Çidem İnç: Driving into Van

 

I have a friend on Facebook.  His name is Stepan and he is an Armenian living in Turkey.  He is a musician.  He plays the saz and sings.  He is quite talented.  I enjoy seeing his posts, with his family, with his friends, and especially of him playing.

Stepan’s family never left or had to leave occupied Western Armenia.  He grew up there and is simultaneously Armenian and Turkish just as growing up in the US made us Armenian and American.  The main difference is that he is he is there and free to roam and enjoy the countryside and all aspects of the culture.

It is always the little things that make me realize I am in the diaspora.  On my first trip to the Republic of Armenia at a café on the first day, we ordered Cokes.  The waiter brought bottles and opened them at the table.  One of the caps flip-flopped right to where I was seated.  On the underside of the cap, written in Armenian, were the words “Grgin Portsir” or “Try Again.”  It was a stupid little product promotion thing, meaningless in any large scheme of things, but it was a reminder that I was in a place where the culture, the people, the government, and, well, everything was Armenian.  It was changing and evolving influenced by the more dominant neighbors like Russia, Iran, and even Turkey.  For good or bad, it was Armenian.  It was the perhaps the only and certainly the most Armenian place in the world.  I felt at home in the only Armenia that exists today, even though too many people oddly considered me an odar or foreigner.

On my one visit to Turkey, I was in Istanbul speaking at a conference on Supply Chain Management.  Upon arrival and just after checking in to the hotel, I walked around the neighborhood.  I saw shops that sold lokhum, Turkish delight, stacked in pyramids of every color and flavor imaginable.  I saw bakeries with fresh suboregi displayed in the windows with other boregs and breads.  I felt equally at home in the great city in a country that could have been where I was born.  I was not only considered a foreigner but also, if it were ever revealed I was Armenian, I might have also been viewed as scum.

Living as an Armenian in the diaspora, we are aware of the big things we are missing in our quest to maintain our Armenian heritage.  We are lacking and missing Armenian universities, self-determination, industries, and such that make and define a nation.  We are not living our culture fully as we might on our lands.  We are not evolving our culture as fast or vibrantly if we were in our own lands.  But, it is these little things, the everyday things, that always catch me by surprise.  These little things cause the most angst.

In a recent post, Stepan posted a video driving into or around Van.  There was a bridge with Van spelled out in neon or LED lights.  It was another one of those little moments. 

Van was a great and historic Armenian city.  First known as Tushpa, it was the capital of the Urartu Kingdom.  As the Urartu became Armenians, Tushpa became Van and a major province of greater Armenian.  It was a separate kingdom, called Vaspouragan, in the Middle Ages.  The Armenians of Van heroically defended themselves during the Genocide but suffered the same end as other Armenian cities:  massacre and exile.  Some of those who survived the exile made their way to America and many of those settled in Detroit where I grew up.  They were proud of their heritage and the Vaspouragan Society was a vibrant part of the Arnenian community

Seeing the Van displayed on the bridge reminded me that Van is no longer an Armenian city.  It is mostly a Kurdish city of a half-million people today.  There are no doubt crypto and hidden Armenians there whom I am sure that Stepan knows who they are.

Living here, it is so easy to think of the Armenian cities as they once were.  The reality is there are a scant few Armenians there and the population in any of these cities have moved on without us.  They have grown and thrived, since the Genocide.  Would we have erected the bridge?  Would we have adorned it with a sign?  We never had that chance.  But if we did it would probably read… Վան.

The More Things Change...

 

brainyquote.com

I was watching Stagecoach, John Ford’s 1939 film.  It is truly a classic film, an American classic.  It was the breakout film for John Wayne that made him a star and, well, made him the icon that stands tall.  The film also stars Clare Trevor, Andy Devine, and John Carradine.

John Ford, was a master of detail and impressive camera angles in this film.  I am no expert but this film gave me a realistic feel for that time period of the old west.  The film was made only fifty years after the fact.  I base this presumption on the notion that there were still people alive that lived through the Apache wars when this film was made.  I watched this film today, 71 years after it was made and 130 some years after the period.

When I turned on the TV today, the movie was already in progress and showing a scene in the Stagecoach on its way to Lordsburg, the town where Ringo (John Wayne) would confront the brothers that killed his father and brother.  I was just in time to see a soliloquy delivered by Berton Churchill who portrayed the thieving banker Ellsworth Henry Gatewood. 

