Never in my life have I seen the faces of so many Turks on the front pages of Armenian newspapers as I have these past 3 months: Erdogan, Babacan, Gul, Davutoglu, Mehmediarov, Aliyev and others. Mustachioed, neo-Ottomans in dapper suits.
Turks are on the move from Central Asia to Europe en route from their true origins to what they aspire to become, and the little country of Armenia is caught in the middle of the most ambitious national aspiration in modern times: Turkey’s transformation into the world of the civilized.
If the key to what the Turks are seeking, namely, honor, respectability, and modernism, lies with us the Armenians then we must be ready to walk the walk.
But first, some facts:
Turkey is an Asian nation of 72 million inhabitants. It is a Muslim state (not secular), inhabited by peoples of Turkic stock. 99% of Turkey’s land mass is situated in the Asian continent. The country holds no natural resources, and a great percentage of the population live off the land in medieval settings. Ethnic divisions are acute, especially against a Kurdish minority of 15 million who do not speak the same language, and do not share the lexicon of unity that emanates from Ankara.
The global economic boom of the past decade has been good for Turkey, as Europe sought cheap labor to manufacture shirts and underwear, and hotel rooms on beaches serving all-you-can- drink cocktails to sun-deprived Scandinavians, and hard-drinking Brits. Much similar to countries such as say, Vietnam, 80% of Turkey’s economy is based on soft industries – textile, tourism, food packing, wireless telecom and finance. Industries that foreign investors will easily move out of the country in case of political turmoil or economic instability, and there’s been quite a few of those these past 20 years – coup d’états and financial meltdowns, defaults on foreign loans, and currency devaluations.
Turkey’s much publicized million-strong army is well trained to suppress the Kurds, and preserve an image of a democratic (that’s a joke), secular (false) , modern (more like a rural-urban hodge-podge), and European (Euro-Asian identity crisis) state. It can, more appropriately, scare neighboring minnows like Kurds, Armenians or Syrians, but has never been tested against a credible military challenge. The notion that Turkey has one of the most formidable armies in the world is yet another myth.
Modern Turkey is the direct successor of the Ottoman Empire – the same entity that massacred 1.5 million of its own Armenian citizens, expelled million others, and forcefully converted generations of Armenians and Greeks through servitude and assimilation. An empire built on religious fanaticism, brute force, cruel taxation and a dismal human rights record. Name one thing that can be attributed to the Ottoman Turks that survives to this day as their lasting contribution to civilization. Nothing, absolutely nothing!
Leave it to the Turks to position themselves as big players on the world stage these days. Look at various regional conflicts and Turkey’s self-suggested involvement in them as mediators, and you see no effective solutions, and no genuine contributions: Azerbaijan-Armenia, US-Iraq, Iran-Saudi Arabia, Syria-Israel. I know of no world conflict - political, social or economic- that Turks have yet been able to solve or put to rest. None! But that has not diminished Turkey’s belief in its own lies: That it has actually arrived on the world scene, without the burden of its past, or the moral responsibility of the present.
Worst yet, Turks see themselves as uniquely positioned as an “emerging economy” to confront their distracters, especially those who keep bringing up “this issue of the Armenians”. In reality, they are burdened by the belief that any admission to crimes against humans (Genocide) would be a direct betrayal of the “principals” upon which Mustafa Kemal founded their new nation in 1923– as a shining country of a very happy and homogeneous population, at peace with its Ottoman past, and ready to take on the challenges of a modern future built on universal values of democracy. A fiction of Mustafa’s imagination conceived possibly at one of his “better moments” (he eventually died of alcohol-induced cirrhosis at the age of 57). In reality, modern Turkey has not and cannot progress beyond his idea of greatness as long as it is held in place by an army that meddles in all affairs of the state, suppressing the press and the multitude of historians, authors, journalist and scholars relentlessly, meticulously and heartlessly, and assassinating some of them at intervals. The people of Turkey, on the other hand, have fear as their greatest motivation to… not talk!
Which bring us to 2009 and the current negotiations between Turkey and Armenia, and possibly the opening of the border for the first time since Armenia became independent in 1991. While Armenia must negotiate for the opening of the border as a gesture of good neighborly relations and for commercial reasons, it is continuously reminded to do so without pre-conditions of Turkish admission to the Genocide.
Under pressure from the US and occasionally Europe (led by Turkey’s only true historic friend – the British) the Turkey-Armenia issue is getting to look more like a classics case of a crisis between a weaker party forcefully stripped of the only right it possesses for negotiations – the legitimacy of human rights, and the stronger party pretending to promote what’s best for the region, as long as the best serves their own grand ambitions. Enter into this mess at the eleventh-hour the mushy obama-esque style of US mediation in disputes of the world, and the debate takes the bizarre new twist of “Let’s not forget, but let’s forgive”, or even better yet, “Let’s forget and forgive”.
The key to the puzzle rests, of course, in Yerevan, where a corrupt government run by a president known for his gambling prowess not in the corridors of power, but rather in the halls of Monte Carlo runs the show. As shrewd as he thinks he may be, his counterpart is Tayyip Erdogan, himself, a risk-taker who has a string of successes in his build-up of a private financial empire worth in the billions of dollars. Mr. Sargsyan, take note!
Can the government in Yerevan be trusted? And is the Armenian acuity to eventually make a good deal out of a bad situation enough to make this a risk worth making? I don’t think so. Turkey needs nothing of Armenia except for an indefinite suspension of the Genocide issue, or for at least the next 15 years until Turkey becomes …dadaaa … European. The Turks believe that the absence of a debate is the absence of the problem itself.
It is essential for Armenia to advance good relations with all its neighbors, including Turkey. This means open borders, and negotiations on all issues of interest to countries with shared borders, and that’s exactly where the potential entanglement lies: What to do about the Genocide?
Do not misunderstand. My whole argument is not about what Turkey will do or must do, nor what the US can impose or must not. But rather what we, Armenians must not do, and cannot do.
What Armenia must not and cannot do is to allow the Genocide to be a topic for discussion. It is certainly a critical issue and a very vital topic… but not for discussion. Not by anyone, not anywhere, and not at anytime.
In other words, the notion of “Let’s forget” is not possible, nor any suggestion that the Genocide is “a topic” that is for future historians to discuss, dispute and conclude. The Genocide is a fact, a historically documented fact. Facts are not negotiable, nor revised. Period! The message that goes out to Turkey is loud and clear: There is no hope for their image as a genuinely modern country until all disputes of their past are settled. Mistakes of fathers have a tendency to stick with the permanence of an asterisk in most unlikely places. Mustafa Kemal knew that, but at the end he lacked the European-ness he desperately aspired for to clean the mess of the Ottomans right from the beginning.
