A Single Rose for the Living is Better than a Costly Wreath at the Grave

A few days ago, I had a heart-to-heart phone conversation with one of my acquaintances in Canada. Just as we were about to conclude our conversation, the dear person on the other end of the phone read to me a deeply heartfelt and penetratingly poignant little poem packed with universal truism-- so unassumingly simple and yet unequivocally profound. I was touched by it so much so that I took the liberty of translating it. I do hope my humble attempt did some justice to its integrity and purpose, and to the core of its intended meaning and message. Thank you, Azniv, for sharing it with me, just as I am happy to share my translated version with my guests:



Now, is the Time

I would prefer one heartfelt rose,
Hand-picked with love from a garden;
Than those ornate flashy bouquets,
Sent while I'm gone in a sudden.
Now, is the time!

I would prefer one lil sweet word,
While my ears could still hear it;
Than late praises and accolades,
For my body would not feel it.
Now, is the time!

If you do have one smile for me,
Let it light up on your face NOW;
My heart won't feel your silent tears,
When shed on my gravestone somehow.
Now, is the time!

Of all the gifts that you could give,
One timely flower would be nice;
Late arriving bouquets are deemed,
Worthless as death would shut my eyes.
Now, is the time!

Godforsaken Moment-in-History of Western Armenia

God must have been looking the other way at that one moment in history when the biggest human tragedy befell the Armenian nation. Even, the legendary count of 1001 churches of mighty Ani was no match to push back evil on that godforsaken day.

If you are an Armenian, diasporan or not, click here to watch a series of 5 videos ... You, too, will be walking, albeit vicariously, the lands your forefathers once so proudly did.

Sit back and experience the emotional journey you're about to embark.

There Is An Elephant In The Room. Nah - It's A Fish!

This is my rebuttal to a letter that appeared in the Newton Tab on January 7, 2009. You may want to read this said (italicized) letter first which I placed at the bottom of this post and then come right back up here to read my refute.

All Jewish lobbies -- the likes of the ADL -- and all Jews -- the likes of Mr. Larry Epstein -- should leave Armenians out of it.

I, for one, a third generation descendant of Armenian Genocide survivor, am growing tired of seeing the anti-Defamation league and, by extension, the Jewish community of so-called "Epsteinian" ethos continue to opine and oppose, criticize and condemn, deny and derail Armenian genocide recognition in the press and particularly, in the U.S. House of Congress -- Stop imposing your despicable "Ahmadinijad-like" will on others if you expect any respect back at all -- I've got news for you Mr. Epstein: Leave me ( for I represent, my slaughtered grandparents); leave Mr. David Boyajian; and leave all Armenians out of your ill-advised, filthy political game. Yes, that's right, you heard me, Armenians are not going to take it any more, they are going to push back, and push back hard, they will.

No,no,no, Mr. Epstein, there is NO elephant of "anti-Semitism" in the room as you stated in your article. That is a figment of your own imagination -- Armenians have a much bigger fish to fry -- speaking of fish, that reminds me, your acute olfactory senses should have picked up the smell of rotten fish of elephantine magnitude in that proverbial room of yours, and that fish, pace Mr. Larry Epstein is "genocide-denial," got it? if you're still incredulous about your improvident behavior you may fact-check your genocide-denial gravitation with that of Ahmadinijad's.

Unless you're a troglodyte who just emerged from the darkness of your moral cave you should know the following before you blurt out on behalf of respectful fellow Jews: Scholarship has long since established the facts about Armenian genocide. Little education goes a long way, read some real history books.

Did you ever wonder who Mr. Raphael Lemkin was talking about when he coined the word "genocide"? hint, I'll say it slowly:A-r-m-e-n-i-a-n-s, or did you ever think about what Mr. Elie Wiesel meant by "double killing" of genocide victims? hint: Sort of, what you're doing, perhaps, unwittingly -- Denial and cover up of Armenian genocide, since it strives to kill the memory of the original atrocities.

In conclusion, I, respectfully, ask you, Mr. Epstien, to leave the Armenians alone and direct your wrath, instead, at the the known Jewish organizations who continue to poke their fingers into the collective eyes of the Armenian genocide victims.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Newton Tab (Newton@cnc.com)
Newton, Massachusetts
January 7, 2009
Letters to the Editor

Mr. Boyajian Should Leave Jews Out of It

I, for one, am growing tired of seeing the Anti-Defamation League and,
by extension, the Jewish community, continue to take the heat from the
likes of David Boyajian for what is a legitimate debate among
historians regarding the question of genocide in Armenia.