I don't know what the government is coming to. Instead of protecting businessmen, it pokes its nose into business! Why, they're even talking now about having bank examiners. As if we bankers don't know how to run our own banks! Why, at home I have a letter from a popinjay official saying they were going to inspect my books. I have a slogan that should be blazoned on every newspaper in this country: America for the Americans! The government must not interfere with business! Reduce taxes! Our national debt is something shocking. Over one billion dollars a year! What this country needs is a businessman for president!

I was taken aback by the resonance of the speech with the conservative sentiment of today.  The world has changed in the years since this classic film was made.  Technology has dramatically changed the way we live and work.  We tend to think that changed our thinking.  Consider some of the issues facing us today.  We think we are enlightened and look at generations past as backwards as their technology. 

It made me think of some of the quotes of Mark Twain and Will Rogers and their view that also dispel this myth:

Mark Twain

• Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
• There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.
• Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a Congressman can.
• Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.
• An honest man in politics shines more there than he would elsewhere.
• All Congresses and Parliaments have a kindly feeling for idiots, and a compassion for them, on account of personal experience and heredity
  
• Conservatism is the blind and fear-filled worship of dead radicals.

Will Rogers

• The man with the best job in the country is the vice-president. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, "How is the president?"
• Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.
• I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
• I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.
• Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock.
• Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing, and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even.

This does not apply just to our view government.  Poets from centuries ago and those of today are still trying to explain and make sense of romantic love and have made little progress in that regard.  We have had scholars, clerics, and theologists have trying to explain God and the universal unknowns for just as long with an equal lack of success. 

I think it is important to keep an open mind and keep things in perspective.  In closing, here are a few more quotes from the Rogers and Twain about arguing which seems so common in these polarized times.

Rogers

• A king can stand people's fighting but he can't last long if people start thinking.
• The more ignorant you are, the quicker you fight.

Twain

• Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
• Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.

Chidem Inch: Ağrı Dağı Bizim Dir

 

I saw this graphic on Facebook.  It was posted by one Rosdom Hagopian though I am not certain if Mr. Hagopian created the graphic or if it just imressed him, as it did with me, when he first saw it.

It is a simple photo of a man holding the hand of a girl pointing at Ararat, Massis big and small, the mountain of the Armenians.  Are they father and daughter?  Grandfather and granddaughter?  Either works.  Both resonated with me.

Before I even noticed the barbed wire marking the border that separates Armenia and Armenians from our mountain, I felt the dull pain and unfairness that our national mountain, a symbol of our people and nation, not being in our country.  Rather it lies in a country that hates us, committed genocide against us, and exiled those who survived.  We can visit Armenia and on clear days we can see Ararat.  This graphic, this painting, has the bittersweet impact on all Armenians.

In his post, Rosdom Hagopian added these words:

Հոն պետք է երթանք......ոչ Ռուսաստան, ոչ Եւրոպա ,ոչ Ամերիկա, ոչ Գանատա ,ոչ Աւստրալիա

Բոլորս խօսքի վարպետ ենք եւ մեր անձնական հանգիստը կը փնտրենք.......

 

We have to go there ...... not Russia, not Europe, not America, not Canada, not Australia

 

We are all masters of speech and we are looking for our personal rest ...

I think it is a sentiment many of us can relate to.  We have to go there indeed.  Actually, we should have never had to leave.  We should have been able to stay there instead of Russia, America, Europe, Canada, or Australia.  We could go back there now if it were ours once more or if we were minimally welcomed and allowed to thrive and be ourselves.  But for many of us in the diaspora we were born in America, Europe, Canada, or Australia perhaps even the 2^nd or 3^rd generation not born in our homeland.  Our hearts are rooted in Armenia, our Armenian Heritage, but our lives, families, and careers are in the countries we now call home.

Could I repatriate to Armenia?  A few families I know have.  I admire them for that.  The rest of us?  I am not sure how often or how seriously we think of doing such.  The majority of the diasporans that have repatriated to Armenia are Syrian Armenians and Armenians from Ukraine.  They moved back due to war.  Armenia, for its current instability and ever present threat from Azerbaijan and Turkey and whatever Russia’s intentions are, is a the easiest option for a more stable place to live.  Dire circumstances forces immigration.  Therefore many Armenians ended up in Russia, Europe, America, Canada, and Australia. 

