observations

Sunday, June 26, 2011
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TWO OBSERVATIONS
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The most convincing evidence of their guilt
is the fact that they have developed a propaganda machinery,
an educational system,
and a legal apparatus denying the charge of genocide.
Who believes them?
Not even Turks, except the brainwashed, of course,
who will believe anything if only because
they have no choice in the matter.
*
If Hitler had won World War II
there would now be an entire generation of Germans
committed to the belief that
he was a great statesman,
a progressive and civilizing force,
a man of vision,
and a warrior equal in stature
to Alexander the Great, Caesar, and Napoleon.
In short, he would be to Germans
what Kemal is to the Turks today.
#
Monday, June 27, 2011
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WAS KEMAL A DENIALIST?
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Not only was he not a denialist,
he also had some of the perpetrators
arrested, tried, and executed.
*
For more on this subject,
see THE COURT MARTIAL PROCEEDINGS
OF THE MILITARY TRIBUNAL 1919-1922,
compiled by Vahakn Dadrian and Taner Akcam
(Istanbul: Bilgi University Press, 733 pages, 2010).
*
This much said let me add that
Kemal’s motives may not have been
love of justice or sympathy for the victims.
It is reasonable to assume that
like all men of power
his main concern was to keep and increase his power
and the only way he could do that
was by eliminating his Ittihadist competition.
#
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
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NOTES & COMMENTS
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Never say “I was deceived.”
Say instead “I allowed myself to be deceived.”
*
To need something badly
is to make oneself vulnerable to deception.
*
Nations make mistakes as surely as individuals
if only because they are ruled by individuals.
*
What matters is not how big your mistakes are
but what you do with them.
*
To behave like bloodthirsty barbarians
and to pretend to be civilized
is to compound the felony.
*
The shortest distance between ignorance and wisdom
is a painful blunder.
#
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
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DR NOOBAR JANOIAN SPEAKS
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In his TRAVELS IN TIME AND SPACE
Dr Janoian speaks of a conversation he once had
with a Vietnamese patient.
When asked what was it exactly
that made North Vietnam resist
and ultimately defeat a military colossus
like the United States,
his patient explains that Vietnam
has always resisted and defeated all occupiers,
among them the Chinese, the Japanese, and the French.
The difference between the South and the North,
he goes on to explain, is that
the leaders of the North were
men of principle and ideals,
unlike their counterparts in the South,
who were no better than thieves and bandits.
An honest and dedicated leadership
inspires solidarity and self-sacrifice in the people, he adds,
and a corrupt leadership promotes
divisions, disloyalty, opportunism, and treason.
*
We may now have a free and independent homeland,
the good doctor reflects in the final paragraph of the story,
but our leaders are less like the leaders of North Vietnam
and more like the leaders of South Vietnam –
no better than thieves and bandits.
#