With Mr. Boyajian's op-ed piece in the Dec 24 Newton TAB, it's obvious
that he and like-minded individuals will use any opportunity to poke
their fingers into the eyes of bystanding Jews just to land another
punch in their feud with the ADL.

There's an elephant in the room, and that elephant is
anti-Semitism. When the malicious scrawling of a swastika on a
synagogue sign somehow results in a five-column rant against a
pre-eminent Jewish organization, there's something more at play
here. When historians disagree on the intent of the Turks' war upon
Armenia and the shrill is focused on a Jewish organization that dares
to reflect the vigorous debate among those historians, I see Jews
being scapegoated.

If that is not the case, then I would ask Mr. Boyajian to leave the
Jews alone and direct his wrath, instead, at the professional
historians who disagree with him.


Larry Epstein
Woodward Street
Newton, MA

CNN's"Scream Bloody Murder" Revisited

In "Scream Bloody murder," a 90-minute CNN documentary, Chief International Correspondent, Ms. Christiane Amanpour, adroitly served the Armenian genocide victims a slice of history that had more holes in it than Swiss-cheese -- no substance -- nor acknowledgment of the Armenian genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century.

There is no doubt in my mind, after watching the program for a 2nd time, that the mere 45 fleeting seconds given to the Armenians was out of pure necessity to get her story airborne to levels of genocide relevancy. She knew that the skeletal remains of the Armenian holocaust victims was the only runway suited to handle heavy loads of post-Armenian-genocide calamities. As she taxied her proverbial plane masterfully for 45-seconds past dead bodies of the first genocide victims of the century, she quickly navigated away from the Anatolian killing fields without a call nor a whisper of bloody murder.

From the outset, Ms. Amanpour knew full well that she could not have painted her 'Scream Bloody Murder' tableau effectively without dipping her dry brush in Armenian-genocide-victims' blood first. Despite of this, not a single person (except unpunished perpetrators) would have objected had Ms. Amanpour once screamed bloody murder on behalf of the Armenian victims as she did volubly and admirably for the other six.

Incidentally, December 9 marked the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on Genocides. Thanks to Raphael Lemkin, who spent a chunk of time inordinately larger than 45 seconds (Ms. Amanpour's ration) agonizing over the slaughtering of the Armenians ( just before the Jewish holocaust) when he eventually coined the word "genocide" from the Greek and Latin root words "genos-cide," meaning "tribe, race" and" kill" respectively.

In her report, Ms. Amanpour says: for the better part of the past year I have been interviewing people who found themselves witnessing history that made them scream bloody murder. I truly appreciate her worthy efforts and she needs to be applauded for her great work.

Now, here is my question to you Ms. Amanpour: Did you, by any chance, look for any Armenian genocide witnesses at any time? Better yet, did you look for any Armenian genocide survivors? By the way, there are still few left and they would have hurried to you in their wheelchairs to "Scream bloody Murder" if you had only given them a chance. So, frankly, did the idea of listening to Armenian survivors' accounts ever cross your mind, Ms. Amanpor? If it did, who and what made you change your mind? You see, some of those centigenarian survivors endured long grueling flights to Washington DC last year to witness the House Foreign Affairs Committee adopt the resolution, which calls on U.S. Foreign policy to properly reflect the genocide of over 1.5 million Armenians from 1915-1923 in Ottoman Turkey -- You see, they do come if asked. But you regrettably ignored them.

Ms. Amanpour, I pray to God, that someday you muster the moral fortitude to seek out these Armenian survivors and, then, make an unabridged documentary -- please listen attentively to their feeble voices as they have much to tell.

You also said in your report: will we ever learn? or will I or my children or my successors be reporting on this same kind of atrocity and inhumanity for years and years to come? The answer is: A resounding YES -- Genocides will be reported by you and others for years to come if they continue to be told in duplicitous versions.

If This Song Can't Move You Neither Could a Crane

I was fortunate to stumble upon this doleful melody of ethereal beauty and wanted to share it with my guests along with my thoughts and feelings -- You may not have a pulse, if this song, "Andouni," by Isabel Bayrakdarian, does not transport you beyond all normal sensory channels of emotions you presumed didn't own; You may not have a spirit, if it does not outstretch your raw feelings to breaking point through its high-strung vibes of harmonic pain you didn't know existed; and you may not have a soul, if it does not shatter your hardened mind to smithereens with its impassioned tug at your heartstrings and, still, refuse to acknowledge it.