The Republic of Armenia faces its biggest challenge so far because the very history leading to its creation and existence will be questioned at each step of the way should Armenia participate in a bilateral commission of historians that will be created to, supposedly, study the Genocide. The process in nothing more than a cover for years of empty talk in light of “new archives” that Turkey will put on the table for endless discussions with no conclusions. Open-ended talks will surely stall as Turkey will insist on the inclusion of yet another new (fabricated) evidence of “atrocities by Armenians”. The same argument that has been at the core of their strategy in denying the Genocide.
There can be only one outcome to the Turkish stance on the Genocide: Admission. That, however, is a course that the people of Turkey might eventually elect to take. It will be a good idea for them to start where it’s easiest- with the more that million Turks amongst themselves whose roots are to be found in their Armenian grandmothers who in, 1915, were forcefully converted after their families were massacred during the Genocide.
Then what are we Armenians to do, while we wait for Turkey to open, modernize and be civilized by forces from inside, from places yet unknown? We are all missing the point if we make Turkey or the US the frontline of our decision to a plan of action. It is time to collect our senses, wave all politicians goodbye and work on the continuity and prosperity of Armenian entities everywhere in the world as a constant reminder to Turkey as to who may be losing the battle today, but can win the war eventually. That is the course of history, and no one understands that better than the exact same mustachioed neo-Ottomans in dapper suits I have listed in the beginning of this column.
An article in the July issue of The Economist about Turkey concludes with a notation by “a Western official” saying, “When it comes to Turkey and Armenia, Turkey wins every time”. The person in question has failed to notice that we Armenians are not out to defeat Turkey. They have their own people to do that for us.
September 25, 2009
Armenian Studies in America
The Society for Armenian Studies concluded a three-day conference held at the UCLA in commemoration of its 35th anniversary. The banquet held on the last day of the conference recognized the achievements of various scholars with awards and accolades of worthy proportions, but not in tune with the work that lies ahead, and serious concerns about who is to do it, and how to finance it.
Armenology, or the study of Armenian topics in America is 50 years old this year. First established - by funds raised in the local community – as an endowed chair at Harvard University in 1959, followed by another chair at UCLA in 1965 where Masters of Arts and Ph.D. degrees in Armenian history, language, literature and culture were to be awarded. The crowd at the banquet was reminded that hard-working Armenians donated their entire month’s wages at the time for the creation of something they saw as sacred for their heritage and identity. Today, there are 15 chairs in Armenian studies in universities across the United States.
The fact that most of these were established in the far-far away 60’s, 70’s and 80’s attest to the fact that the Armenians, some of us today, often regard as the cause for diluting our identity were – in fact – “good Armenians”, to say the least. They must have also been very bright people who understood that organizing their resources towards scholarship and higher learning was the noblest of all causes. The so called “Golden 90’s”, on the other hand, saw many Armenians prosper and get rich – but not for the benefit or advancement of any intellectual work. We still don’t get it: A dozen dinner-dances held over one weekend around LA’s Armenian community does not make us so smart or savvy after all. Most of the wealth dissipated with the latest financial meltdown anyway. We now live in big homes on top of mountains with pools we do not use, and Camelot-style dining rooms that are off limit to dinner guests because the 12 seater table is “Imported from Italy”. We socialize for the sole purpose of having the one thing that has weakened many over-extended and over-spent modern societies: too much fun.
Today-besides Harvard University and UCLA- University of Michigan, Clark University, Tufts, Columbia and CSU Fresno are also hosts to Armenian studies chairs that employ tenured professors who must study and research the essence of Armenian existence from time immemorial to the present. They are expected to discover the minute details of Armenian civilization including language and literature, to unearth the secrets of our history, and the nuances of contemporary Armenia’s complex politics with some of the most undesirable neighbors in the world. It is a tall order indeed!
While the rest of us are untrained to decipher most facts and information in mere books, it is the skill of these men and women to classify and analyze data that pour out of archives stored in Paris, London, Moscow or Washington DC. Millions of Armenians were living on their ancestral lands for centuries across the Ottoman Empire, and their story is still locked away in documents that are held in secrecy to this day. It is yet to be told.
While the Genocide overpowers the purpose of Armenian studies in general, there are many other topics of utmost importance for the final definition of the Armenian identity – some may seem tedious and boring by some accounts (the Hittites and the Sumerians, for example), others are very exciting and up-to-date (For example issues, such as the social, political and economic dealings of the Armenians of Glendale). We are, at this stage of our existence in America, a community without an objective record of our existence. Newspapers record events, but rarely report on incidents or react to plans that influence the lives of people or impact the community. No research has been done on relevant current topics such as the youth, organizations, schools, the professional class, mixed marriages or linguistic assimilation. No one has yet traced the story of the Western Armenian dialect since its abrupt departure from Lebanon and Syria, and its demise in France and America.
Having said all that, I still see Genocide studies as the most critical topic that must progress for the sake of our sanity and dignity. Assuming that there are already 2181 (A mere assumption) books already published on the Genocide, it would give me a great sense of comfort to know that someone in academia is working on book number 2182. If we do not continue to prioritize and fund the exploration and research relentlessly on the topic, then we will be condemned to have Turkish charlatan and revisionist historians tell the story of “our” Genocide to the rest of the world. We face a fate similar to the Palestinians, whereby the story of their national experience and aspirations are documented and interpreted by Jewish journalists, historians and political scientists working out of American newspapers, universities, and think tanks.
We must retain our sense of urgency to keep, strengthen and fund Armenian studies and programs in American universities. More and more of those positions are going to odars. By the very nature of their structure, they may as well be offered to a Turk, “knowledgeable” of the topic, and even possibly fluent in Armenian. One never knows!
We are at the threshold of the next 50 years, and this is what’s going on: A community in LA that has detached itself from the chairs in its midst. The two UCLA chairs are vaguely remembered. In New York, another Armenian marker on the map, the Columbia University chair has been vacant for 10 years. Elsewhere retiring tenured professors are known to have ended their careers without grooming Ph. D’s that could in time qualify to replace them. Scholars, by nature, are solitary people, but that may also be the cause as to why they have not inspired and organized the community that funds their chairs to be more demanding of the host universities to respect and honor their pledge to Armenian studies. They must also play the key role in a smooth transition from one chair holder to another.
There’s been much talk about shifting Armenian studies from its Near Eastern connections (i.e. Turkey, Iran, and Israel) onto the larger sphere of Slavic (Russian, Caucasus and European) studies. But no success yet! There are no real think tanks and institutes that host talented young scholars to research current topics and publish their findings. There are virtually no funds allocated for translations or special research to qualified scholar, albeit for a limited amount, culminating in a paper or a book for which additional funds will be needed for publication.
The Society for Armenian Studies Journal did not receive the minimal financial backing from able donors or organizations when it attempted to change its one-a-year format to four issues a year, where “Turkey watch” would have been one of the issues. No one seemed to pay attention.
