A 21st Century Zartonk: An iRevival in the Modern Age of iFedayees
Friday, August 9th, 2013
Armenian youth assemble to protest in Los Angeles
95 years of questioning the reality of planned, brutal mass
executions, the ethnic cleansing of a people from their place is far
too long. Up against a looming deadline, a threat of losing their
history and identity, a new generation of Armenians is waking up to an
economic collapse, disappearing Diasporas, and questionable
leadership. The time has come for modern-day Fedayees to take action,
to use modern technologies and create global media messages about
their legacy, history, and their future. This is our prophecy.
BY PAUL CHADERJIAN AND ALLEN YEKIKAN
At twenty-four minutes past four o’clock on the afternoon of April 24,
a war for cultural survival wages on the streets of this metropolis.
In the fight of their lifetime are young Armenians on the sidewalks of
Wilshire, changing the rules, questioning Baby Boomer values,
inventing a new movement, and sending a message to the world that
justice will be served and their ancient culture will survive and
thrive.
On the front lines of this epic war are the Digital Natives,
Generation Z, armed with nothing more than their cell phones, cameras,
and their laptop computers. This war is a battle for cultural revival,
a battle to re-energize the Armenian spirit in the far corners of the
Diaspora and in suffocated and abused community like Javakhk. This
fight is for the universal acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide and
global recognition of the independent Republic of Karabagh. This
battle for national survival is not only being waged on these streets
of La La Land but in the abstract place called the Internet.
Why is this generation – born into the most pampered of lives – out on
the sidewalks instead of sipping beers at a beach-side cantina off the
Pacific, on rides in Disneyland, or in the great malls of commerce,
shopping, eating, or enjoying a Saturday afternoon matinee?
Where is this sense of injustice and this passion for change coming
from? How is their passion being fueled? Why does the world outside
their suburban lives matter more now than ever before? And why does a
95-year-old crime against their ancestors warrant the display of such
passion – nearly a century later and a world away – on the streets of
California?
A Generation in Question
Perhaps these question’s are because the progeny of the Genocide has
awakened to an uncertain, apocalyptic future. A new generation of
young men and women are coming of age to the threat that their
lifestyles may be a memory of the good old days.
Young people are opening their eyes to headlines that those in their
20s and 30s are facing 50% unemployment. Their jobs have been shipped
off to China and India. Their universities are broke and have no room
for new students. Their forests are cut down and natural resources
fast depleting.Their bankrupt government is waging unnecessary wars
overseas, throwing billions of dollars in smart bombs on foreign
lands, and their corrupt leaders throwing billions of bonuses to those
sociopath capitalists who bankrupted a bogus financial industry.
Perhaps their stark realities are now coming into focus because they
wake up to accusations that their very existence as Armenians is based
on a lie. This rabid movement is being ignited because they turn on
CNN to hear the Turkish Prime Minister say that there had been no such
thing as Genocide and that Armenians had been the criminals that
victimized the Turks.
Baby Boomers’ democratic leaders have not only failed at setting the
record straight on the Genocide, but they have also failed at
guaranteeing that our way of life can be sustainable for the next
generation and for generations to come.
Youth today are threatened with the possibility of never owning their
own homes, not affording to go on vacations to their ancestral
Homeland, and no longer being able to afford to provide an Armenian
education to their children or keeping the doors of their ancient
churches open that is fueling the crisis.
How does their government and their President get away with destroying
their future and making empty promises like `change.’ Hadn’t Mr. Obama
promised Genocide recognition? Wasn’t he now turning his back on his
promises and bowing down to the lying Ottoman politicians of the 21st
century?
21st Century Re-awakening
The activists in the 6300 block of Wilshire are following a noble
path, a path traversed by their forefathers. One which they were
destined to retrace.