ENJOY!

CNN's "Scream Bloody Murder" is "Bloody Shame Whisper"

Last night I watched CNN's powerful broadcast documentary entitled "Scream Bloody Murder," by the highly talented reporter, Christiane Amanpour who delivered a very compelling look at Genocides throughout "history," except her recollection of genocidal accounts of history was on a tad shorter temporal leash than the victims of the Armenian genocide would have liked to see.

Amanpour commands my utmost respect, though, for shining megawatt-rich spotlight on the spine-chilling events of the Jewish Holocaust, and all subsequent genocides of Cambodia, Iraq, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. But, unfortunately, she failed to generate a mere milliwatt of fleeting light on the first genocide of the century: The Armenian genocide.

Nonetheless, the indefatigable CNN reporter did some good -- though, not quite enough -- by informing the general public about the roles of those courageous heroes who saw and understood evil -- and 'screamed bloody murder' to the deaf ears of international leaders to heed their call for action.

Amanpour, by the power of her camera and microphone, breathed life to the screaming voices of the forgotten activists, and deservedly amplified the "bloody murder" calls of the moral few, such as: Eli Wiesel, Father Francois Ponchaud, Peter Galbraith, Richard Holbrook, Romeo Dallaire and other unsung heroes, but Amanpour chose dead silence instead to the screams of Henry Morgenthau, the US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time of the Armenian Genocide -- Morgenthau too, 'screamed bloody murder.' Give that honorable man some credit and the 1.5 million Armenian victims some respect.

You see, Amanpour's failure to mention the "screams" of Henry Morgenthau and others is an unfortunate continuum of a political play. Even worse, when a reputable reporter such as Amanpour chooses to silence the calls of equally deserving fine men, then it does create the ultimate hypocritical human-rights rat's nest that no one could ever get out of unscathed. The timing of this matter is specially significant and doubly important as the reporter tries to bring attention to genocides on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the adoption of UN Convention of Genocide and Human Rights, which, by the way, was authored by Raphael Lemkin who coined the word "genocide."

Amanpour's approach to subtractive journalism in her "Scream Bloody Murder" is flawed and it is a little disrespectful to the legacy of Raphael Lemkin who gave us the word "genocide." Hello, the man was describing the systematic slaughter of the Armenians, repeat, the slaughter of the Armenians, not some imaginary people nor a hypothetical race when he coined the word "genocide."

So, if the death of 1.5 million Armenian victims could have given birth to a word named "genocide," just as Lemkin did to legally define holocaust. Then, how could they not apply that "word" back to its source where it belongs? just as Lemkin had done and intended. Amanpour's report, unfortunately, could have, just as easily, been titled "Bloody Shame Whisper" without missing a beat.

Hypocrisy and muddy moral standards in matters of genocide-justice has never worked (as demonstrated by their frequency) -- brace yourselves, as there is an ongoing genocide in Darfur as we speak and I'm sure many more are likely to happen soon.

Modern Turkey: Same Old Dirty Ottoman Underwear Worn Inside Out

Just as the bloodthirsty Turkish Ottoman empire (aka "the sick man of Europe") was on its last, decrepit, leg in the waning days of its turgid greatness, and just before The Ottoman's doomed fez and proverbial last shoe was set to drop, it had already bequeathed posterity (modern-day Turkey) the honorific Ottoman legacy of sheer ruthlessness, corruption, butchery, and yes, genocide -- make that plural in capital letters -- GENOCIDES of Bulgarians, Greeks, Assyrians, and last but not least Armenians.

On numerous occasions, including both, before and after 1915 [ the worst year in total of 1.5 million Armenians massacred] the Ottoman Turks pillaged hundreds of Armenian villages, stole their properties and wealth, set their churches and schools on fire, burnt parishioners and schoolchildren alive, decapitated their writers and intellectuals, gouged the eyes of their poets and musicians, destroyed their books and libraries, maimed their defenseless babies and children, bayoneted their young and the old, raped their women and their daughters, drowned their helpless people in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, and brutally drove the rest of the indigenous Armenians on a forced march out of their ancestral land to meet their destiny of certain death under the torching sun of DerZor's desolate desert. Ironically, all of these Turkish brutalities happened on Armenian historical land, where Armenians lived since time immemorial, in fact, prior to anyone had ever heard of the four-letter word "Turk" before. The book, "The Burning Tigris," by Peter Balakian puts my depiction of the Ottoman savagery to shame when you read the Author's detailed and well-researched historical accounts of that dark era.