“Armenians are running the risk of becoming invisible, because no one is writing about us”, as Khachig Tololyan said during one of the sessions of the Society for Armenian Studies conference. “You want to be known by the world, then you must publish”, was Anny Bakalians call at the same session.
Currently we have only one chair for Genocide Studies (at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.), “which shows how neglected the effort is”. These remarks were coming from Taner Akcam, the holder of the chair. What happened to us during the past 15 years, the so called “years of prosperity”? Did we lose our minds and our soul?!
For now, the needs seem very clear and the responsibility rests with the holders of the chairs, as well as the rest of us: To find and encourage and recruit people willing to dedicate their life to Armenian studies, and (since one cannot pursue studies without concerns for employment) then to place them into jobs where they can lecture, research and publish. We desperately need different views on all topics for the sake of discussion, debate and learning. Our nation deserves its share of thinkers, and intellectuals must reclaim their place as leaders of the community after 15 years of desolation. We trusted people who lead us by “financial models” all these years, and what have we got to show for it?
So what is it that I imagine to be good material for Armenian studies? Frankly, everything and anything. For example, I am proud to have learned that Armenians were people of significance during the Byzantine Empire as well as the British Raj. But to imagine that Armenians just showed up one day in India to build schools, monasteries and printing houses is silly and absurd. The answers are to found in meticulous research. It is a fascinating story of historic connection of a merchant class from Persia, their Christian-Catholic affiliation with immense networks of traders in and out of India which over time led our people to the gates to Venice (San Lazaro and the Mekhitarists), Cairo (Boghos Nubar and the AGBU), and Baghdad and London (Gulbenkian, Mr. 5% himself) …all places where the Armenian presence survives to this day. I am looking forward to reading Sebouh Aslanian’s Ph.D. dissertation when it is published.
What are we to record about our life and times here today? Is what we do today going to be relevant for our history in the future? It will, only if we advance the best and the brightest amongst us to write about it.
Armenology, or the study of Armenian topics in America is 50 years old this year. First established - by funds raised in the local community – as an endowed chair at Harvard University in 1959, followed by another chair at UCLA in 1965 where Masters of Arts and Ph.D. degrees in Armenian history, language, literature and culture were to be awarded. The crowd at the banquet was reminded that hard-working Armenians donated their entire month’s wages at the time for the creation of something they saw as sacred for their heritage and identity. Today, there are 15 chairs in Armenian studies in universities across the United States.
The fact that most of these were established in the far-far away 60’s, 70’s and 80’s attest to the fact that the Armenians, some of us today, often regard as the cause for diluting our identity were – in fact – “good Armenians”, to say the least. They must have also been very bright people who understood that organizing their resources towards scholarship and higher learning was the noblest of all causes. The so called “Golden 90’s”, on the other hand, saw many Armenians prosper and get rich – but not for the benefit or advancement of any intellectual work. We still don’t get it: A dozen dinner-dances held over one weekend around LA’s Armenian community does not make us so smart or savvy after all. Most of the wealth dissipated with the latest financial meltdown anyway. We now live in big homes on top of mountains with pools we do not use, and Camelot-style dining rooms that are off limit to dinner guests because the 12 seater table is “Imported from Italy”. We socialize for the sole purpose of having the one thing that has weakened many over-extended and over-spent modern societies: too much fun.
Today-besides Harvard University and UCLA- University of Michigan, Clark University, Tufts, Columbia and CSU Fresno are also hosts to Armenian studies chairs that employ tenured professors who must study and research the essence of Armenian existence from time immemorial to the present. They are expected to discover the minute details of Armenian civilization including language and literature, to unearth the secrets of our history, and the nuances of contemporary Armenia’s complex politics with some of the most undesirable neighbors in the world. It is a tall order indeed!
While the rest of us are untrained to decipher most facts and information in mere books, it is the skill of these men and women to classify and analyze data that pour out of archives stored in Paris, London, Moscow or Washington DC. Millions of Armenians were living on their ancestral lands for centuries across the Ottoman Empire, and their story is still locked away in documents that are held in secrecy to this day. It is yet to be told.
While the Genocide overpowers the purpose of Armenian studies in general, there are many other topics of utmost importance for the final definition of the Armenian identity – some may seem tedious and boring by some accounts (the Hittites and the Sumerians, for example), others are very exciting and up-to-date (For example issues, such as the social, political and economic dealings of the Armenians of Glendale). We are, at this stage of our existence in America, a community without an objective record of our existence. Newspapers record events, but rarely report on incidents or react to plans that influence the lives of people or impact the community. No research has been done on relevant current topics such as the youth, organizations, schools, the professional class, mixed marriages or linguistic assimilation. No one has yet traced the story of the Western Armenian dialect since its abrupt departure from Lebanon and Syria, and its demise in France and America.
Having said all that, I still see Genocide studies as the most critical topic that must progress for the sake of our sanity and dignity. Assuming that there are already 2181 (A mere assumption) books already published on the Genocide, it would give me a great sense of comfort to know that someone in academia is working on book number 2182. If we do not continue to prioritize and fund the exploration and research relentlessly on the topic, then we will be condemned to have Turkish charlatan and revisionist historians tell the story of “our” Genocide to the rest of the world. We face a fate similar to the Palestinians, whereby the story of their national experience and aspirations are documented and interpreted by Jewish journalists, historians and political scientists working out of American newspapers, universities, and think tanks.
We must retain our sense of urgency to keep, strengthen and fund Armenian studies and programs in American universities. More and more of those positions are going to odars. By the very nature of their structure, they may as well be offered to a Turk, “knowledgeable” of the topic, and even possibly fluent in Armenian. One never knows!
We are at the threshold of the next 50 years, and this is what’s going on: A community in LA that has detached itself from the chairs in its midst. The two UCLA chairs are vaguely remembered. In New York, another Armenian marker on the map, the Columbia University chair has been vacant for 10 years. Elsewhere retiring tenured professors are known to have ended their careers without grooming Ph. D’s that could in time qualify to replace them. Scholars, by nature, are solitary people, but that may also be the cause as to why they have not inspired and organized the community that funds their chairs to be more demanding of the host universities to respect and honor their pledge to Armenian studies. They must also play the key role in a smooth transition from one chair holder to another.
There’s been much talk about shifting Armenian studies from its Near Eastern connections (i.e. Turkey, Iran, and Israel) onto the larger sphere of Slavic (Russian, Caucasus and European) studies. But no success yet! There are no real think tanks and institutes that host talented young scholars to research current topics and publish their findings. There are virtually no funds allocated for translations or special research to qualified scholar, albeit for a limited amount, culminating in a paper or a book for which additional funds will be needed for publication.
The Society for Armenian Studies Journal did not receive the minimal financial backing from able donors or organizations when it attempted to change its one-a-year format to four issues a year, where “Turkey watch” would have been one of the issues. No one seemed to pay attention.
