notes / comments

[arabaliozian]

JACKALS AND JACKASSES
***********************************
We call our military defeats moral victories because we see ourselves as members of a morally superior nation. Question: Has there ever been a single nation in the history of mankind that saw itself as morally inferior? Would it not be closer to reality if all nations saw themselves as morally deficient in the eyes of the Lord? - I do not say in the eyes of their fellow men because they are seen as inferior anyway.
*
Why is it that nations find it necessary to fabricate Big Lies?
*
Where there are Big Lies there will also be Big Liars. You may now guess the identity of our Big Liars.
*
Preston Sturges on his mother: "She was endowed with such a rich and powerful imagination that anything she said three times, she believed fervently. Often twice was enough."
*
What are some of our most frequently repeated Big Lies?
First nation to convert to Christianity (we saw it coming when no one else did). First nation to suffer a genocide in the 20th century (we didn't see it coming because we were innocent sheep at the mercy of ruthless butchers and liars - namely, Asiatic barbarians and the corrupt West).
*
I am anti-Armenian only in the eyes of readers who are anti-mankind, including a fraction of their fellow Armenians who are not, like themselves, dupes of Big Liars.
*
In our eyes our genocide is a major tragedy and an international scandal. In the eyes of the world it is just another instance of a big fish swallowing a little fish. One nation's tragedy is another's cliché.
*
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."
#
Monday, May 23, 2005
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Traditional values are fine provided they are separated from traditional abuses. As a nation, we prefer to discard the values and preserve the abuses.
*
We can afford two, and sometimes even three, of everything - churches, community centers, schools (which also means two sets of schoolteachers), political parties, bishops, archbishops, patriarchs, and so on. But we can't afford even a single writer who is free to speak his mind. We had many more independent voices under the Sultan than we do today. All we have today are partisan hacks and hirelings who blabber endlessly about Turks. What is even more shocking is a community that sees nothing wrong with this.
*
A compulsive or pathological liar may be defined as one who even when he speaks the truth he makes it sound like a blatant lie.
*
When it comes to sharing their capital, our capitalists are looked up to as role models of generosity and patriotism. But when it comes to sharing their ideas, our writers are treated as nuisances who should be insulted, starved, and silenced.
Talaat lives!
*
There is a reason for this. The central message of our literature stands in direct contradiction with the central message contained in the speeches and sermons of our bosses and bishops. So that if our writers were allowed to speak freely, our "betters" would be exposed as pathological liars.
*
What can be more degrading and ultimately more lethal to the health of a nation than to depend for its perception of reality on brainwashed propagandists and phony pundits with hidden agendas?
*
I can tell I was brainwashed as a child because what sounded to me then as brilliant paradoxes meant to shock the average layman, sound now as common sense platitudes.
#
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
********************************
An Armenian doesn't just disagree with a fellow Armenian, he disagrees with venom, sometimes even with lethal dozes of concentrated Ottoman venom.
*
Am I any different? If I am not, I plead extenuating circumstances. I plead guilty to the charge that I disagree with our bosses, bishops and benefactors, and if sometimes I disagree with venom it may be because when they are wrong (as I believe they are) the result may be another massacre - if not "red" than "white" (i.e. alienation and assimilation). But if I am wrong, I will be exposed as a charlatan, ignored, and forgotten. Even at his most venomous, a writer can harm no one but himself.
*
The truth is, Armenians are not particularly fond of their fellow Armenians. They may love them, or say they do, in the abstract but not in the flesh.
*
Consider too that unlike our speechifiers and sermonizers I do not speak of love of country and countrymen, I speak only of solidarity and consensus. I appeal only to the self-interest of my fellow Armenians. I say, we don't have to love our fellow Armenians in order to do what must be done -- unlike our bishops, who tell us to love our enemies but who cannot even be tolerant of their friends, if their friends do not parrot their sentiments and thoughts; and unlike our political bosses, who speak of love of country and countrymen even as they divide in order to rule, and by dividing they make us more vulnerable to our adversaries and to the so-called "social, historic, and political conditions" beyond their control.
#
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
*************************************
You may have noticed that we are divided only when we are on our own. As subservient subjects and victims we have always been united, perhaps because our victimizers did not give us a choice. Think about that.
*
I reject all statements that flatter our collective ego in the same way that our commissars reject any statement that may question their infallibility.
*
If you combine the spirit of one law with the letter of another law, you can legitimize even criminal conduct.
*
What makes an average liar a competent one is the ease with which he brainwashes himself into believing he speaks the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And if "God is truth" (in Gandhi's definition), it follows he represents God on earth like any mullah or ayatollah, who can declare jihad against anyone who dares to disagree with him.
*
If you write a hundred lines, a commissar will ignore the 99 lines with which he cannot disagree and single out the one line with which he disagrees, even if it means distorting and misunderstanding both the spirit and the letter of that line.
*
What the average Armenian wants to read in our papers these days is (a) his name, (b) nasty commentaries about the nefarious Turks, and (c) positive articles about Armenians who have achieved some degree of success in the odar world. Literature, which might as well be synonymous with free speech, has acquired the status of a non-person in our collective consciousness. Stalin lives.
#

