notes / comments

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Sunday, January 13, 2008
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DISCRIMINATION
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One reason we find it difficult to come to terms with reality is that our reality is grim. Hence our tendency to take refuge in propaganda, which is as real as a castle in the air. As an Armenian, the hardest thing for me to stomach was the fact that I came from a long line of people whose masters were Turks.
If we like to brag about our celebrities it may be because, unlike us, they were successful in breaking their Ottoman mold and emerging as individuals who did not allow their past to shape their future. In Biblical terms, they ceased being pillars of salt and were born again as human beings.
Nothing can be more misleading than to judge a nation by relying on the words of their politicians. And yet this is what the average Armenian and Turk do. To the average Turk, Armenians are “infidel bastards,” and Turks “the most civilized people on earth.” To the average Armenian, Turks are bloodthirsty savages who will never change their ways as Asiatic barbarians. It is now time that we abandon our respective brands of nationalist fundamentalism and allow the moderates to be heard. Let us follow the world’s example and learn to discriminate Germans from Hitler’s Nazis, and Turks from Talaat’s butchers.
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Monday, January 14, 2008
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A SCI-FI SCENARIO
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Let’s suppose for the sake of argument that a future pro-Armenian Democratic administration in Washington convinces a moderate Turkish regime in Ankara to accede to all our financial and territorial demands. Will that be the end of the story or the beginning of another dark chapter?
Here is what I suggest will happen: The moderate regime in Ankara will be toppled by a coalition of angry fundamentalists, ultra-nationalists, and displaced Turks and Kurds, and Armenia will become the target of terrorist attacks or even wars on three fronts: Azeris, Kurds, and Turks. In short, Armenia will become another Israel.
That’s not all. To recover the money depleted on reparations, the not-so moderate and definitely not-so pro-Armenian regime in Ankara will tax the Armenians within Turkey, whose life will become so unbearable that they will emigrate to foreign lands – anywhere but Armenia, the source of all their troubles.
Who will come to our aid this time? Who can? Only the Good Lord; and if we adopt the past as our guide, He has at no time shown an inclination to do so.
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To speak of actions and to ignore their backlash is the very same mistake our revolutionaries made at the turn of the last century. We are brought up to believe we are smart, but I suggest to follow the dictates of our gut and to ignore the warnings of our brain is just about the dumbest thing we can do.
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Let me conclude this excursion into science fiction with a quotation from Shahan Shahnour, who was born and raised in Istanbul and knew Turks better than all our present-day Turcocentric pundits combined: “We may think of Turks as backward slobs, but make no mistake about that: when it comes to Armenians, they can be very, very calculating and methodical.”
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There is an old saying: “When dreams come true they turn into nightmares,” and another about answered prayers, which I can’t remember at the moment…
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Tuesday, January 15, 2008
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BETWEEN WAR AND PEACE
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It may not happen in our lifetime but sooner or later it will happen. No doubt about that. Africa will follow Europe’s example and realize that coexistence leading to union is better than endless internecine conflict, tribal wars, revolutions, counter-revolutions, coups, massacres, and genocide. Closer to home: what about the Middle East? Does anyone think people in the Middle East are so backward, bloodthirsty, fanatical, and irrational that they will opt for endless conflict? And if they do so, who will be the beneficiary? Does anyone think Turks will go on calling Armenians infidel bastards and Armenians will reciprocate by calling them Asiatic barbarians? How much more blood will have to be shed before political leaders in Africa and the Middle East realize that peace is better than war, coexistence and cooperation are more civilized than mutual hostility, and in the long run economic barriers and protectionism protect no one. Next time you think of Turks try to think of them less as past enemies and more as future friends. Think of them too as part Armenian because that’s what in fact they are. Turks and Armenians, Palestinians and Israelis, Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians, and Kurds: they will choose to follow either Europe’s or Africa’s example; and who in his right mind will say the morally superior and more progressive role model is Africa?
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All wars are blunders. No one wins a war. Consider the recent case of two mighty empires fighting and losing a war against two tribal nonentities – Vietnam in the case of the United States and Afghanistan in the case of the USSR. We like to say the Allies won World War I and World War II, and we would like to forget about the fate of Armenians and xxxs. What kind of victory is it when the innocent victims number in the million? This is clearly seen and understood by anyone with the minimum of common sense and decency, except some political leaders and our own ubiquitous Turcocentric pundits.
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Wednesday, January 16, 2008
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NOTES / COMMENTS
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“The stranglehold of bureaucracy is becoming unbearable, the battle against corruption has yet to start. The authorities are not doing enough to fight organized crime.” That’s Gorbachev speaking of present conditions in Russia. If any one of our panchoonies (“Mi kich pogh oughargetsek”) were to speak like that, his sources of income would dry up.
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What does the average Armenian know about our millennial history beside the Genocide? My guess is, the names of a handful of kings, most of whom were not even Armenian, and Vartanants, which, according to some historians, never happened.
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Common sense and decency are not marketable products because everyone thinks he already has more than enough of both.
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Truth and politics are mutually exclusive concepts. The closer to the truth a politician gets, the more dupes he alienates.
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To be consistently positive about Armenians and consistently negative about Turks is the most effective way of undermining our credibility.
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[freakyfreaky]