“Armenians are running the risk of becoming invisible, because no one is writing about us”, as Khachig Tololyan said during one of the sessions of the Society for Armenian Studies conference. “You want to be known by the world, then you must publish”, was Anny Bakalians call at the same session.
Currently we have only one chair for Genocide Studies (at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.), “which shows how neglected the effort is”. These remarks were coming from Taner Akcam, the holder of the chair. What happened to us during the past 15 years, the so called “years of prosperity”? Did we lose our minds and our soul?!
For now, the needs seem very clear and the responsibility rests with the holders of the chairs, as well as the rest of us: To find and encourage and recruit people willing to dedicate their life to Armenian studies, and (since one cannot pursue studies without concerns for employment) then to place them into jobs where they can lecture, research and publish. We desperately need different views on all topics for the sake of discussion, debate and learning. Our nation deserves its share of thinkers, and intellectuals must reclaim their place as leaders of the community after 15 years of desolation. We trusted people who lead us by “financial models” all these years, and what have we got to show for it?
So what is it that I imagine to be good material for Armenian studies? Frankly, everything and anything. For example, I am proud to have learned that Armenians were people of significance during the Byzantine Empire as well as the British Raj. But to imagine that Armenians just showed up one day in India to build schools, monasteries and printing houses is silly and absurd. The answers are to found in meticulous research. It is a fascinating story of historic connection of a merchant class from Persia, their Christian-Catholic affiliation with immense networks of traders in and out of India which over time led our people to the gates to Venice (San Lazaro and the Mekhitarists), Cairo (Boghos Nubar and the AGBU), and Baghdad and London (Gulbenkian, Mr. 5% himself) …all places where the Armenian presence survives to this day. I am looking forward to reading Sebouh Aslanian’s Ph.D. dissertation when it is published.
What are we to record about our life and times here today? Is what we do today going to be relevant for our history in the future? It will, only if we advance the best and the brightest amongst us to write about it.
Project Save: 25,000 and Counting
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| With Vartouhy Kojayan, Maral Voskian and Ruth Thomasian |
It is a spine chilling experience to be staring straight at this photograph. It is not my father in the picture who overwhelms me, but rather my grandfather whose eyes lock into mine and I can’t bear to look at it anymore. I can feel him move and breathe in the picture as if he was alive. His eyes talk, as all Armenian eyes do!
I once cried with the picture in hand, unable to bear the thought of the untimely death of a loved Hajintzi – my grandfather, my beloved father’s father. The photograph is a picture of a good man. It is honest, clear, expressive and talkative. It is the beginning of my Armenian identity.
There is an organization in this world that collects priceless Armenian photographs such as my grandfather’s and preserves them for the Armenian culture and heritage. It is Project Save, located in Watertown, Mass. I may not get to see the thousands of photographs in their archives during my lifetime, but it gives me great comfort to know that they are in good hands, for others to see and feel. The pictures are safe with Project Save.
Project Save was founded by Ruth Thomasian. I recently met her at a presentation of the Project’s work. She came across as someone with an acute sense of mission and responsibility, who greatly enjoyed the story-telling element of her work. I was told that it all started in 1975, when as a costume designer in New York City, she was asked to design a costume for an Armenian play. A request, which she placed in an Armenian newspaper, resulted in one picture in the mail. She has not stopped looking, asking or collecting ever since. At first, it was slow coming, she said– maybe 50 donors for the entire first 4 years, but she now receives 1000 photos a year. A mosaic of thousand points of light of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Persia, Iraq, Soviet Armenia and America captured while at work or play, in weddings, playing music or on stage. Armenian women, men in the military, and lots of pictures of families – people with beautiful Armenian eyes staring straight at you and me. Many of these pictures were taken so they can be sent to a loved one who is absent from the picture, away in a far land toiling so he can feed the family back home – Some never made it! The archives narrate the story of Armenians wandering between home and homeland. Bantookh hayoo jagadakeer.
My meeting with Thomasian (photo) happened at a time when I had just finished six months of work sorting, cataloguing and albuming more than 5000 family photographs.
My father was an ardent photographer – taking pictures of everyone who visited our home, and of places we visited as a family. One of his best is a close-up of himself in black and white, shot in Berlin with an Agfa camera, 50 years before his teenage grandchildren discovered the joy of doing the same with their digital cameras.
The venture started as a plan I thought would be completed in a few weeks. It was initially intended as a photo album of 200 “All time favorite photographs”, gathered from files, and envelopes piled up in drawers around the house. I soon found out that there were many more pictures that were as good and eye-catching to overlook. I ended up going back to collections of photographs from my childhood and a compilation of pictures from the day I was christened (age 1 month), to the day I first started school (age 3). That album is uneventfully labeled “The black and white years”. Followed by another one called “The school years” (age 4-18), and then “The Philadelphia years” (age 18-25). “The year 2009” is in progress. I have been shooting pictures feverishly to feed my albums.
It was in Philadelphia, perhaps in the early 80’s that I went to my first Hye Kef Night held in the church hall in Wynnewood. I was told beforehand that it was Philadelphia’s best Armenian band that was playing that night- The Vosbikian Band, descendants of Armenian immigrants from Turkey. They were already into their third or fourth face change. One of those grandfather- to son- to grandson affairs. The Turkish music they were playing that night was in their minds convincingly Armenian, because it was, after all, the music they had learned from their grandfather- The one in the family who first came to America from a place where he was not welcome as an Armenian.
The Vosbikian Band is featured beautifully in Project Save’s 2006 published collection. Looking at their stylish photograph in dapper suits brought memories of Kef Nights in Philadelphia. I can even remember the sound of their songs to the accompaniment of the oud, dumbeg and clarinet (none of which is Armenian): a mish-mesh of lasting memories of my first months “just off the boat”. A crowd of 150 danced “tamzara” that night. It was dizzying.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the power of photography- the power to unravel memories, always sweet, because we never take pictures of things or events we do not like or enjoy. Do we? No!
At Project Save’s Watertown headquarters, I’m told, there’s 25,000 of them. At least one is bound to touch you and enrich your life. It may even be a picture of one of your ancestors, and you didn’t even know it existed.
Collecting is the highest form of civility, but collecting the most valuable and personal possession of others is something next to godliness.
The venture started as a plan I thought would be completed in a few weeks. It was initially intended as a photo album of 200 “All time favorite photographs”, gathered from files, and envelopes piled up in drawers around the house. I soon found out that there were many more pictures that were as good and eye-catching to overlook. I ended up going back to collections of photographs from my childhood and a compilation of pictures from the day I was christened (age 1 month), to the day I first started school (age 3). That album is uneventfully labeled “The black and white years”. Followed by another one called “The school years” (age 4-18), and then “The Philadelphia years” (age 18-25). “The year 2009” is in progress. I have been shooting pictures feverishly to feed my albums.