[arabaliozian]

MEGALOMANIA
*******************************
One of our elder statesmen once wrote me a nasty letter demanding why I write the way I do. In my reply - there was a time when I wasted a good fraction of my working life and income replying to every letter I received, no matter how unfriendly the writer - in my reply I explained that it is a writer's function as well as duty to expose abuses of power and the dark side of life. To prove my point, I proceeded to make a list of great writers who had done exactly that --from Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Victor Hugo to xxxxens, Sartre, and Solzhenitsyn. In his even nastier reply he accused me of megalomania by saying, "So you think of yourself as another Voltaire and Victor Hugo?" To which I could only say, "No, of course not. But I am on their side." Shortly thereafter I read his obituary in our papers. Did I contribute to his demise by exposing his own dark side? Possibly...but i doubt it.
*
Around the same time I also received several phone calls and letters from another one of our elder statesmen (our communities are lousy with them) who claimed to have written "the Armenian Bible," which if translated into English would ultimately unite and save the nation. The Jews had the Old Testament, he explained, the Christians the New Testament, and the Arabs the Koran. We had no corresponding holy book to give us a sense of identity and common goal. Hence the total absence of focus in our collective consciousness resulting in a high rate of assimilation. Next I received a manuscript of about a hundred pages (the book was about a thousand pages long) with a note saying: "Please read it and let me know what you think. Don't be afraid to be critical, though I can't imagine what you would find to be critical about…." In my last letter to him I wrote that it was a remarkable piece of work, perhaps even a masterpiece, and I hoped he would be successful in finding a translator equal to the task. (As you may have guessed by now, all this took place in my phase as a brown-noser.)
*
It is to be noted that both elder statesmen made it abundantly clear that they were also benefactors having contributed vast sums of money to Armenian charities, schools, and churches, in addition to being personally acquainted with Aram Khachaturian, Anastas Mikoyan, the Catholicos of Etchmiadzin, the Patriarch of Istanbul, and all the bishops and archbishops within a radius of two thousand miles.
#
Friday, May 27, 2005
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ON VICTIMS AND VICTIMIZERS
******************************************
There are victims and there are victimizers. Armenians have been victims, or so we like to say, repeat, and believe. But Armenians have also been victimizers. All you have to do to see Armenians as victimizers is to read a history of Armenian literature or the biography of an Armenian writer.
*
Whenever I say anything remotely critical about Armenians, I am immediately reminded that our defects are human defects, and therefore universal. All thinkers and writers - from Socrates to Solzhenitsyn - have been misunderstood, rejected, excommunicated, silenced, starved, insulted, driven to suicide, or executed by their own people. Nothing unusual in that. Granted. But then what is so unusual about a writer criticizing his own people? It happens all the time. All writers do it. It is their function and it is their duty. A writer who emphasizes the positive and covers up the negative is not a writer but a propagandist, and propagandists are a dime a dozen.
*
We have problems. We have some very serious problems. Who benefits if we cover up and ignore them? Only those in power, that is, the victimizers. Because where there is power there will also be victims.
*
If it is the destiny of all writers to be persecuted, let us leave the persecution to future Talaats and Stalins; and let us not pretend we don't have in our midst commissars who parade as selfless servants of the community during the day and behave like gravediggers at night.
*
And if you were to say, "If it is a writer's duty to criticize his people, then there is a right way and the wrong way of doing it. Obviously you are the wrong man for the job." But then, who is the right man? Does he exist? Has he ever existed? Is there a right way of calling a fool a fool and a dupe a dupe? What does one gain by calling him intellectually challenged? Was Socrates the wrong man for the job? If you were to ask a Stalinist today about Solzhenitsyn, he will tell you Solzhenitsyn deserved his exile in the Gulag because he was an enemy of the people and his ultimate aim was the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Even fascists and executioners see themselves as victims, or as Sartre once put it, "All violence is counter-violence."
*
Am I a bad writer? In the eyes of my critics, very probably I don't even qualify as a writer, in the same way that in my eyes, my critics don't even qualify as intellectually challenged kibitzers; or in the eyes of all victims, their victimizers don't even qualify as human beings.
*
Moral I: There are no golden apples from heaven, only rotten lemons on earth.
*
Moral II: We are all in the same soup concocted by a nefarious cook.
#
Saturday, May 28, 2005
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OF ROPES AND HANGMEN
**************************************
If we are right and we persevere, victory will be ours! The Genocide may be said to have been a direct result of this Big Lie. And consider the work of our Genocide scholars: do they hope victory will be ours or do they think it is all a waste of time? No one knows.
*
Academics produce books. That's how they make their living. None of them will ever claim his aim is to change the world; and even when on those very rare occasions they succeed in changing the world, it is not always for the better - e.g. DAS KAPITAL.
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A wise man once said that it is not polite to mention ropes in the house of a hanged man. Not only we insist on speaking about ropes, but also of capital punishment, hanging judges, hangmen, and what it feels like dying of a broken neck.
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We cannot change the Turks; neither can we resurrect a single victim. And after countless commentaries, articles, memoirs, demonstrations, monuments, memorial services, letters to the editor, sermons and speeches, we have failed to annex a single inch of our historic lands.
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If we are right and we persevere, victory will be ours? Possibly. But it is equally true to say that if we think we are right and we behave with the obstinacy of mules, we may fail.
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Let us admit that we have never been good at guessing games. Nietzsche says somewhere that if you deal too much with idiots, you are liable to become an idiot. What if too much talk of massacres and Turks permanently damages our perception of the world as hell on earth, and of our fellow men, including fellow Armenians, as hostile witnesses and enemies?
*
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.
#

