turcocentrism

Sunday, February 27, 2011
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THINGS THAT ARE HIDDEN FROM US
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Cross-breeding is one of the benefits of being defeated and conquered by multiple races, and cross-breeding may well be at the root of our survival.
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They Ottomanized us to the same degree that we Armenianized them.
The same could be said of Romans, Greeks, Persians, Mongols, Tatars and Arabs among others.
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In the Armenian ghetto where i was born and raised,
Armenians came in all sizes and shapes --
hook-nosed, large-headed, dark-skinned, beady-eyed...
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It is said of Genghis Khan that he had so many wives and concubines
that according to English geneticists
his direct descendants today number sixteen million.
Add to that the descendants of his generals, lieutenants, and soldiers,
and the number may reach closer to a billion.
For more on this subject, see Ian Frazier, TRAVELS IN SIBERIA,
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010, page 122).
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Cross-breeding may also explain our endless internecine conflicts.
We are not a collection of tribes but races.
Solidarity is not in our DNA.
Like cats and dogs we are driven less by reason and more by biology.
To brag about our survival therefore makes as much sense
as to brag about the fact that we are neither kangaroos nor worms.
*
These things are hidden from us because
no one wants to be the bearer of bad tidings.
But I believe it is by confronting the dark side of things
that we may see the light. In the same way that
to treat a disease you need a correct diagnosis.
You cannot cure cancer by pretending it's insomnia.
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Monday, February 28, 2011
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DEAD MEN WALKING
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What triggered the Arab uprising in North Africa and the Middle East
was not the ideas of a philosopher or the words of a poet
(ideas promoting democracy and words praising freedom
have been around for thousands of years)
but the self-immolation of a poor and unknown Tunisian street vendor.
Which may suggest that criticism and dissent do not overthrow tyrants.
Ideas move in a metaphysical realm that has no point of contact with reality.
Writers are not prophets but at best only canaries in a mine.
Rousseau and Voltaire did not convince the French to rise
and behead their king and queen, hunger and humiliation did.
Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov did not end or
even initiate the disintegration of the USSR
but the incompetence and lies of the commissars did.
Subservience to tyrants may not be an ideal condition
but people appear to have an astonishing degree of tolerance for it.
Whether I fall silent or go on writing
will make no difference in the long run.
To my critics and to our editors who have classified me
as an enemy of the people and a traitor to the cause, i say:
"Relax! I am not a threat to anyone.
Our destiny is not dependent on what I or anyone else writes
or what you print because we are all dead men walking."
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Tuesday, March 01, 2011
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THE MORE THINGS CHANGE...
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An Arab-style Armenian uprising is unlikely
because we have been so thoroughly and effectively
scattered, alienated, mongrelized, and some would say, moronized
(if you will forgive my French) that to paraphrase Mark Twain,
consensus is something we all like to talk about
but nobody does a damn thing.
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Another negative factor:
We don't confront a single Ben Ali, Mubarak, or Gadhafi
but a host of nameless and faceless bureaucrats
who work behind the scenes and are thus unidentifiable and inaccessible.
Our future leaders will probably spring from their ranks,
which means, even if things change they will stay the same.
O how I wish I were wrong!
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What did really change after our revolution in the Ottoman Empire?
Instead of being massacred by Talaat
we were purged by Stalin.
Different players, same results.
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Why is it that we know the number of victims in the Ottomine Empire
but not in the USSR?
Why should a Soviet tyrant be different from an Ottoman tyrant?
Or, for that matter, an Armenian tyrant?
An Ottomanized or Sovietized Armenian may well be
more Ottoman than the Sultan,
and more Stalinist than Stalin.
Lenin once said:
"A bourgeois is a bourgeoi regardless of nationality."
So is a tyrant.
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Wednesday, March 02, 2011
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ON TURCOCENTRISM
AND RELATED ATROCITIES
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Our Turcocentric ghazetajis have reduced our recent history
to the chronicle of an unsettled score.
Not a single spark of creativity!
Like people who are said to be more Catholic than the Pope,
they are more victims than survivors of massacres.
I was born and raised among survivors
and though most of them were illiterate,
they knew better than to blabber endlessly
about reparations and recognition.
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When wise men speak
you search for wisdom even in their banalities.
When a fool speaks the exact opposite happens:
even if what he says contains a pearl of wisom,
you have eyes only for the banalities.
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Revolutions fail because they kill the dog
but not the dog's master.
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An Armenian uprising?
It may come -- if it comes -- via China and Russia...
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Life after death?
If there is one, it may be so different from life as we know it
that we may fail to see any connection between the two.
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Why is it that inter-tribal conflict have a longer lifespan
than warfare between nations?
Some day Turks and Armenians may be friends but
Armenians and Armenians?
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