When they realized the older generations, in their affluent
self-assurance, wasn’t going to listen to their ideas about cultural
preservation and nationhood, this generation looked back to their
people’s history. They found inspiration in stories about fools and
revolutionaries who dared to question authority. They found hope in
the actions of those in the late 19th century who ventured into the
villages and founded schools, and who brought the European
enlightenment to the Armenian countryside.
>From Madras/Chanai to Venice/San Lazzaro, in the seminaries, merchant
communities, and universities of the Armenian Diaspora, Armenians of
the day began to look toward their Homeland with despair. They sought
solutions to the nation’s problems. Having grown tired of being told
what they couldn’t do by their parents, these individuals began to
imagine a better future. They envisioned it and then worked to create
it.
What began as a spark became a movement of awakening, a Zartonk, and
it spread like a modern-day viral video across the Armenian world. The
medium of that era was not the Internet but the printing press.
Newspapers, pamphlets, and books created a Diaspora-wide dialogue
about cultural, linguistic and social demands. The printing press
created a consciousness and awareness that resulted in change.
In the 1700s when Armenians were living under foreign rule, Armenians
in the Diaspora experienced the Age of Enlightenment and closely
followed the French and American independence movements and the births
of democracies.
As the framers of the US constitution were dreaming up their new
nation, free from British rule, Armenians like Shahamir Shahamirian
were thinking up a bill of rights for Armenians and a means for
liberation from Turkish oppression. Their weapon was a printing press,
which spread new ideas to the masses.
Through the printed word, ancient tales of heroic exploits and battles
were brought to life, dialogue about democratic governance and social
justice were popularized, and Armenian students studying in the
universities of Europe were given a struggle in which to believe.
Armenians in the Age of Enlightenment gave birth to young enlightened
thinkers, selfless teachers, and the fearless Fedayees.
The iPeople
One of the historic acts of the enlightened Armenians was the
development a modern language that could be understood by the masses.
This Askharabahr became the language of their revolution. It defied
the Church and authority to become the medium through which dreams and
means for emancipation and liberation were conveyed.
Today, 21st century Fedayees also have a new way to speak the language
of the new masses. Their Ashkharabahr-the language of their world-is
the Internet and social media. This new media in the age of
hyper-connectivity is the foundation of this reawakening. That any two
or ten million Armenians anywhere can come together at anytime through
the unfathomable global access of the Internet is what makes the
iZaronk a reality.
Armed with their laptops, cell and smart phones, this new breed of
freedom fighter is waging a struggle for freedom from their people’s
established norms, norms which are staid and are slowly suffocating if
not killing a new generation of young Armenians. Clear, concise
messages, video images in abundance, passionate Armenians speaking up,
jumping in front of their cameras, getting behind their iPhones,
punching their keyboards with words small and big – these are what can
and will turn around a people in a deep sleep in the early years of
the 21st Century. The time has come, and the alarm is sounding; the
war of yesterday is now the war in Cyberspace. The weapon is new
media.
Armen loads his video camera with a fresh tape. His batteries are
charged. His tripod is set-up. He has his MacBook, and he’s on the
front lines of the Armenian Cause in the 21st Century. He knows that
supremacy in the information age is getting his messages heard, using
the information superhighways prolifically, and producing sexy, viral
messages that are watched by millions of people, scoring thousands of
hits on the net.
Varant is clicking photos of police officers guarding the Consulate
doors. He’s uploading them with captions via his BlackBerry to
thousands who are checking his real-time Facebook updates.
These youth are on the front lines of the Internet, where video,
audio, and viral messaging can help Armenians reach the tipping point
into nationhood, where democracy and social justice prevail; ensure
cultural survival; secure the international recognition of the
Armenian Genocide; achieve autonomy and self-rule in Javakhk, and
protect the inalienable right of self-determination of the people of
the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh.
Cameras are a modern weapon of the iFedayee
Alina clicks away all day, texting friends, posting messages,
videotaping images. She is not wasting her time communicating about
which movie she saw or who is dating whom. Instead, she is living and
breathing the Armenian Cause, by making the issues on the table more
intriguing than what and who is walking on the red carpet or getting
drunk in Vegas.