[arabaliozian]

more........

Sunday, May 29, 2005
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When an expert writes a book for laymen, he doesn't write everything he knows, only that which will be accessible to the average reader; and as everyone knows by now, for every expert there will be another who will contradict him.
*
I was born and raised in Greece. I have lived and dealt with Greeks and I have read a great deal about them. What do I know about Greeks and their history and culture? I know that there are more than a thousand books on the subject and if I were to read all of them I would discover something new in each one.
*
I have lived in Canada for many years. What do I know about Canadians and Canadian history and culture? What do I know about the small city where I live? The truth is, I don't even know the names of my next-door neighbors.
*
What does the average Armenian layman know about Turks or, for that matter, Armenians? But then, what an Armenian knows is one thing and what he pretends to know another. In mathematical terms, if what he knows equals to zero or even minus one, what he pretends to know will be closer or equal to infinity.
*
We are a nation of ignoramuses parading as experts on any given subject.
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Reality has been compared to a vast mosaic, puzzle, or Oriental carpet. What we know is only a tiny fraction of it. Sometimes an expert will discern a pattern but it will be only a guess, which will be contradicted by another expert.
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Entire books (incomprehensible to laymen) have been written about "the meaning of meaning" and about why 2+2=4. And no philosopher so far has been successful in answering (to the satisfaction of all philosophers) the question, "why things exist."
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Perhaps the true meaning of knowing is, the greater the area of knowledge, the greater the area of ignorance. Or, to understand more consists in the awareness that what we don't understand far outweighs what we understand and may never understand.
#
Monday, May 30, 2005
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When an Armenian wants to validate his ideas, the chances are he will quote his grandmother rather than a boss, bishop, or benefactor. Perhaps what we need today, and what we have always needed in the past, is to be ruled by a committee of grandmothers.
*
How to stop bullying in schools: this has become a hot topic in both Canada and the United States recently. There has been a spate of studies, hearings and recommendations. I wonder why is it that so far bullies have been allowed a free hand. The only answer I can come up with is that capitalism and militarism legitimize and promote bullies, who are seen as future captains of industry, generals, and men with leadership qualities.
*
Because I was brought up with anti-Turkish prejudices, I make up for it by being against all prejudices, including, and above all, pro-Armenian prejudices.
*
When I speak of Ottomanized Armenians or Ottomanization in general, it is not because I am prejudiced against Ottomanism (whose abuses may not be worse than the abuses of many others -isms, beginning with nationalism, imperialism, Stalinism, Nazism, fascism, anti-Semitism, and so on…). Rather, I am against Armenians who preach Armenianism but practice Ottomanism and are totally unaware of the contradiction.
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I committed some of my most unforgivable blunders when I was sure I was right.
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Since there is no humor in the Bible and some of the most brilliant comedians today are Jewish, one must conclude that one of the preconditions of acquiring a sense of humor is five thousand years of persecution. As for common sense and decency: that may take a little longer.
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Whenever I say something that makes sense, I make another enemy.
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Once upon a time we thought the world was on our side. We now think it's against us. Some day when we grow up we may discover to our astonishment that nobody gives a damn.
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Am I wrong? Probably. Since I have no political ambitions, I don't mind admitting that I don't know much and I understand even less.
#
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
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ON CRITERIA
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You can tell a man's character by the criteria he uses to judge other men.
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A rule without exceptions:
Only the scum of the earth assert moral superiority.
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Even the smartest Armenian is not qualified to judge the dumbest Armenian, probably because it is the dumbest Armenian who assesses himself as the smartest. And because a really smart Armenian knows that he may be smart in one, two, or three fields, but he might as well be a complete ignoramus in a thousand others.
*
Only a mentally challenged kibitzer suffering from verbal diarrhea will assess himself as a competent judge of men, and only a moral moron will judge his fellow men by the number of their university degrees. According to Franklin D. Roosevelt (or one of his speechwriters): "A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car, but if he has a university education he may steal the whole railroad."
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Mario Puzo, who ought to know what he is talking about: "A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a thousand men with guns."
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I remember to have read somewhere that more university graduates become criminals every year than policemen, janitors, or garbage collectors.
*
There are good men and bad men. Likewise, there are good Armenians and bad Armenians as there are good and bad Turks. If it had been up to good Armenians and Turks there would have been no massacres. And if some day Turks and Armenians learn to coexist to their mutual benefit it will be because of the good men on both sides. Because if it were up to the bad, history would repeat itself; and history tends to repeat itself because bad people are more ruthless in their pursuit of evil aims. One reason: good people use only good means to rise to the top, whereas bad people use both good and bad means.
*
Good men know that all massacres are alike in the sense that the victims are invariably innocent and defenseless women, children, and old men. Only bad men say, "When we massacre our enemies, it's good. When they massacre us, it's bad."
#
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
**************************************
Since 1922 Armenians have killed more Turks than Turks have killed Armenians. At the going rate we may have a good chance of getting even in about two million years, give and take a millennium or two.
*
In this context it is also worth mentioning that since 1922 Armenians have killed many more Armenians than they have killed Turks. At the going rate, and if you add up the assimilated (or victims of our self-inflicted "white massacre") we may be extinct long before we settle our score with the Turks.
*
It is not unusual to meet the proud Armenian who thinks he has a license to behave like a bad Turk.
*
To those of my readers who get all worked up whenever they disagree with me, I say, "Relax, take it easy, you have nothing to worry about. I am only a slum-dwelling failure on my way to oblivion."
*
I am not complaining. There are advantages to being a failure. You don't have to put up with agents, accountants, lawyers, editors, and psychiatrists. I see only one advantage in being a success: you get a better class of critics.
*
Whenever I run out of things to say, I read my critics. Nothing stimulates me more than unspeakable perversity coupled with loudmouth arrogance.
*
If historians criticize one another of misunderstanding or misinterpreting the past it may be because, as more or less reasonable men, they cannot grasp the fact that, the absurd and the irrational play a more important role in human affairs than reason, common sense and decency.
*
Deep Throat is a Jew. One more reason why I love Jews. Haldeman and Ehrlichman were loyal to the boss. One more reason why I loathe bosses and fascists.
#