I had a friend, Roger Derderian, whose mother and my maternal grandmother were from Yeghiki a village of Kharpert.  He would only return there, if he could.  He never even wanted to even visit the current Republic of Armenia.  I understood his sentiment and yearning for what his mother and my grandmother called the yergir or old country.  No one I know is actually bold and brave enough to do this, assuming Turkey, would allow such immigration. 

It would be wonderful if Ararat was part of Armenia.  It would lift our collective spirits for sure, but it unlikely to happen anytime soon.  I could see it being a part of a free and independent Kurdistan before any of Western Armenia being part of the Republic of Armenia.  Would the Kurds welcome Armenians and others back to their ancestral lands?  Perhaps.

Is Ararat ours?  Yes, it certainly is in our minds, hearts, and souls.  To the rest of the world?  Not really.  Hence the plight of the Armenians.  We do not have the military might do change our borders to what they should be.  We are currently “negotiating” the borders with Azerbaijan.  Some negotiation.  Inept leadership, lack of military planning, and the collusion of Putin and Erdogan put us in a position with practically no leverage.

A Turkish colleague once sent me a photo of Ararat in an e-mail and said:
“See, the mountain doesn’t care where it is.”   

The mountain, of course, cannot care.  It is where it is.   

But, to Armenians like Rosdom Hagopian and myself… 
Ararat is ours, Արարատը մերն է, Ağrı Dağı bizim dir.

The Second Amendment

 

It has been eight days since the killing 19 elementary school students and 2 teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 24th.  Based solely on what I see on social media, the outrage and call for action to “do something” is already waning.  This is typical and part of the cycle depicted in the graphics I used in my previous blog that is sadly all too true.

In that same posting, I also quoted the 2^nd Amendment of the US Constitution.  It is actually quite simple:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

These 27 words have been the basis for political platforms, the subjects of books, part of the reason we have politically polarized.  So, why would I take a swipe at this?  To alienate and irritate everyone?  Because I am an idiot?  Because it is big fat pinata I want to take a swipe at?

As stated in my most post, this amendment was ratified in 1791.  The “arms” of that era was different than the arms of today.  The rifles and handguns of those days were muzzle loaded.  The best trained riflemen of around the time the 2^nd Amendment was ratified could shoot a musket at a rate of 4 rounds a minute which is faster than I thought. 

The rate of fire was lower in the 18^th century is much lower than the semi-automatic weapons of today which can fire a round each time you pull the trigger.  This means one could easily fire 30-40 rounds a minute.  To increase the rate, rifles such as the AR-15 which can be fitted with high-capacity clips and bump stocks which basically can turn a rapid fire semi-automatic weapon into an automatic one (basically a machine gun).  Watch this excellent video that shows how and AR-15 can be modified to do this.

 

 

Let’s look at the 2^nd Amendent a bit closer.  The debate these days is about the “right to bear arms.”  People are divided into two general camps.  One group abhors firearms and never wants to own them.  The other group believes owning guns are a right that should not be infringed upon.  In the latter group there are many factions.  Some want guns for home or self protection.  Some are sportsman and like target shooting or hunting.  Others are collectors.  They last faction wants guns for nefarious reasons which include their life of crime and those that want to kill innocents in the kinds of mass shootings that plague this nation. 

The other aspect of the 2^nd Amendment is the “well regulated militia” part.  What is a militia anyway?  Per an internet seach, Google and OxfordLanguages provided this definition:

a military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency.

This sounds good.  We can mobilize a militia to defend the country.  Everyone grabs their musket or AR-15 with bump stock and twenty four 40 round magazine when they hear Paul Revere beckon or text them.  The 2^nd also says the militia should be well regulated.  Well regulated, that sounds like trained, that sounds like subject to some rules and, dare I say it, laws.  Consider Switzerland, the neutral country.  They have a high level of gun ownership and a “well regulated militia” that has kept the country neutral for over 200 years.  They have 2 million guns of 8.3 million people.  They are stict regulations and laws, lots of training to use the firearms, lots of practice using them, so they can store them in their homes along with other gear that their well regulated militia needs to mobilize and defend the country if needed.  Read more about the Swiss model in businessinsider.com.

We certainly do not have anything close to this.  We embrace the right to bear arms with little restriction.  We are not well regulated.  We are more like the Wild West. 

We can better regulate our militia.  We can still embrace the right to bear arms.  The focus must be on those wanting and using weapons for nefarious purposes.  What’s holding us back?  Nothing more than ourselves.