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Sunday, February 19, 2012

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THE 11TH COMMANDMENT

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America will not recognize the Genocide as long as (one) we divide our votes evenly between Democrats and Republican, and (two) we call America’s enemies our friends (Russia, Iran, Syria) and America’s friends (Turks) our enemies. We may succeed in obtaining the support of individual senators and congressmen if we invest millions on them; but we will never budge the Administration. Everybody knows this, including our Panchoonies – especially our Panchoonies – who expect us to believe with enough money success will be inevitable. Money may buy the cooperation of pimps and whores but self-interest is what moves nations and empires. We are neither an empire nor a nation; at best we may identify ourselves as puppets and dupes who are easily taken in by the empty rhetoric (both foreign and domestic) of cynical manipulators who will say and do anything in defense of their own narrow and selfish interests.

For 600 years the Turks wanted us to believe they were our masters and protectors and we believed them – or, let’s say, we lived as though we did; in the same way that under the Soviets we believed the Russians to be our Big Brothers; and today we have placed our trust in former agents of the KGB. Before we demand friendship and brotherhood from others, let us teach ourselves to be real friends of our real brothers. There is no commandment that says “Thou shalt not be a dupe,” but that doesn’t being dupes is an inevitable fact of life imposed on us by the Good Lord.

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Monday, February 20, 2012

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FRIENDS

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When I say Turks may well be our best friends,

I don’t mean the present regime and its dupes.

What I have in mind are Turks who can think for themselves

and Turks who identify themselves as Turks

the way Americans identify themselves as Americans.

Turkey has its share of dissidents, critics, and hostile ethnic minorities

in the same way that America has its blacks, natives, Latinos,

and other minorities who don’t vote

or if they do, they vote to unseat the present administration.

Turkey is not a monolithic structure but a mosaic.

Remember that next time you are tempted to identify Turks

as direct descendants of Talaat who was himself anything but a Turk.

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My guess is, as in all democracies, 50% of Turks don’t bother to vote

because they don’t trust politicians and their empty rhetoric.

And then there are the women who have no reason to support

a patriarchal status quo.

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I suggest when it comes to concessions and compromises,

we may have a better chance to get them from friends

as opposed to enemies.

I say therefore let us not allow our hatred of the 1%

to contaminate our potential friendship with the 99%.

And to our Turcocentric ghazetajis and speechifiers I say:

Treat a man like an enemy and he will act as one.

Treat a man like a friend and you may have better results.

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

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FROM MY NOTEBOOKS

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Only the silent are beyond criticism,

and sometimes not even they.

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Opinions are a dime a dozen.

All the gold in the world can’t buy the truth.

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Faith is 99% wishful thinking.

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What if what’s happening in North Africa and the Middle East today happens in Russia? That’s the nightmare of the regime in Yerevan. They had their kicks. Time to pay the price.

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All men of power believe truth to be on their side.

If they are not Stalinists they are crypto-Stalinists. Stalin lives. Nothing bad ever dies.

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To the oversensitive, life is a succession of traumatic experiences.

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To autocrats everywhere, freedom is a carcinogenic agent. So is justice to kleptocrats.

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Living by the sword and ruling by fear are synonymous.

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012
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I COULD BE WRONG…
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In everything I am about to say, I could be wrong.
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Our destiny as a nation may change
on the day our bosses, bishops, and benefactors teach themselves to say,
“I could be wrong because as human beings
none of us is in a position to assert infallibility.”
*
A Tashnak leader once said to me:
“The source of all our misfortunes is the ‘chezok’ (non-partisan)
who contributes nothing to our collective existence.
He is neither black nor white.
Neither hot nor cold.
Neither for or against anything.”
When I informed him that I am a chezok,
so was my father because he was too busy trying to provide for his family i
n an alien environment in time of war, he said:
“I am sorry, I thought you were one of us.”
Please note that he didn’t say he was wrong in blaming our misfortunes on others
but only in thinking I was a member of the tribe, club, family, or mafia.
*
An Armenian may admit error in insignificant things
only to assert infallibility in big things.
Mart bidi ch’ellank.
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In singling out a Tashnak leader I did not mean to exculpate the others.
We all swim in the same soup.
Throughout our millennial history
we have been at the mercy of infallible men –
kings, sultans, commissars, and today Panchoonies.
So much so that in the minds of our “betters”
infallibility is perceived as an integral part of leadership.
But I could be wrong.
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Please note that I lied when I said I was non-partisan.
If truth be told, I am anti-partisan.
*
Do you really think I am being too tough on our bosses, bishops, and benefactors? Allow me to explain that I live in a tough neighborhood
and I happen to be in a very tough business – namely,
that of resurrecting cadavers.
But again, I could be wrong…
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