THE HISTORIC PRICE OF INDIVIDUALISM
By Edmond Y. Azadian
Why do Armenians gravitate away from their native land and live in
far-away countries, overwhelmed with the nostalgia of the ancestral
homeland? We seldom pose the question to ourselves and when we do,
we always have cop-outs: we blame our neighbors, curse our conquerors
and decry our enemies.
It is true, history has treated the Armenian people very harshly,
for a number of reasons. As we try to enumerate or analyze those
reasons, it never occurs to us to assess our own responsibility in
shaping our destiny as one of the oldest nations on the planet. If
one day we decide to delve into our own responsibility, perhaps we
will begin to soberly plan our future.
The reason Armenian have not been able to become a dominant nation
– except during Tigranes II reign in the first century BC – is our
individualism. Individualism denotes self-reliance, self definition,
independence and all the other positive attributes. But when contrasted
with the collective will, catastrophe ensues.
Because of various depravations, victimizations and constant foreign
domination, Armenians have developed a very strong individualist
trait, which has always been in conflict with collective discipline,
nation-building and focus on a common future. That is how they have
survived through all the adversities of history.
During the dark ages, individualism was suppressed especially through
religion, where eyes and hopes were diverted away from the individual
to the sublime and to heaven, which religious leaders conveniently
used to consolidate their hegemony over their subjects. It is no
wonder that kings and rulers claimed divine lineage to legitimize
their power over the masses.
The lay rulers and the clergy used and abused their absolute power
over people, suppressing any expression of individual ideas.
The Inquisition in Europe punished any deviation from the church
doctrine harshly. People were denied independent thinking, facing
torture and burning at the stake. The famous victims of such
intolerance were Galileo and Giordano Bruno.
With the emergence of the Renaissance, society’s focus shifted towards
the individual. And later, fueled by the Industrial Revolution,
the individual came to control his or her destiny and enjoy life’s
blessings without inhibitions.
Europe eventually came to balance individualism versus collective will,
thus developing empires to control the peoples and resources of other
continents. As individuals negotiated the limits of their freedoms
with the imperatives of national consensus, powerful governments were
formed, without compromising individual liberties.
Nationalism became the glue to hold together the individuals. The
French philosopher Voltaire became the proponent of individual freedoms
within the parameters of collective will. He encapsulated that concept
succinctly when he said, “Your freedom ends where my nose begins.”
Armenians pride themselves that the Renaissance dawned in Armenia
before Europe. Gregory of Narek’s poetry is considered a watershed
in that development. Indeed, the poet, in his supplications to the
Supreme Power, dwells on the frailties of the individual, imploring
divine forgiveness or help. In the Book of Lamentations, Gregory of
Narek outlines human desires and forbidden urges within the confines
of his prayers, with a poetic craft unsurpassed for many centuries.
This individualism in Armenia always developed within the context
of foreign domination, which made the survival of the individual
questionable most of the time. Every Armenian developed his
individualism at the expense of his fellow Armenians, always losing
the collective perspective.
The contrast was stark during the Ottoman years. As the majority of the
Armenians suffered in the provinces, Amiras and the privileged class
of Armenians lived in affluence in Constantinople and other urban
centers. They served the Sultan, who sometimes used them to exploit
fellow Armenians in the provinces by assigning them tasks such as tax
collection, which was performed most of the time with a whip crashing
on the back of the Armenian peasant, to please the Sublime Porte.
The class of Armenian Amiras were completely detached from the
aspirations of the Armenian masses living in the hinterlands. Today
the Armenian Amiras are remembered in Istanbul because they were able
to secure some favors from the Sultan to build churches and schools
in Istanbul.
Individualism among the Armenians sometimes is expressed in the form
of factionalism. Indeed, with a very primitive concept of patriotism,
Armenian volunteers in the Russian army refused to fight under
General Antranik, as the Russian army relinquished its conquests,
heading home and leaving the fortress of Kars defenseless towards the
end of World War I. Food, ammunitions and clothing were abandoned,
but the Armenian volunteers refused to defend the fortress of Kars,
stating that Kars was not part of their homeland and our national
hero left the front, despondent.
After World War I, as Ataturk was able to hold together a defeated
country through diplomacy bordering on hypocrisy, Armenians
jeopardized their first republic, created after six centuries of
foreign domination. Granted, perhaps Armenia’s fate was doomed as
Ataturk and Lenin were trying to outmatch each other, but our perpetual
infighting also contributed to the demise of the First Republic. As a
result of the February uprising, tens of thousands of young Armenians
killed each other on top of the 1.5 million victims at the hands of
the Turks.
The Soviet era proved to be one of the darkest chapters of human
history. It was as if the Catholic Inquisition had returned with a
vengeance, with an atheistic twist. On top of the loss of the entire
leadership and intellectual class of Western Armenians, a new crop
of literary talents fell victim to Stalin’s atrocities.
The Soviet Union was a huge prison. Personality and individualism
were sacrificed for the collective. The new philosophy called for
the creation of the new man, the Soviet citizen.
Despite all adversities and casualties, the Soviet system proved to
be a blessing in disguise for the Armenians. Travel bans contributed
to the development of the demographics in Armenia with immigration
from the Balkans and the Middle East. If only forced attachment to
land could keep Armenians in the native homeland. That stability in
turn contributed to the tremendous development of science, literature
and music, beginning a new golden age in Armenian history.
Today, all that was created during the Soviet era is being blown to
four winds and Armenians are leaving their country at a rapid pace.
Azeris are waiting at the gate and they have already concocted a
history that Armenians are sitting on Azeri land.
If this time around we lose the second republic, that will be the
historic price we pay for Armenian individualism.
– See more at:
http://www.mirrorspectator.com/#sthash.g26wizef.dpuf