Re: notes / comments

I am enormously wise and abysmally ignorant.

Saroyan, William, My Heart's in the Highlands (1939)



There is little pride in writers. They know they are human and shall some day die and be forgotten. Knowing all this a writer is gentle and kindly where another man is severe and unkind.

Saroyan, William, The Declaration of War (1944)

[Armenian]

Re: notes / comments

If the Armeno-Turkish conflict during World War I was a “war” which the Turks won, then it is up to them to have the nobility of character and generosity of spirit to admit that if in the heat of battle innocent civilians perished, they are willing to discuss the matter with their defeated adversaries and to negotiate terms with the benevolence that is becoming in a victor. Then and only then will they prove to the world that, as truly civilized people, they more than deserve to join the European Union and be seen as an integral part of the West.

In your seventy plus years on earth this is the level of your 'understanding' of geopolitics? What a sad pathetic sack you are...

Armenian writers? As you sit in your comfortable chair collecting welfare, two million Armenians in the homeland are struggling to make a living in a transitional period. What a wonderful "thinker" you are...

You are the typical trash that the diaspora has been producing?

Let's not give Ara Baliozian the satisfaction of thinking that he is one of our "writers" and/or "intellectuals." As far as an Armenian 'writer' is concerned, Ara is only worthy of being considered a 'mediocre' writer, at best. As far as 'intellect' is concerned, Ara is an intellectual midget. And as far as being an 'Armenian' is concerned, Ara is 'not' an Armenian. The aforementioned is the fundamental reasons why Ara has been rejected from the Armenian society. While Armenians adore, even worship, their poets and writers - Kaputikyan, Sevag, Charents, Isahakian, Tumanyan, Raffi, Emin - just to name a few, this "Ara Baliozian" character remains virtually nameless. And that is why we see his anger, his disgruntlement and his self-hate. In Ara's twisted mind, had he been an American, or a Canadian, or a westerner, he would have gained fame... However, since Ara writes for "Ottomanized Armenians" and "Gazetajis" he has gotten no where...

This thread called "notes / comments" is essentially a depository of Ara's self-hate, egomania, delusion, hysteria and disgruntlement. As any self-respecting Armenian can see from his written crap, the depth of Ara's self-hate, delusion and ignorance is bottomless. I read Ara's rants just to observe firsthand the kind of psychological damage diasporan Armenian suffer from. In short: Ara's written crap is nothing but the 'brain-farts' of a self-hating egomaniac. There are Armenians who assimilate and disappear without a trace. And then there are assimilated ones like Ara... The problem with his kind, however, is that once they 'assimilate' they continue sticking around to give us 'advise.'

If I was to describe Ara's literary work with one word it would undoubtedly be - GARBAGE