It was in Philadelphia, perhaps in the early 80’s that I went to my first Hye Kef Night held in the church hall in Wynnewood. I was told beforehand that it was Philadelphia’s best Armenian band that was playing that night- The Vosbikian Band, descendants of Armenian immigrants from Turkey. They were already into their third or fourth face change. One of those grandfather- to son- to grandson affairs. The Turkish music they were playing that night was in their minds convincingly Armenian, because it was, after all, the music they had learned from their grandfather- The one in the family who first came to America from a place where he was not welcome as an Armenian.
The Vosbikian Band is featured beautifully in Project Save’s 2006 published collection. Looking at their stylish photograph in dapper suits brought memories of Kef Nights in Philadelphia. I can even remember the sound of their songs to the accompaniment of the oud, dumbeg and clarinet (none of which is Armenian): a mish-mesh of lasting memories of my first months “just off the boat”. A crowd of 150 danced “tamzara” that night. It was dizzying.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the power of photography- the power to unravel memories, always sweet, because we never take pictures of things or events we do not like or enjoy. Do we? No!
At Project Save’s Watertown headquarters, I’m told, there’s 25,000 of them. At least one is bound to touch you and enrich your life. It may even be a picture of one of your ancestors, and you didn’t even know it existed.
Collecting is the highest form of civility, but collecting the most valuable and personal possession of others is something next to godliness.
The Willy Nilly Saroyan
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| Project Youth: with Lucy, Sylvie and Ashod |
Well, well. That was a pretty good discussion point Jesse, and thanks for bringing up the subject. Someone in the room wished he could host SNL (Saturday Night Live), another person wished he could be on stage with SOAD (System of a Down). The host himself wanted to be on an aircraft carrier while fighters took off and landed. I guess it’s the smell of petrol in the morning! Or is it napalm?!
I knew what I wanted, and I still do: To spend a day with William Saroyan. In my mind, one of the most influential Armenians I have never met.
Of the few individuals who have shaped my Armenian self, William Saroyan is one of them. I would have loved to spend a day with him anywhere between Manhattan and Malibu or somewhere in between. He has been exceptional at defining what it means to be Armenian and what it means to be American, but most importantly, what it means to be an Armenian in America: proud, articulate and very comfortable with the heritage.
William Saroyan was a Pulitzer Prize and Oscar winning author who took the literary world by storm in the 1930’s. He wrote over 60 books, and created some 7000 paintings and drawings. His first published work, in 1934, was a short story with the ravishing title, “The Daring Young Man on a Flying Trapeze”. His masterpieces include a timeless play, “Time of Your Life”, and the novel, “The Human Comedy”.
He was born in Fresno, the “new Armenia” of his times, but also went swimming in Malibu, bicycle riding in Beverly Hills, took long walk in Paris, was in the pages of the New York Times, year after year, as a daring young writer and a dashing celebrity with his heart stuck in the (Armenian) highlands.
“I write in English, and I’m an American, but the soul that allows me to write is Armenian. I consider myself an Armenian writer”. That is what Saroyan used to say once and for all answering the question as to who is an Armenian, and what makes the Armenian writer.
Following his death in 1981, half of his cremated remains were enshrined in the Pantheon in Yerevan, Armenia, and the other half rested at the Ararat Cemetery in Fresno, California. He remains forever a native of America, and a son of the Armenians.
There is no doubt that William Saroyan is remembered as a literary gem gifted with simplicity of language. He used no more than 300 words of the English language to pen a massive output of literary works. Bits and pieces of Armenian words and expressions added to the narrative that built his public image as a charming ethnic curiosity case. Armenians were ever-present in his stories about Americans, and they were together part of the world stage where Saroyan was at his best.
He was an author who hugged humanity. “I’m a story teller,” He once wrote, “And I have but a single story – Man”. Well said Bill!
He also knew a thing or two about humor and had the wisdom to not attempt to change people or the world: “Be careful of people who do not have a sense of humor. They will make you suffer.” At the end, he knew how to avoid them or dismiss them, for his works are absent of characters one loves to hate. Simpletons, wise-asses, dreamers and small town underachievers populated the pages of his short stories and novels. That explains why critics refer to him often as the great American writer who did not author the “great American novel”. He didn’t write about the great American dream, he simply lived his own. He was himself the real-life story of one of us making it. The continuous story of a life well lived with people, events and memories, in a language so simple, a mind so free, emotions so true and a heart so pure. A true master in capturing the moment with openness and with outspokenness (but never controversial): “If a man is an honest idiot, I can love him. But I cannot love a dishonest genius”.
His works illustrate a delight in life. A celebration of the fullness and “aliveness” of life: “Live well, laugh well”, he used to say, “Writing is about being alive”. One of his masterpieces, “Obituaries” written later in his life, is a collection of impressions, remarks, comments and thoughts about people he had never seen or met, whose named he would pick randomly from the obituary pages of newspapers. The book itself, all 355 pages of it, is about living. On the opening page of the book, he orders the reader, “All aboard, folks”.
It is impossible to read any book of Saroyan’s and not encounter a passage or a remark about his views as a pacifist: “I despise war and violence, and I bitterly despise those who perpetrate or practice it”. He would have dreaded the fact that today his beloved America is engaged in, not just one, but two rotten wars. “When multitudes of men are hurt to death in wars, I am driven to grief which borders on insanity”. If he was alive he would have most definitely suggested the less messy route. And it would go something like this: Put the two waring factions in a room, lock the door and let them wrestle it out. The one who comes out standing is the winner and the rest of us can go home to our mothers. End of story.
There will always be Saroyan the iconoclast, the eccentric, the American patriot and the emotional Armenian for all of us to read and share, but for me, personally, he is the source of many Saroyan-induced moments in my life that I truly cherish. Many moments of grace and beauty:
I remember the time (Maybe 25 years ago) when I too bought a Royal typewriter, my illusionary connection to the beautiful words that his Royal typewriter would churn to make wonderful stories on men and mankind.
I will never forget the multiple trips I made to Fresno in the late 1980’s from Los Angeles to visit elder Armenians whose children had left home leaving behind their parents and collections of Armenian books. I would arrive to meet these elders, spend quality time with them and finally save their collection and return home with a car full of books to discover the gem in the rough – that first edition Saroyan novel.
I cherish the memories of Project Youth when four of us (including my wife), joined forces to take Saroyan’s works to Armenian schools in L.A., only to return a month later to discover that the students had created their own stories and drawings in the free-flowing, free-spirited style of Saroyan. Their teacher had posted them on the four walls of the classroom from floor to ceiling. I had tears in my eyes.