[IAmMadAtAC]

Wednesday, June 01, 2005
**************************************
Since 1922 Armenians have killed more Turks than Turks have killed Armenians. At the going rate we may have a good chance of getting even in about two million years, give and take a millennium or two.
*
In this context it is also worth mentioning that since 1922 Armenians have killed many more Armenians than they have killed Turks. At the going rate, and if you add up the assimilated (or victims of our self-inflicted "white massacre") we may be extinct long before we settle our score with the Turks.

While I don't mind what Ara writes, I don't appreciate how they are taken out of context by Turks. I have seen in various instances, most notably on a stupid Turkish denialist webpage which I shall not name here, uses quotes from Mr. Baliozian's articles to refute the fact of the Armenian Genocide. The quote above, saying that Armenians have killed more Turks since 1922 (which, while could quite possibly be true due to ASALA idiots, isn't bothered to be backed up statistically), is a great example of one of those quotes that Turks go and take, using it to show the world how "look at this Armenian that exposes the truth about the evil Armenians and reveals how they are bloodthirsty maniacs". You have to be more careful in what you say sometimes, because these words are used against you to help deny the Genocide. And I've seen you reference the Genocide many times in your writings, so its not like you don't recognize it or anything.

Also, regarding the second saying above... who's fault is the 'white genocide' ultimately? While some of course does lie with those Armenians that allowed it to occur, it was the Turks that fostered the situation by genociding us and spreading us to the diaspora. Assimilation is a fact of life, it happens to all peoples and cultures. Why do you blame us for it? As a third through sixth-generation diasporan, I don't know Armenian and nor do my parents. You can't blame us, as we weren't brought up with it growing up in the diaspora. Another reason for some cases of assimilation I'm sure is after the horror of the genocide, some wanted to part with that past and start new lives in other places. So when you couple that with the cultural influnces of Armenians living and born in the diaspora, especially as each new generation comes, its just a sad fact that white genocide occurs. Without the genocide though, the amount of assimilation would have been MUCH less and so I mainly attribute the "deaths" from the white genocide to the Turks/Kurds/CUP as well.

[arabaliozian]

notes/comments

Thursday, June 02, 2005
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STAGES
*********************
STAGE I
As a child I couldn't tell an Armenian from an odar. They were all human beings to me.
*
STAGE II
As a boy I was taught to believe Armenians were special - first nation this, first nation that; the "Queen" of translations (about our version of the Bible); xxxx the Big; at a time when the French ate raw rabbit in their caves, we had fine palaces, magnificent cathedral, world-famous philosophers, and a Golden Age; our music, our literature, our multimillionaires, our celebrities in all fields of human endeavor, and so on and so forth… If we were special, it followed that the rest of the world was second class. In short, I was a proud hook-line-and-sinker Armenian. Not only was I a racist but I also took it for granted that racism was a virtue and an asset. I sank lower than a snake's belly full of buckshot; and when you sink that low, the only way is up.
*
STAGE III
I now think we are as good or as bad as the rest of the world and worse than some.
*
When asked if he was really an Armenian, Michael Arlen Sr. is said to have replied: "Who would want to identify himself as an Armenian if he wasn't one?" And he warned his son to stay away from them, or so Jr. writes in his best-selling PASSAGE TO ARARAT.
*