Like Armen, Varant and Alina, thousands of Armenian youth today have
greater power than any government, than any conglomerate, than any
old-world call-to-arms. Their war of a lifetime is waged through
thoughts, through outspokenness, and through clicks on their
communications technologies.
The time has come for a 21st century Zartonk, a national revival using
the new weapons of modern civilization -the communications tools that
every citizen of the world either has access to or knows someone with
access. These tools, cameras, keyboards, editing software, iPad and
iPods, FlipCams and iPhones, are all what can create the iZartonk.
iMedia
>From the dance halls of the Ani barakhoomp, to the Armenian language
classes at Mesrobian, from the film sets of the aspiring filmmakers,
to the performances of young playwrights, iZartonk is Armenians
breaking free of their pedagogical restrains, free of the capitalist
poison of accruing more wealth, free of the game of politics.
Along the way, young Armenians are using their Internet connections
and their keyboards to not only report about what their generation is
doing toward their community’s collective goal of cultural
preservation, but they are also using all these platforms of media and
communication to ask the questions that needs to be asked. They are
asking each other, expressing their opinions, spreading unique stories
about the Armenian-American experience and challenging each other for
new dreams, new ideas, and calls to action.
What should we believe in? What should we stand for? What should be
our plans? How do we protect our community and our rights? These are
the messages that are floating back-and-forth on the Information
Superhighway. Instead of banal messages on Facebook about what people
are having for dessert, how about asking what is a good insurance
carrier or where there are new job openings? Instead of feeding the
livestock on Farmville or repeating a joke from a morally bankrupt
cartoon on cable, why not promote a group fighting to stop capitalist
endeavors destroying the Earth?
iFedayees
The iFedayees want a say in what their community stands for, what the
collective should focus on, not merely accept the ways of their
parents’ world. They want to decide whether this community needs
multi-million dollar cathedrals, lavish banquet halls, and obscene
weddings and parties – all which are depleting resources that could
otherwise go towards timeless endeavors.
iFedayees must roll up their sleeves and know more than just their
people’s history. They must also learn about the climate of the world,
the Chinese economy, the worlds of the Islam and the South Americas,
and how all these factors shape their modern Armenian-American
experience.
iFedayees must learn, they must take a stand, and they must be
involved in every aspect of their lives and hence their future. This
is what revolutionaries do; and this is what young Armenians must do
to ensure the survival of their six-thousand year-old-culture and
nation – be it in the Homeland or in its vast and ever-relocating
Diaspora.
iDo and iWill
In today’s Armenian media, instead of stories about the legendary
heroes of the people who took up arms to protect their fellow
Armenians, there are stories of the mafiosos stealing from the
government, the masses, and each other. Instead of notions of equal
rights and freedoms, instead of stories of revolutionaries in the
turn-of-the-century Anatolia who inspired a nation and defied the odds
to found an independent republic amid the ashes of Genocide, community
broadcasters are promoting Armenian criminals as the heroes of the
day.
Instead of preaching and promoting service to community and to others,
Armenian media is selling laser hair removal, lap bands, and
glamorizing those who take from the innocent, those who kill for
financial gain, and those who have no morality and humanity. These are
not the role models today’s young people are seeking., and these
broadcasters needed to know that the viewer always has the last word.
Armenian youth take part in the AYF’s Little Armenia Beautification Project
The solution is for every Armenian to become a media practitioner,
participate in creating and using alternative media and ignore the
obnoxious mainstream media outlets. Ignore the info-tainment on your
cells, computers, and television channels and hear what alternative
media sources are saying. What do Link TV reports say about the
European headlines? What are the Arabic channels reporting about the
Middle East? What are blogs saying about the Homeland? And what is the
individual Armenian saying?