A few years later, on task as a father, the Saroyan style of telling a story came in very handy for a bedtime story to put my 3 and 4 year olds to sleep. The story of a little boy and girl would begin somehow in California, and then travel around the world from a valley (The Loire in France) to an island (Santorini in Greece) and then on to a mountain-top (Take a guess!), and come right back into our present world having met and encountered farmers, shopkeepers, dancers and simpletons everywhere. The story was always hard to finish since my children interrupted with the question: “Why?” or “Who?” or “How?” I loved every moment of it.
My children are grown ups now. A month ago they found my Royal typewriter and the result was a series of short stories and one-paragraph writings written by them, which, surprise surprise, had that yummy “Saroyan feel” to them: A beautiful hodge-podge of willy-nilly. The delicious magic of William Saroyan!
This column too can go on forever, much like a Saroyan piece. But I think that it should come to an end, having said what it originally intended to say: Live a Saroyanesque Armenian life in America. But first read his work, perhaps a story or two.
Lunatic Luminaries Let Loose
I can picture Berberian and Der Sarkissian around a coffee table in the wee hours of the night dissecting Farrukh Fateh’s and Ustad Nussat Fateh’s magical sounds into a hysterical chorus of reckless Armenian grown-up men clapping their hands in a refrain that sounds like this: “Arra Vye Vye, byebyebyebye…..” The Legendary Peshawar Ensemble was missing a harmonium on this night, but two accordions instead did mighty fine, and the hand-held derbakeh was good enough to make up for the missing tabla in the Ensemble’s delivery of Sufi chants that quickly changed to “Akh im anoosh yar, inchoo heratzar”. Good job boys! Hilarious? Yes. Witty? Definitely. Smart? Of course. Intelligent? Certainly!
For the past two weekends a gang of lunatics from Medede-h-gegen (MDDGH) acronym for Recovery Center for Artists Suffering from Mental Crisis, have been hitting the stage in a program entitled “Out of the Cage”, with a package of 13 sketches depicting “things” lunatics do in an asylum when their supervisors are not in the room, or when they too are as crazy as they are. I believe that MDDGH is located in Glendale. Just what we needed in Glendale!
However, before the performances reached the climax of the 2 hour-long program, the audience was treated to a few other gems, such as Sasoontzi Tavit’s encounter with the 5 headed (Armenian) dragon. How do we know it was Armenian? Simple, because each of the 5 ended up killing each other off for silly reasons until there was no sense in being a dragon (i.e. Armenian) anymore.
Then we met the young Armenian who had come to the (Armo) Undertaking Agency (again, located in Glendale) to book a sightseeing tour of Armenia’s historic sites for his very dead father, because his wish was “To see Armenia” before he was buried there.
The Battle of Vartanatz was fought against the Persians (and their elephants- none to be seen) by 400, maybe 500 or perhaps 600 Armenians organized around a disorganized brigade called Caballeros Armenos, led by that other masterful lunatic, Ara Madzounian. You could tell Ara was not about to miss out on his “dream” to put this character on stage the first chance he got. His facial expressions of a sbarabed in worry, fear, and constipation were hilarious. Ara, you were on the money.
If you thought that the two stylish arguing Samurais (V. Berberian and Madzounian) were a bit serious, you bet they weren’t! After all, the conversation between the two of them, was about the perils of one’s daughter being married to the other’s son and not providing him with real chi-keofteh for the attainment of true marital bliss. For those amongst us who couldn’t understand the Japano-Armeno-Nippon dialect of the Samurais, there was Sako Berberian at the other end of the stage providing us with line-by-line translation, including the exclamations such as aah and ooh. Sako is a serious guy, but not when he’s on stage in a tie and jacket.
Which brings us to the evening’s pet project - Turkey. If you thought that the Armenian-Turkish reconciliation meetings are, someday, to achieve success, then think again. These guys know better- It cannot and will not work. The Turks will keep rubbing in (get this) the fact that they beat us in a World Cup qualification soccer match, while Armenians know enough Turkish, especially cussing and cursing, to let the Turks get away with anything. Spanglish is the pig language of California Mexicans who do not speak proper English, or for that matter Anglos who do not speak enough Spanish. But, the language spoken at the Armenia-Turkish Reconciliation meeting was cut-throat humor that does not have to take itself too seriously. It goes something like this: “Armenia delegasion shad ooshatsanlar”, to which the other delegate predicts, “Belki billiard khaghasen”. But the third Turk seemed to know “Ne diorin sende, Armeni nerde, billiard nerde”.
There is a name for this kind of humor: Shakhsism. A sharp inner-city, Beirutzi-hygagan cool, where even making fun of Armenians and our manners has love written all over it. Don’t be offended, just get comfortable with the shortcomings of our people. But beware of making eye contact with any of these smarties while sitting across a table with them. You need to be warned that any twitch on your face, an eyebrow hair sticking out, or a coffee stain on your shirt can be fodder for a laugh, and I love them even more for it.
“Amma kebab ellarsen, lav gellarsen” was a wish from the table on the left, and that too was taken care of. The audience of 400 was treated to mezze. This Armenian social event was not about to go without kebab and pilaf, turshoo and that (not so) crafty Armenian thing called…Hammus.
“Effendilar, zoor nesdilar, shidag khosilar”. This program was smart, witty and shrewd. The work of cynics who have gathered to play with their own naughty ideas for the amusement of the real fools –i.e. the rest of us who were sitting in the audience. On this night, we were reminded not to take ourselves too seriously in our own little deeds and organizations. We need to know that we can be ridiculous sometimes, and that too makes us better people. We were entertained.
Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you that barsgahyes say “Etveen” when calling out the name Edwin. That’s the way it is. Just accept it!
Two Things, Mr. President. Maybe Three
“Go Shopping”. Two words uttered by George Bush right after the Nine Eleven attack may have been the biggest lapse in judgment made by a sitting president in the history of the United States.
In a matter of weeks shopping, i.e. spending money, became the creed of an entire nation. People overwhelmed by fear, anxiety and revenge took the calling to heart, never once stopping to access what they were doing. Many borrowed, cheated or stole … and spent.
As a student of the 80’s in Philadelphia, I was instructed to value achievement, innovation, entrepreneurship and personal investments in time, money and resources to improve lives – that of others as well as mine. Volunteerism was American and a badge of honor, while individualism was reserved for the best of all Philadelphians – Benjamin Franklin himself.
How things have changed.
Today we are thwarted by our own greed and irresponsibility, bankrupted by our own excesses. New terms have emerged that I’ve never heard before – Free money, cheap money, borrowed on equity, and best yet, other people’s money. The notorious Bernard Madoff, who dissipated 50 billion dollars in investments, is a fitting symbol of conspicuous cheats in expensive suits, operating from behind oak desks and robbing people cold-heartedly and systematically. It’s been made possible only because another bunch of people in expensive suits have lobbied congressmen and senators sitting behind another set of oak desks to legalize it in the name of free-enterprise and market forces. The stock market itself has become the ultimate Ponzi scheme, sucking people’s hard-earned money with the illusion of extremely “good yield”, mostly on paper. Hundreds of stock prices artificially soared beyond the value of the real assets held by companies and corporations that did not produce anything, build anything or innovate anything. It was pure speculation, a false façade, a big lie, and thieving of immense proportions.