As a boy Zarian didn't much care about Armenians. He was fluent in Russian and French but not in Armenian. Then, in his twenties, he discovered his Armenian identity and believed Armenians to be the Chosen People and Armenia the messiah among nations. After learning to read and write in Armenian by the Mekhitarist monks in Venice, he went to Istanbul and started writing for Armenians. To make a long story short, and a short story shorter, he died (or was murdered) in Armenia alone, unhappy, rejected, silenced, and ignored. One of the final entries in his notebooks (published posthumously) reads: "Armenians survive by cannibalizing one another.
*
MORAL I: If you find yourself in Stage II, don't look down at those who are in Stage III - they may know something you don't know.
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MORAL II: There is more merit in being a humble human being than a proud Armenian.
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MORAL III: Propaganda poisons the mind, racism is a bloodthirsty perversion, and no matter how you slice it, pride is baloney.
#
Friday, June 03, 2005
********************************
Two weeks ago our local paper published a commentary in which it was said that the Jews are not always on the side of genocide victims. An angry letter to the editor said, not true, the Jews have always supported all victims. In my letter to the editor I said that if by Jews we mean Jewish scholars, yes; but if we mean the Israeli government, no. "In the case of the Armenian Genocide," I added, "the Israeli government has been on the side of the perpetrators." My letter was not published. I didn't mind. As an Armenian writer, I am used to being muzzled.
*
The hidden message in our censorship: a nation that has survived a series of massacres over three decades may not survive a critic. But what if we were systematically massacred because we ignored our critics?
*
The aim of propaganda is to prove that a Big Lie is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
*
Once an Armenian develops a grudge against you, he will spend the rest of his life trying to prove that you are a scumbag and he sits at the right hand of god even when it is the other way around. Gandhi once said no man is beyond redemption. But as far as this type of Armenian goes, no power on earth and in heaven can save you if you dare to disagree with him.
*
Some readers want me to be nice. I write, I do not engage in diplomacy. Others want me to be positive. That belongs to the didactic branch of literature. I am in exploration. I probe. Sometimes you need a scalpel for that.
#
Saturday, June 04, 2005
***********************************
When asked why he writes, a writer is quoted as having replied: "So that idiots may have something to think about in twenty years."
*
The problem with most Armenian writers is that they want to achieve popularity long before they are murdered by a foreign tyrant or starved by their fellow Armenians.
*
Am I right or wrong? I am not sure. But I know this: if I am wrong, my voice will be drowned by a chorus of loud-mouth chauvinists, charlatans, partisans and panchoonies, none of whom will ever dare to question the authority of any one of our bosses, bishops, and benefactors.
*
If all Turks vanished from the face of the earth tomorrow, Armenians wouldn't miss them because an Armenian friend wouldn't be much different from a Turkish enemy.
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Charles Péguy: "Out of ignorance and a sense of duty most decent people are liable to turn into criminals."
*
You can't talk ethics with a bishop: he thinks he has a monopoly on the subject. You can't talk sharing power with a boss: he thinks he is the best-qualified man for the job.
You can't talk money with a benefactor: he won't listen to anyone who makes less than he does.
*
Scottish proverb: "The devil's boots don't creak."
*
All persecuted minorities and victims tend to view freedom as the freedom to persecute and victimize.
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La Rochefoucauld: "No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does."
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"I paint with my prick," Renoir is quoted as having said.
Some of my readers think with theirs.
#

