) in The History and Culture of Armenia (Tarikh va farhange Armanestan), written by a reputed Iranian scholar, writer and translator, Ahmad Nourizadeh. It was a chapter of about four pages, I just translated parts of it:




It's a sheer shame Mr. Baliozian that you blatantly resort to fallacies, lies and propaganda to simply dilute even the 'smallest' victory of the Armenian nation. Practicing the exact same methods you're preaching against over and over and over and over in every single line of your posts...

i am afraid the historian you quote is a recent arrival on the scene
whose best sources were very probably Armenian, yes?

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

And Ara what makes you think so blindfoldedly that your sources aren't a lie yet our sources aren't indeed the truth.

i rate the integrity of my sources by their stated or hidden agendas.
My source was a non-partisan Mekhitarist medievalist who had nothing to gain by misleading or deceiving me.
But if i am not mistaken the facts surrounding the Battle of Avarair have been questioned by others, besides my Mekhitarist monk. This is not a burning question to me. But if it for you, i suggest you consult an objective historian, if you know one,
Another suggestion or rather question:
have you known a single Armenian authority or source, who could speak objectively and honesty about our past?
If you have, consider yourself a privileged Armenian indeed.

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

i am afraid the historian you quote is a recent arrival on the scene
whose best sources were very probably Armenian, yes?

please check his bibliography and see if he has used armenian sources and/or medieval Persian chronicles.

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

I wish he would just say what he wants to say clearly and move on instead of throwing 1001 riddles at us. I feel like I'm playing a game of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire! lol except the questions aren't very visible and it's virtually impossible to win .

riddles?
no, my friend.
rather, your emotional resistance.
emotions have a way of obstructing our perception and understanding.

[Sako]

Re: elegy

riddles?
no, my friend.
rather, your emotional resistance.

My posts were not emotional. In fact, they were clearer then ever and you haven't answered them properly yet.

emotions have a way of obstructing our perception and understanding.

I was about to say the same to you.

[Lucin]

Re: elegy

please check his bibliography and see if he has used armenian sources and/or medieval Persian chronicles.

He names a long list of Armenian, Western and Persian scholors. Why is it that hard for your ego to recant your own propaganda as you promised? Mr. Nourizadeh is a well-known and serious writer translator and an Iranian intellectual. Do you think he'd be that gullible to put his reputation at risk and reproduce some myth for the Iranian reader on their own History to swallow up? If you pay attention to his rhetoric, you'll certainly notice that it's been written by a non-Armenian, someone who is not trying to add any 'parabanutyun' on the bravery of the Armenain nation...

[bell-the-cat]

Re: elegy

riddles?
emotions have a way of obstructing our perception and understanding.

...as well as rendering the intellectual (as in ara baliozian) up to the fists and iron bars of the thugs (as in Sako). The thing about thugs is that they are generally rather stupid, so if you can keep your writings fairly convoluted and tricky they won't start to growl and grunt in anger.