Today most people’s IRA and 401k accounts are worth less than the principal amount of money that they have contributed into them over a lifetime of hard work.
Ali Baba and his band of thieves in Saville Row suits have tricked Americans into believing that money is given to those who ask, and that home ownership is an entitlement. No need to qualify or justify. Just ask. The market (market is not a person, by the way) will pay for it while you borrow against its increasing value. They were lying and they knew it!
Mathematics PhD graduates were plucked right out of Ivy League Universities not to do scientific research, but instead to structure loan “instruments” for people who confuse the TV guide with literature or 50 Cent (no “s” at the end, please) as a real poet. Some people are known to have qualified for loans for simply knowing how to…..err, breathe!?
Names of thousands of unaware people have been compiled to ink pages of bank loans, while hundreds made commission at their expense: Loan brokers, bank managers, hedge (junk) fund managers, all the way up to the CEO of Lehman Brothers, Richard S. Fuld, Jr. For the most part of the last 5 years, the economy was riding on paper pushed by an army of salesmen working for commission. No real wealth was created, no products manufactured, no innovation in science or technology – simple shoving of paper with cheap money, free money, and the most dreaded, other people’s money. It was all legal, we’re told. Government was asleep at the wheel, busy with some nasty stuff in a desert country 12,000 miles away. We have been robbed blind, legally, in the name of free enterprise, market forces, and entrepreneurship. No rules, no regulations, no oversight, no accountability. Benjamin Franklin would have puked (at Mr. Fuld)
No one should claim innocence – not the President, nor Congress, the banks or the investment firms. They were busy measuring up reports sent by the very same people who were stealing and then fabricating documents to make it look like money was flowing everywhere, everyday to everyone. Benjamin Franklin would have quit America!
The biggest Ponzi scheme has been the US investment firms where billions, no, hundreds of billions of people’s money was entrusted in good faith, and then lost by thievery.
So the first thing I expect of our new President is to protect and safeguard my, and every other hard working person’s, money. I don’t care what it takes to do it – I’m ok with socialism, or any other ism for that matter. I want protection against chairman this, CEO that, analyst this and financial planner that, broker or anyone who claims to know more about what to do with my money than myself. I detest people who want to sell me things that I do not need, by telling me that I do.
Therefore, my first request of President Obama is to get thieves off our backs.
My second request is to end this nasty, ugly, mean little thing called: WAR. Not all war, after all who am I to know which wars are good. But I sure know which wars are bad: Wars of occupations, wars in the name of democracy, and wars where mighty armies pound on fathers, husbands and sons fighting with slings and shovels. Please, end all wars of imperial greed for resources and other people’s belongings, dignity and pride. Wars that pain elders and burn mothers and babies who take refuge in shelters. Wars that inflict hate and revenge, destroy and annihilate cultures, civilizations and heritage. Wars against poor people, brown people, people with different religions than ours. What is the meaning of wars that kill mothers and fathers who were put on the face of this earth by my own God to love their children as I love mine?
You see, it is false to declare that these wars are necessary for the preservation of our freedom and values. I do not trust a politician that makes effort to define freedom, or even bothers to explain it. Ultimately all wars serve a purpose, but it is not the purpose of ordinary Americans, who always end up paying the highest price with the loss of lives, sanity and humanity.
I don’t want families destroyed, lives shattered for wars designed in sterile board rooms, by men who send other people’s sons off to war to kill another people’s sons, as if it was their mission from God. A good dose of humility and restraint would be nice, as Mr. Obama suggested during his inaugural speech: “The time has come to set aside childish things.” Benjamin Franklin couldn’t have said it better!
Then I have a third request, something that is in the heart and mind of every Armenian: The realization by all governments of the world, including the US, that there is correctness in admitting to the crimes of mankind and recognize the Turkish Genocide of Armenians.
I am realistic, and I don’t mind admitting that this President might not do it either. The pressure from a few deniers of the Genocide is immense, but I hope that President Obama will choose the wiser path – that of the moral responsibility of a world leader to tell the Turks that it is to their best interest to accept the facts, and admit to the crimes if they must join the world community of civilized nations.
Myself, I have decided to keep on pouncing at these issues and make my judgment on Obama’s greatness in time. I want you to know that my purpose is to pursue -that other wise founding father from Virginia- Thomas Jefferson’s call for life, liberty and happiness……..and peace would be nice too!
In a matter of weeks shopping, i.e. spending money, became the creed of an entire nation. People overwhelmed by fear, anxiety and revenge took the calling to heart, never once stopping to access what they were doing. Many borrowed, cheated or stole … and spent.
As a student of the 80’s in Philadelphia, I was instructed to value achievement, innovation, entrepreneurship and personal investments in time, money and resources to improve lives – that of others as well as mine. Volunteerism was American and a badge of honor, while individualism was reserved for the best of all Philadelphians – Benjamin Franklin himself.
How things have changed.
Today we are thwarted by our own greed and irresponsibility, bankrupted by our own excesses. New terms have emerged that I’ve never heard before – Free money, cheap money, borrowed on equity, and best yet, other people’s money. The notorious Bernard Madoff, who dissipated 50 billion dollars in investments, is a fitting symbol of conspicuous cheats in expensive suits, operating from behind oak desks and robbing people cold-heartedly and systematically. It’s been made possible only because another bunch of people in expensive suits have lobbied congressmen and senators sitting behind another set of oak desks to legalize it in the name of free-enterprise and market forces. The stock market itself has become the ultimate Ponzi scheme, sucking people’s hard-earned money with the illusion of extremely “good yield”, mostly on paper. Hundreds of stock prices artificially soared beyond the value of the real assets held by companies and corporations that did not produce anything, build anything or innovate anything. It was pure speculation, a false façade, a big lie, and thieving of immense proportions.
Today most people’s IRA and 401k accounts are worth less than the principal amount of money that they have contributed into them over a lifetime of hard work.
Ali Baba and his band of thieves in Saville Row suits have tricked Americans into believing that money is given to those who ask, and that home ownership is an entitlement. No need to qualify or justify. Just ask. The market (market is not a person, by the way) will pay for it while you borrow against its increasing value. They were lying and they knew it!
Mathematics PhD graduates were plucked right out of Ivy League Universities not to do scientific research, but instead to structure loan “instruments” for people who confuse the TV guide with literature or 50 Cent (no “s” at the end, please) as a real poet. Some people are known to have qualified for loans for simply knowing how to…..err, breathe!?