[arabaliozian]

my reply

While I don't mind what Ara writes, I don't appreciate how they are taken out of context by Turks. I have seen in various instances, most notably on a stupid Turkish denialist webpage which I shall not name here, uses quotes from Mr. Baliozian's articles to refute the fact of the Armenian Genocide. The quote above, saying that Armenians have killed more Turks since 1922 (which, while could quite possibly be true due to ASALA idiots, isn't bothered to be backed up statistically), is a great example of one of those quotes that Turks go and take, using it to show the world how "look at this Armenian that exposes the truth about the evil Armenians and reveals how they are bloodthirsty maniacs". You have to be more careful in what you say sometimes, because these words are used against you to help deny the Genocide. And I've seen you reference the Genocide many times in your writings, so its not like you don't recognize it or anything.

Also, regarding the second saying above... who's fault is the 'white genocide' ultimately? While some of course does lie with those Armenians that allowed it to occur, it was the Turks that fostered the situation by genociding us and spreading us to the diaspora. Assimilation is a fact of life, it happens to all peoples and cultures. Why do you blame us for it? As a third through sixth-generation diasporan, I don't know Armenian and nor do my parents. You can't blame us, as we weren't brought up with it growing up in the diaspora. Another reason for some cases of assimilation I'm sure is after the horror of the genocide, some wanted to part with that past and start new lives in other places. So when you couple that with the cultural influnces of Armenians living and born in the diaspora, especially as each new generation comes, its just a sad fact that white genocide occurs. Without the genocide though, the amount of assimilation would have been MUCH less and so I mainly attribute the "deaths" from the white genocide to the Turks/Kurds/CUP as well.

dear friend:
the turks are not dumb. they have already spread the word that all armenians are terrorists, in the same way that we say all turks are murderers or liars.

the turks quote armenians to prove their point; and we quote turks to do the same. nothing new in that. some day turks and armenians will have to get along and coexist. if that happens it will be because of armenians and turks who are not afraid to face reality -- be it for or agains them. / ara

[Red Brigade]

(which, while could quite possibly be true due to ASALA idiots, isn't bothered to be backed up statistically)

If it wasn't for ASALA , the Armenian Genocide wouldn't even be mentioned today , in the negotiations of Turkey's entrance in the EU.

[arabaliozian]