After you learn and listen, become a media content creator by picking
up your audio recorder, your notepad, your video camera, and record
your voice, broadcast it to your friends. Even if you don’t have the
answers, ask the questions, put your concerns on paper or on videotape
and send them off into Cyberspace.
Every single Armenian should take it upon him or herself to write a
few paragraphs or videotape 30 to 60 second news reports to let others
in our community know what everyone else is doing as members of the
`Armenians.’
We saw a glimpse of how powerful and active our community became when
hundreds of thousands of you followed the Asbarez and Horizon TV
during the committee vote on the Genocide Resolution, the Protocol
protests, the hunger strike, and the Armenian President’s visit around
the Diaspora. Thousands watched ANC YouTube videos; Asbarez and
Horizon pages had thousands of hits; and AYF members reported the news
by videotaping interviews from the front lines and posting it for
Armenians and non-Armenians around the world to watch.
The momentum that we glimpsed and that we collectively created around
the Stop the Protocols campaign was unprecedented. Our story and our
collective engagement with the creation of media was viral. Not only
did we engage the story, but we engaged our peers and made them
active. On top of that success, our viral messages reached mainstream
media, the LA Times, and all the television networks. Our Tweets and
iPhone videos reached the `Tipping Point’ and put our people at the
forefront, at least for two weeks, during the Information Age.
But why stop now? Why not continue this grassroots Armenian revolution
of the 21st century and continue and build upon the creation of media
messages as we did during the Protocols Campaign. And why stop at
Facebook and Twitter? Why not report about all of our individual and
community successes to our own media network. And why stop with our
media? Why not write letters to editors, engage your lawmakers, create
YouTube videos, submit stories to Current TV, Reddit, CNN iReports,
and other media outlets?
This reawakening, this iZartonk, is based on your participation, you
sharing your small and big steps, ideas, concerns, and news items in
this whirlpool of information. The revolution, the change, can
continue if you and your friends, colleagues, the Armenian
community-at-large, and the world knows what we are all talking about.
Share your news, share what’s new and different, promote your
successes, highlight and advertise whatever makes you proud by
writing, videotaping, blogging, Tweet-ing and Facebook-ing. If you
have a keyboard, you’re a journalist. If you have a video camera,
you’re a reporter.
Take creating media one step further and find the candidates who are
concerned about your concerns and vote them into office. If those
candidates aren’t there, then you run for office, be it for your
university board of regents, your town parish, church council, city
council, or state or federal offices. A democracy serves the masses
only when the masses serve the democracy, when they vote, when they
express their concerns, and when they go door-to-door talking to
people.
Why should your government, your democracy, your representatives on
Capitol Hill NOT vote for Genocide recognition. That question should
be enough to make you ponder whether they really care about justice
and have your best interest in their hearts. Or are they merely
banking on empty promises so that they can sustain their cushy jobs
and their affluent lifestyles and donors?
If your representatives in government aren’t providing what you need
them to provide, if they aren’t worried about your future, your
career, your education, if they are able to convince you that your
government needs to wage war overseas instead of fixing roads,
developing new industries and renewable energy sources, then their
tenure as public servants is over.
Now it’s your turn. Participate in the reawakening of the Armenian
spirit, create media, voice your concerns, vote, and talk to people.
Remember, in the Information Age, we are on an equal playing field
with anything that mainstream news organizations are producing. Your
thoughts, your concerns, your opinions are as valid as those of the
pundits who are using the mainstream channels that are in the business
of making money by gathering the most eyeballs at any given time.
Don’t patronize mass media to appease their shareholders with bigger
profits. Instead, create your own media and change the game. Whether
you attended a protest rally on April 24, attended a book signing,
wrote a play, or heard a new artist, everything is relevant to your
community.
So speak up, speak loud and participate in the reawakening of the
Armenian Soul through iZartonk.
http://asbarez.com/112664/a-21st-century-zartonk-an-irevival-in-the-modern-age-of-ifedayees/