YEGPARIAN: IRRITANTS XVII
By Admin // August 22, 2013 in Garen Yegparian
Since it’s been a year or so since the last of these mini-diatribes
about various matters that irk me-due to their shamelessness,
foolishness, or banality-I thought it was time for a few more
micro-rants against these people and practices.
Why is it that some of our compatriots, in this case, some who
own small businesses, feel that cheating their customer is a good
practice? Two of us were at a small restaurant recently, one that
you can just tell does most of its business through catering and
take-out orders. We ordered a dinner each, were still hungry, and
asked for one more plate to share. Next thing we know, two plates
materialized. We laughed it off as a misunderstanding, ate most of
the food, and boxed the rest to take home. When the bill arrived, it
seemed high. Looking closely, it turned out the plates we’d ordered
were charged a dollar more (each) than were priced on the menu. So,
we’ll never go back to that place again.
Moving from the personal to the collective, how about genocide
recognition? Why hasn’t Israel done it yet? How can they justify their
continued, state level, denial of what happened to Armenians when what
happened to Jews is what drives so many of the country’s policies,
behaviors, and mindsets? Conversely, the new Pope recognized the
Genocide mere months after taking office. Of course, this set off a
reaction from Turkey. What nerve! It’s bad enough the murderers (see
below) in Ankara insist on wasting their country’s time and resources
on denial, but it’s utterly intolerable that they seek accomplices and,
when rebuffed, get all huffy.
If you have any doubt about the murderous bent of the regime in Ankara,
you don’t even have to think back to its early days of attacking Kurds,
even bombing them outside Turkey’s borders, in Iraq.
You just have to observe their policies in Syria. Couple this with
the recent announcements of the number of Azeris fighting in Syria,
Azerbaijan’s bellicosity towards Armenia and Armenians, and its
intensified sniper activity along its borders with Armenia, and you
have a crystal clear view of the Turkish approach to non-Turkic
neighbors-kill them. For the icing on the cake: Read the news of
the arrests of three Lezghis-a small, stateless nation living in the
Caucasus Mountains-by Azerbaijani authorities. In Turkic practice,
we have seen that arrests are the precursors to killings.
While somewhat less murderous (think drone strikes in Afghanistan and
Pakistan), the Obama Administration has been extremely banal. Not
only did the president renege on his pledge to properly recognize
the genocide, he even co-opted others. Samantha Power whose book
(which addressed the Armenian case, among others) and positions got
her not just one, but two, ANCA awards, has been silenced by accepting
a position with this administration. The administration has been so
adept in this vile vein that it effectively even made the U.S. Supreme
Court its accomplice in denial when the latter went along with the
administration’s recommendation not to hear the appeal of a federal
court’s decision, which found that California’s law (extending the
statute of limitations on claims against insurance companies who never
paid the heirs of their covereds who were killed in the genocide) to
be unconstitutional. We’ve got to find a way to penetrate the walls
of denial and Turkey-favoring that surround the White House (since
all administrations have, for decades, exhibited similar behavior).
Since we’re on the topic of genocide-era life insurance, how about the
AXA case? That’s the one where the original team of lawyers fighting
for the claimants against French insurance company AXA ended up
fighting each other. They made some pretty remarkable and embarrassing
accusations against one another. But just a few weeks ago, we were
treated to a news release saying they had patched everything up. Huh?
I haven’t had a chance to read the 90-plus page agreement, so I’ll
refrain from commenting for now… More later.
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2013/08/22/yegparian-irritants-xvii/