IN THE NAME OF LITERATURE
***************************************
If what I say has been said before by many other Armenian writers (among them Khorenatsi, Yeghishe, Raffi, Baronian, Odian, Voskanian, Shahnour, Zarian, Massikian), it follows that whenever I am muzzled, it is not I who is being muzzled, but Armenian literature.
*
Any reader who is interested to know what these writers (mentioned above) and many others (Armenian as well as odar) have said about us and is too lazy or unable to read them in the original, I suggest he consult my DICTIONARY OF ARMENIAN QUOTATIONS, which happens to be out of print but may be obtained through the American and Canadian interlibrary loan system, which is free of charge.
*
If I speak in the name of our writers, it follows, our censors and editors (but I repeat myself) act in the name of commissars of culture whose aim has been and continues to be not culture but its systematic perversion. And as if that weren't enough, these butchers portray themselves as defenders of the faith and saviors of the nation. Because butchers never go about their bloody business in the name of the Devil, but in the name of Allah, and since they control the press, the schools, and the pulpits of the nation, they have no trouble in shaping the judgment of dupes.
*
Where everyone speaks in the name of God, Capital, and Ideology, the question we should ask is who speaks in the name of literature? The answer is and must be the same people who spoke in the name of Soviet literature under Stalin, German literature under Hitler, and Italian literature under Mussolini. That is to say, the very same people who silenced (sometimes permanently) Charents, Bakounts, Zabel Yessayan, Mahari, Mandelstam, Solzhenitsyn, Akhmatova, Thomas Mann, Gramsci and many others.
*
Talaat and Stalin are not dead. They live, and the massacre continues…
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Monday, June 06, 2005
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PARALLELS
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If we are special and unique, it follows we are also morally superior and therefore beyond criticism. Beyond criticism means we have no use for critics and dissent might as well be anathema, treason, and betrayal. Which is where I come in.
*
My life has been a succession of blunders. It all began when I was born an Armenian. It's been downhill ever since. For a long time I couldn't see this, but it is as clear as daylight now. This is not a confession but an admission of facts based on objectively assessed data. And now from the specific back to the general, and from the present to the past.
*
Our historians, schoolteachers and propaganda are unanimous in telling us that our troubles began with the birth of the nation on the crossroads of bloodthirsty barbarians on the warpath. Things have been going downhill ever since. Overrun, conquered, and ruled by Romans, Persians, Byzantine Greeks (some of whom were Armenians), Arabs, Turks, and Russians, our history has been a succession of defeats, subservience to scum, massacre (by ditto), dispersion, exile, alienation, and assimilation (or "white massacre").
*
Moral of the story: Sorry, I see none. If you do, please go ahead, enlighten us and in the process make me that rarest of all oxymorons: a happy Armenian.
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Tuesday, June 07, 2005
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Our political parties should make a joint declaration to the effect that in so far as they have failed to unite and strengthen the nation, they have been a liability rather than an asset.
*
Had Goliath been an Armenian, his defeat would have been called a moral victory in our textbooks, and David's version of the story anti-Armenian propaganda.
*
Since most of our revolutionary leaders survived the massacres, we must assume they had a Plan B for themselves but not for the two million.
*
An Armenian is that paradoxical creature who hates no one except fellow Armenians who do not share his hatred of Turks.
*
An Armenian loves freedom but hates free speech.
*
There are two kinds of dupes: dupes who believe in someone else's lies, and dupes who believe in their own lies.
*
I don't need to know the truth to recognize a lie, in the same way that I don't need to have seen the light to say that, for the blind leading the blind, walking by a ditch can be a risky business.
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Wednesday, June 08, 2005
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I grew up in a ghetto among survivors and as far as I remember the possibility of Turkish acknowledgment of the Genocide wasn't even mentioned, perhaps because the idea of being dependent on Turkish goodwill, compassion, or justice was so alien, not to say repellent, that it was dismissed as absurd long before it surfaced.
*
Stressing one side of the story at the expense of the other may end up doing more harm than good by raising questions about our objectivity. I would go further and say that even if there is no other side to the story, we should pretend that there is. To say that Turks are Asiatic barbarians is not a valid argument in the eyes of those who have dealt with both Armenians and Turks and have perceived little or no difference in their conduct. On the other hand, to say that the Genocide was a result of collective insanity amounts to providing them with a good reason to plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
*
Leonardo da Vince, himself the designer of weapons of mass destruction, once called war "pazzia bestialissima" (the most beastly madness), which may suggest that collective insanity is not a rare but a routine occurrence in history. Which may also suggest that Turks are no different than any other nation, including the most civilized, progressive, and democratic.
*
Having said this, I will not be surprised if I am accused of being on the side of denialists. But then, as an Armenian writer I have been exposed to so much ego-driven verbal bowel movements that I can take nothing an Armenian says seriously.
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[IAmMadAtAC]

If it wasn't for ASALA , the Armenian Genocide wouldn't even be mentioned today , in the negotiations of Turkey's entrance in the EU.

If it wasn't for ASALA, the Turks would have no ammunition with which to fight the genocide. Well, they do have their multimillionaire lobbyists, their "strategic geographic location", their "modern democracy", and their status as a "dear NATO ally", but BESIDES all that... haha.
Seriously though, besides all that, they wouldn't be able to equate the murder of less than a hundred diplomats to the murder/displacement of over a million Armenians and call it even, as they do now.

[arabaliozian]