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Thursday, January 10, 2008
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THE ART OF READING
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There are three rules for being a good pianist: practice, practice, and practice. There is only one very easy rule for being a good reader: stop reading when the book bores you -- stop reading even if the author is the Good Lord Himself, and I dare anyone to read the final pages of EXODUS and the first pages of LEVITICUS without yawning.
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DEMOCRACY RUN AMOK
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The Internet is a great invention. It allows everyone an equal opportunity to express himself. A garbage-mouth teenage hooligan and a white-haired elder statesmen may post on the same forum, and what is even more astonishing, to reach an agreement. That’s what happens in an environment where closed systems of thought are dominant and free speech anathema. Writes Lance Morrow: “Sometimes it is the faithful of the churches and the mosques who need policing most of all.” Also commissars parading as editors, publishers, and forum moderators.
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ON POPULARITY
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Ever since it dawned on me that the ambition of every scribbler is to be popular, I have done my utmost to be unpopular – an enterprise easily achieved by calling a spade a spade and by writing what you see as opposed to what you pretend to see what isn’t there.
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ON BEING POSITIVE
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To expose and analyze the ugly and the incomprehensible in us may well be the most positive form of criticism. What could be more cowardly, and therefore negative, than to cover up or ignore the fact that we, as human beings, have our share of failings and that these failings have contributed mightily to our misfortunes.
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WRITERS
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Most Armenian writers today write for odars in odar languages. Some say this is a curse of our smallness. I disagree. It is rather the curse of a nation ruled by philistines for whom esthetic values and free speech are unpatriotic concepts. As recently as seventy years ago we had giants like Oshagan and Zarian who wrote in Armenian for Armenians. We don’t even have midgets today.
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Friday, January 11, 2008
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MEMO TO A TURKISH FRIEND
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Turks are warlike, and proud of the fact. Only warlike people become masters of a great empire and run it for six centuries. But are they magnanimous in victory? That is the unanswered question. To fight in defense of the territorial integrity of the Homeland may be a noble enterprise, and to emerge victorious a glorious achievement, but to do so with gallantry, that is the mark of a truly civilized nation. If the Armeno-Turkish conflict during World War I was a “war” which the Turks won, then it is up to them to have the nobility of character and generosity of spirit to admit that if in the heat of battle innocent civilians perished, they are willing to discuss the matter with their defeated adversaries and to negotiate terms with the benevolence that is becoming in a victor. Then and only then will they prove to the world that, as truly civilized people, they more than deserve to join the European Union and be seen as an integral part of the West.
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Saturday, January 12, 2008
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FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
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Nothing bores me as much as talk of xxxishness, Turkishness, Armenishness, or any other kind of --ishness whose sole intent is to make its adherents feel good by emphasizing the positive and covering up the negative thus certifying their perennial status as dupes.
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No one can be as dangerous as the brain-dead who believes his convictions are his.
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To think and to think you are thinking are two entirely different activities.
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To our superpatriots I ask: What do you say to fellow Armenians whose favorite mantra is “Mart bidi ch’ellank”?
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Let Yanks speak of the American Dream. For us it’s the Armenian Nightmare without end and without closure (to use one of their favorite neologisms) compliments of our Turcocentric pundits.
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To reduce life to the point that one can think only of massacres: I can’t imagine anything more narrow, negative, and ultimately hateful.
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Organized religions are like loaded guns. Harmless in themselves but lethal in the hands of irresponsible people, and like drunk drivers, irresponsible people are everywhere.
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It is said that Laurence Oliver used to stand behind the curtain muttering at the audience over and over “You bastards.” Exactly my frame of mind when I take pen in hand. I am not complaining. Our bastards are my bread and butter. If it weren’t for them I would run out of inspiration and fall silent.
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"Intellect is invisible to the man who has none."
Arthur Schopenhauer

[crusader1492]

Re: notes / comments

Moral 1. It never pays to be an optimist in an Armenian environment.

It wouldn't have mattered if you were born Chinese. You are a sad-sac in heart and would have ended up in the same lowly state no matter the origin or environment. Some people are just born with this depressive trait...you happen to be one of them.

Moral 3: Better an honest failure than a fat-assed fraud.

Spoken like a true failure (perhaps of the fat-assed ilk?).

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

TWO ANECDOTES / THREE MORALS

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When I told my father I wanted to be a writer, he said, "You’ll starve!"

I didn’t believe him

Many years later, when I told Mischa Kudian (our foremost translator) I wanted to follow his example and be a translator too, he said, "You must be nuts!" or words to that effect.

I didn’t believe him either.

I should have. He was right. My father was right too, and I was dead wrong. Even so, I don’t regret my decision.

Moral 1. It never pays to be an optimist in an Armenian environment.

Moral 2: Experience is a more reliable guide than wishful thinking.

Moral 3: Better an honest failure than a fat-assed fraud.

[crusader1492]

Re: notes / comments

That does not change my opinion of how he would treat you (that is if he chose to deal with you....you are beneath him).

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

IMO, if the Armenian National hero, General Antranig, were alive today he would personally beat you with his own hands...he had no patients for davajans.

the good general was himself treated as a davajan by our revolutionaries. /

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

a reader comments:
Having read you since the seventies all that I could, without sounding as a desciple, i wish you all the powers and patience that only you can muster!
Once in a while a pat on the back by an appreciator of your efforts, should give one a little zest to carry on without feeling a "tsayn parparo hanabadi".
Thank you from this old foggy, that was becoming more and more sceptical about the humanoids but for pens like yours

[crusader1492]

Re: notes / comments

*
General Antranik (1865-1927): “I am not a nationalist. I recognize only one nation, the nation of the oppressed.”
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IMO, if the Armenian National hero, General Antranig, were alive today he would personally beat you with his own hands...he had no patients for davajans.