Names of thousands of unaware people have been compiled to ink pages of bank loans, while hundreds made commission at their expense: Loan brokers, bank managers, hedge (junk) fund managers, all the way up to the CEO of Lehman Brothers, Richard S. Fuld, Jr. For the most part of the last 5 years, the economy was riding on paper pushed by an army of salesmen working for commission. No real wealth was created, no products manufactured, no innovation in science or technology – simple shoving of paper with cheap money, free money, and the most dreaded, other people’s money. It was all legal, we’re told. Government was asleep at the wheel, busy with some nasty stuff in a desert country 12,000 miles away. We have been robbed blind, legally, in the name of free enterprise, market forces, and entrepreneurship. No rules, no regulations, no oversight, no accountability. Benjamin Franklin would have puked (at Mr. Fuld)
No one should claim innocence – not the President, nor Congress, the banks or the investment firms. They were busy measuring up reports sent by the very same people who were stealing and then fabricating documents to make it look like money was flowing everywhere, everyday to everyone. Benjamin Franklin would have quit America!
The biggest Ponzi scheme has been the US investment firms where billions, no, hundreds of billions of people’s money was entrusted in good faith, and then lost by thievery.
So the first thing I expect of our new President is to protect and safeguard my, and every other hard working person’s, money. I don’t care what it takes to do it – I’m ok with socialism, or any other ism for that matter. I want protection against chairman this, CEO that, analyst this and financial planner that, broker or anyone who claims to know more about what to do with my money than myself. I detest people who want to sell me things that I do not need, by telling me that I do.
Therefore, my first request of President Obama is to get thieves off our backs.
My second request is to end this nasty, ugly, mean little thing called: WAR. Not all war, after all who am I to know which wars are good. But I sure know which wars are bad: Wars of occupations, wars in the name of democracy, and wars where mighty armies pound on fathers, husbands and sons fighting with slings and shovels. Please, end all wars of imperial greed for resources and other people’s belongings, dignity and pride. Wars that pain elders and burn mothers and babies who take refuge in shelters. Wars that inflict hate and revenge, destroy and annihilate cultures, civilizations and heritage. Wars against poor people, brown people, people with different religions than ours. What is the meaning of wars that kill mothers and fathers who were put on the face of this earth by my own God to love their children as I love mine?
You see, it is false to declare that these wars are necessary for the preservation of our freedom and values. I do not trust a politician that makes effort to define freedom, or even bothers to explain it. Ultimately all wars serve a purpose, but it is not the purpose of ordinary Americans, who always end up paying the highest price with the loss of lives, sanity and humanity.
I don’t want families destroyed, lives shattered for wars designed in sterile board rooms, by men who send other people’s sons off to war to kill another people’s sons, as if it was their mission from God. A good dose of humility and restraint would be nice, as Mr. Obama suggested during his inaugural speech: “The time has come to set aside childish things.” Benjamin Franklin couldn’t have said it better!
Then I have a third request, something that is in the heart and mind of every Armenian: The realization by all governments of the world, including the US, that there is correctness in admitting to the crimes of mankind and recognize the Turkish Genocide of Armenians.
I am realistic, and I don’t mind admitting that this President might not do it either. The pressure from a few deniers of the Genocide is immense, but I hope that President Obama will choose the wiser path – that of the moral responsibility of a world leader to tell the Turks that it is to their best interest to accept the facts, and admit to the crimes if they must join the world community of civilized nations.
Myself, I have decided to keep on pouncing at these issues and make my judgment on Obama’s greatness in time. I want you to know that my purpose is to pursue -that other wise founding father from Virginia- Thomas Jefferson’s call for life, liberty and happiness……..and peace would be nice too!
September 24, 2009
I'm Back
My cause is the Armenian cause, and the main topic at hand is us -you and me- as Armenians living in America, Americans of Armenian descent or however else you wish to place yourselves in this world. I see it as a one-time window of opportunity given to us to make sense of the life we live and the ideas we hug and things we build. My interest is to explore and record them. My columns may be very personal sometimes but are, nevertheless, documents of our story in this corner of the world, at this time in the history of Armenians in America. It is honest to the degree that my view and opinion is meant to see the world and Armenians in it as being bright, hopeful and positive.
That doesn’t mean that there are no disruptions, mistakes and blunders along the way. I see the good only because our failures can bring out the best in us if, only if, we can be open to disagreements and debate. Let’s agree to disagree.
Too many people and events make up the colorful panel of the Armenianess that gives meaning to my identity: Organizations that I belong to, committees that I serve on, events that I organize or attend. Also the art and music that I enjoy or collect. I’m always in search of a good conversation.
It’s impossible to live in Los Angeles and not be conscious of eleven schools and twenty-five (or is it 125?) churches in our midst. There’s so much to be achieved, are we succeeding?
Glendale alone is a case in study. There’s something to be said about this modern-version of Gont (as the one in Yerevan) or Bourj-Hammoud (as in Lipanan) .Whether it’s concerts at the Alex Theatre, 24-hour television programs, or one of thirty banquet halls, forty nazook bakeries, sixty groceries … there’s something funny and, shall we say, fuzzy about this place.
Turkey never fails to remind us what we must do, and Armenia, that small land of our ancestors, makes us do it – in spite of all the aggravations and frustrations that we must endure.
Our community has aged the last 15 years, but not matured. We have become prosperous, but not rich at heart. While wealth has acquired things of steel and glass, it has not been utilized appropriately to rally to the community the 85% of us that stay away, detached and disengaged. The LA Armenian community raised 25 million dollars in the year 2007 alone. How has it contributed towards the lifting of our self-esteem, pride and dignity? What has the 25 million dollars obtained for us in terms of reverence, scholarship , creativity, documentation, historiography, image-building or simply a good read?
The list is long, and I’m glad to say that most of it is jovial. Mine is a love affair with my people and I celebrate it every day. Pain and anguish and sorrow are only the predecessors of joy, comfort and triumph. There’s something uniquely Armenian in bumping into a French-born Armenian in Loumarin in a remote village in Provence, France, someone I’ve never met in my life and immediately strike a conversation in the “language of the heavens,” as if we’ve known one another for a lifetime, but somehow missed the opportunity to ask all the important question: Who are you? Where were your parents born? How did you learn to speak Armenian? What do you do? How many Armenians live in your town? In our own way, we both felt good about the uniqueness of God’s creation: us, and the Armenians of the world. Those are the moments I crave to capture, and I’m eager to write about them.
Recently at a dinner party at my home, as I announced to guests that I was returning to writing my "One Man's Opinion" columns, one of them stuck me with this question, “So who is going to read it?” Well, I thought, there’s always (umm) my family, lovers of art and culture, world travelers, people who care for Armenia, and I figure there’s also… you (yes you, out there). Not bad company, I'd say!
But most importantly, I have some capability to observe people and events, and the resemblance of an ability to phrase an opinion, and that’s good enough reason to return after all these years.
It’s good to be back!