Thursday, June 09, 2005
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VARIATIONS ON A FAMILIAR THEME
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Since the most abominable crimes have been justified in the name of God and Country, whenever common sense and decency stand in direct contradiction with the message of sermonizers and speechifiers, I go with common sense. But try to explain this to a charlatan who has been brainwashed to believe he is morally superior.
*
In the end crooks are caught because when they get away with something, they invariably come back to get away with more…and more…until they are exposed. Something similar happens to charlatanism and many other human aberrations: if not exposed at an early stage, they get progressively worse until they legitimize torture, war and massacre.
*
How can murder and massacre be morally superior? Why is it that the very same people who oppose abortion support war? How can love of God and Country legitimize hate of fellow men, including fellow countrymen? I don't know, but if you want these questions answered, ask any one of our dime-a-dozen charlatans and phony pundits.
*
You read a critic to know what's wrong with you, not what's right. You already know what's right and if you are an Armenian, even that which is wrong is right, which may explain why we silence and starve our critics.
*
Whenever I say Armenian writers have been misunderstood and rejected, sometimes even silenced and starved, I am informed by our defenders of the faith, "So have all writers throughout history." True. But whereas some Soviet dissidents enjoyed international support, our own dissidents didn't even enjoy our support. I remember one of our elder statesmen saying: "Parajanov? The man is a syphilitic homosexual and a black marketeer. They should lock him up and throw away the key!"
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Friday, June 10, 2005
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OF POLITICIANS, LAWYERS, AND LAYMEN
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The problem with Turks is that they believe what they are told by their politicians. Our problem? Ditto.
*
Turks as well as Armenians trust their own politicians even though it is a universally acknowledge fact that politicians and honesty are incompatible, not to say, mutually exclusive concepts.
*
Truth is not the province of politicians, power or propaganda is. In that sense politicians are like defense lawyers whose job consists in emphasizing the evidence in their favor and ignoring or denigrating the evidence presented by the prosecution. As for justice: they leave it up to the judge and jury.
*
Politicians operate like lawyers too, future historians and the people being their judge and jury - provided of course historians are not nationalist hacks and hirelings of the regime, and the people are not brainwashed dupes.
*
History it has been said is the propaganda of the victor. What has not been said is that it can also be the consolation of the loser. The victor feels the need to explain and justify his strength and its abuses (or crimes against humanity); and the loser feels a corresponding need to explain and justify his weakness and incompetence, which he can do only by asserting moral superiority.
*
As an Armenian I have been called all kinds of nasty names by my fellow Armenians. Which may suggest that not all Armenians are alike. And, if our propagandists are to be believed, there are Armenians (like myself) who are scumbags, and there are Armenians (like themselves) who are noble specimens of humanity. It follows Armenian politicians are as white as the driven snow, and anyone who disagrees with them is an enemy of the people. It is therefore the patriotic duty of all decent Armenians to insult, silence, and whenever possible, to starve all critics and dissidents, or anyone else who refuses to parrot the propaganda line of our bosses and their dupes.
*
Sometimes I am accused of making wild generalizations and ignoring the diversity of individuals and groups. The only time I generalize is when I speak of our past and future. That's because as a nation we have only one history and one destiny. We cannot divide our history into chapters that apply only to a fraction of the nation. If we did that, we would cease being a nation and become a collection of tribes, each with its own specific collective experience, ethos, character, and culture.
*
To commit an injustice in the name of justice, and to lie in the name of truth may be contradictions but they are also routine occurrences. They happen every day. Hence the old saying, "Don't believe everything you read in the papers."
*
We are neither politicians nor lawyers. We are laymen. And if we want to understand reality we must learn to think against ourselves. To trust our politicians means to be willing to kill or die in the name of a Big Lie.
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Saturday, June 11, 2005
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ON FANATICS
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You can't argue with a fanatic, especially if you are yourself a fanatic. We tried it with the Turks a hundred years ago and it didn't work. And we have been trying it ever since with the same results. We say they are fanatics and they return the compliment. Who is right?
*
Has an Armenian ever admitted to being a fanatic? An Armenian is brought up to believe whatever he says and does is motivated by love, justice, truth, and moderation. Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth or anywhere else for that matter.
*
I first learned the meaning of tolerance and moderation, not to say good manners, when I heard an Englishman say, "You may be right," when I was dead wrong. If an Armenian thinks you are wrong, he will call you names, he will rub your nose in it, and if he has the power, he will muzzle you, all in the name of justice, moderation, truth, objectivity, patriotism, Christian compassion, and a whole bunch of other good things.
*
Because the Zartarian brothers thought Shahnour was wrong in his interpretation of one of their father's short stories, they beat the hell out of him in public. You want more examples of Armenian fanaticism? Visit any Armenian discussion forum, or even better, read a history of Armenian literature.
*
Because Raffi was critical of our merchant class, a wealthy merchant hired the services of a Kurdish assassin. And because I have adopted a critical stance I have become an enemy of the people and a non-person.
This sort of thing happens all the time, everywhere, of course. Our failings are human failings. They are universal failings. Does that mean we should ignore them? Cover them up? Even better, legitimize them by accepting them as inevitable facts of life? Isn't this what we have done? And because I say this is wrong, am I an enemy?
*
I am an enemy in the eyes of Armenians who think of themselves as beyond criticism. No sane man with the minimum of common sense and decency would ever dare to think of himself as beyond criticism, except an Armenian who has brainwashed himself to believe he is a role model with leadership qualities. There you have it: a definition of an Armenian fanatic.
*
I speak from experience. I too was a fanatic once upon a time. Perhaps I still am. If I haven't silenced anyone it may be because I don't have the power. If I have never gone as far as hiring an assassin it may be because hitmen are luxuries beyond my means. Think whatever you like of me, so long as you don't think of me as that loathsome of all creatures: a role model with leadership qualities.
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