Sunday, February 11, 2007
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THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
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When it comes to our identity, the elephant in the room is the Genocide. Whenever Armenians are mention in the foreign press, it’s in connection with the elephant.
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As a child I was told about our Golden Age in the 5th Century AD, but I was not given an opportunity to draw any sense of identity from it. When I read Dostoevsky at the age of thirteen, I immediately made contact with what it means to be Russian; for the duration I felt more like a Russian than Armenian. Something similar could be said about Philip Roth and Jewishness, Negro spirituals and Negritude, Thomas Mann and German identity.
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At one time or another I have been fascinated and deeply touched by many cultures, but I am afraid I cannot say the same about Armenian culture notwithstanding the fact that I have written a great deal on the subject, including a textbook titled THE ARMENIANS: THEIR HISTORY AND CULTURE. Speaking of which, on reading the manuscript of this book, I remember my editor complaining: “I don’t get a sense of place.” He probably meant to say identity. In my defense I said that I was not writing a book about Armenia but about Armenians, some of whose most noteworthy achievements – from Byzantine governance to contemporary finance — had been made outside Armenia.
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The question of Armenian identity came up to me while reading a collection of brief essays and memoirs on Jewish identity titled MATZO BALLS FOR BREAKFAST & OTHER MEMORIES OF GROWNG UP JEWISH by Alan King and Friends (New York, 2004). What does it mean to be Armenian? I regret to say I can’t come up with a clear answer. In Greece where I was born and raised, I knew I was not Greek. In Italy where I studied for five years I never came close to feeling Italian. In Canada where I have spent most of my life and where I also acquired Canadian citizenship (as opposed to being the offspring of stateless Nansen refugees) I know I am not a Canadian, which is neither here nor there because most Canadians don’t know it either. I ask again: What does it mean to be Armenian? What do I have in common with my fellow Armenians, except the awareness that I share a tragedy in our recent past? I grew up hating Turks, but I see that now not as a positive but a negative, something to get over with as opposed to something to be nursed and hoarded, which is what our Ottomanized Turcophile pundits encourage us to do. There is nothing Armenian about being victimized by an oppressive regime. Oppressed people — from American Indians to Untouchable Indians — are a dime a dozen. Massacres from the Golden Age of Greek history (5th Century BC) to the present, have been a constant in human history.
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Perhaps being Armenian means, for me at least, to be open to all cultures and to reject all forms of tyranny and barbarism. And when I speak of barbarism I don’t mean the barbarism of our enemies, but the barbarism that is within all of us.
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Monday, February 12, 2007
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ON FASCISM
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Georges Bernanos: “The strength and weakness of dictators is rooted in their pact with the despair of the people.”
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Hitler relied on German defeat of World War I; Bush on 9/11; and our leadership on the Genocide. Hitler committed suicide; Bush is committing slow-motion political suicide; and our leadership…: why is it that whenever the subject of our leadership comes up, I feel an irresistible urge to go down on my knees and pray – pray not for them, but for the people…I almost said, for their victims.
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Every day I make a list of my failings to remind myself that I have nothing to brag about.
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He knows nothing but pretends to know better: portrait of an Armenian simpleton.
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George Sand: “The way to the simple truth is through many complexities.”
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