After world war I, the "founding father" of modern Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal, with oft-used "Ataturk" (father of the Turks) title attached to his name -- who, by the way, was no more a fitting father to the Turks than his children's Ottoman grandfather was to him -- staged the greatest escape from Ottoman forefathers historical tie when he performed the mother of all Houdini-acts on the Turkish people without them knowing it. He declared the dissolution of the Ottoman empire and conveniently disassociated himself and his Turkish herd from the immediate past of the genocidal sins of his forefathers. Instead of forging a national identity based on historical authenticity, Ataturk masterfully leapfrogged over 600 years of brutal Ottoman Turkish rule of the lands; He revised, distorted and falsified history books and began an inculcation process of indoctrination on the undeveloped -- and underdeveloped -- tabula rasa of Turkish minds. He successfully erased the existential traces of Armenians and other ethnic groups. He mercilessly punished anyone who dared question his revisionist narrative. His biggest fabrication yet. Well, just like that, in a flash, he pulled a new 'national identity of, so-called, "monolithic Turkey"' nonentity out of his allegorical butt whose identity was built on pure myth and its purpose was to concoct an artificial Turkic identity that fits the void of nationalistic air pocket that Ataturk's legerdemain move had created. Subsequently, he romanticized this new factually-challenged imaginary "Turkish " fiction and made it stick like wet noodle on the collective skull of the Turkish populace.

A couple of oblivious generations later, Turkey's mind-inoculation campaign of "Turkishness" became a bittersweet success. In Turkey, being clueless about the real unvarnished history, though, could be a double edge sword at times; on the one hand, ignorance of facts keeps the masses' mental boat quite afloat, but on the other hand, they could quickly turn violent and resort to murder when that little voice in their collective head is challenged with factual accounts of the land -- just as the 17-year old Turkish ultra nationalist punk did when he gunned down a Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink . This sort of violence is just a small example, reflective of the Turkish "statehood-of-falsehood" by-product which is squarely built on the ashes of 1.5 million Armenian genocide victims and other christian subjects.

You may find this hard to believe, but Post-Ottoman Turkish government -- beneath its transparently phony, revisionist structure -- has been worse than their predecessors on matters of historical facts, historical facts, and btw, did I mention historical facts. Hang on to your tasseled red fez for just a second longer and you'll see why. This time the joke is on the entire Turkish citizenry, compliments of Ataturk, the Turkish putz's pelvic wisdom which helped create this factually-challenged partial-birth anomaly known as modern-day Turkey. "Real history" tells us that the Turkish ancestral umbilical cord tie this savage nomadic tribe directly to central China and nowhere near the current geographical lands captured from the native Armenians of Anatolia and other ethnic groups of those lands.

It is quite apparent, also, that all subsequent Turkish leaders after Mustafe Kemal Ataturk, had to stick with the same reverse-engineered historical spin in order to save the country, essentially, from itself by constantly keeping the nation in a state of deep freeze of denial. As a result, the Turkish government has successfully straitjacketed the Turkish masses into an ideology based on falsehoods, lies, obscurantism, and last but not least, penchant zeal of denial, particularly the DENIAL of the Armenian GENOCIDE.

Unfortunately, this philosophical straitjacket has constrained the Turkish nation from the cerebral growth it badly needs; Turkey has become an intellectual orphan to its ancestral past. No wonder, Turks feel unnerved and threatened -- perhaps, even a bit "un-Turkish?" in an obsessive-compulsive "Turkishness" sense of the word-- specially when the index finger of history's steady hand points to Armenian presence on those stolen lands. More importantly, though, this sham was cobbled together to create a black hole within which all memories of their forefathers shameful acts, including genocides, would forever be lost. or, so they thought.

To sum it up, Turkey of pre-1923 did not suddenly disappear from planet earth, in fact, don't let "brown clad Turk" fool you anymore. Post-Ottoman Turkey is the same underwear worn inside out with criminal skid marks clearly visible to the whole wide world -- except Turkey. Perhaps Modern-Turkey will be better served doing real modern things for a change: drop those soiled ones for a set of crisp, fresh white political undies.