April 2016: Chidem Inch - April 24th

     The day is about to end. I am just beginning to write my April 24th letter. There is no hope of getting it done this evening. I hope I can finish it before the month ends.

     It is the 101st anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide. I traditionally have written a letter to mark this occasion. I have lamented, raged, been solemn, and exasperated by the lack of closure.
      Last year, I did not write a letter. I had every intention to. It was the 100th anniversary and I wanted to write the letter of all letters. There was so much I wanted to say… that I ended up saying nothing in a formal letter. I did post a variety of posts in a series I am calling Chidem Inch. They are all on my blog:

1. Chidem Inch
2. Chidem Inch - Kim Kardashian in Armenia
3. Çidem İnç - Hagop Martayan 
4. Chidem Inch - Descendants of Survivors and Saints
5. Chidem Inch - The G Word
6. Chidem Inch: Sedition Medition!
7. Çidem İnç: Terror in Paris and Beirut
8. January 2016: Chidem Inch - The Water Diviner 

      Honestly, I had a very hard time collect my thoughts on centenary of the Genocide. Simply, and honestly, I was overwhelmed with it all. 
     Luckily, many of my fellow Armenians were better able to express themselves. There was an amazing number of literary and artistic offerings. Our people wrote books, produced films, made documentaries, recorded CDs, and gave concerts. I have read many of the books, watched the movies and documentaries, listened to the CDs, and even performed in a concert myself. I thought this year, for this letter, I would share my thoughts on some of books I have read.
     Our people keep writing books about what transpired. Our people keep reading each new book. They are often painful to read and they have to be grueling to write. While the details of each story, memoir or novel, is different. There is a tragic sameness to them. We know what happened. No amount of reading seems to answer the unanswerable questions. No amount of writing such books alters the path. Not a single one of these brings the true closure we seek as a people.
     Yet, even though the martyrs are all saints, we write and read such books to keep the memories of all who died horribly and without any formal burial or grave. There are but a handful of people alive who actually knew any of these people, our martyrs, and now our Saints. But we have been handed a torch, a light of truth and a hope for justice, that we do not want to see extinguished on our watch.
     There is no hierarchy in the order these books are presented.

     Tadem: Our family friend, Robert Aram Kaloosdian, a man I have always called Uncle Aram, wrote a book called Tadem, My Father’s Village: Extinguished during the 1915 Armenian Genocide. Uncle Aram was not a blood relative. He is a childhood friend of my father and uncle. They all grew up in Watertown, MA – a most Armenian town. They went to Watertown High School and all ran on the State Championship Track Team.
     Aram’s father, Boghos Kezerian Kaloosdian was a survivor of the Genocide and a native of Tadem. This book is Uncle Aram’s telling of his father’s story.
     I also knew Boghos Kaloosdian. Every year when we would visit Watertown in the summer, we would go to Mr. Kaloosdian’s diner. It was a special childhood memory made more special because of this excellent book.
     Uncle Aram wrote a very detailed, somber, and sobering book basically told his father’s story. Quoting from the Preface:

At first, I set out to translate and republish the book Tadem: Our Village, edited by Kourken Mekhitarian and print in Boston in 1958 by the Hairenik Press. But I had a change of heart. Although the book is an important resource on Tadem’s history, customs, and tradition, I didn’t believe it provided and adequate depiction of the methodical destruction the village during the final days of the Ottoman Empire.

     Well, Uncle Aram did just that. His book begins with some history of the region and the village. It begins in earnest with the 1895 Massacres which really was the beginning of a tumultuous time that ended with the Genocide of 1915. It is a story of a sad spiral that ended with the Armenians of Tadem being killed or exiled. While it was well researched and very well written, it was not an easy read simply because of the tragic subject matter.
     He traces his father’s journey of escape and trek that led him around the world ending up, finally, in Boston. This is the story his father told him. Uncle Aram interviewed others in his generation to gather and corroborate his father’s stories with that of other survivors.
     While my family was not from Tadem, there is a sameness to all the stories. The details might be different but the plight and challenges were the same.
     There are many books about Armenian villages. As referenced in the quote from the preface, some captured the life and lifestyles of the visitors. Some address the demise of this village or that with too much hyperbole. Uncle Aram did something different and very special. He put the reader there and detailed the demise of this once proud and prosperous Armenian village of Tadem.
     I am proud of him for writing this book. Knowing him and his father, it is a treasure in my library.

     Giants of the Earth: This book, Giants of the Earth is by Mitch Kehetian. Mitch is of the same generation as my parents and Uncle Aram. I have known Mitch for a long time and certainly consider the Kehetians as family friends. Mitch grew up in Detroit and attended the same church, St. Sarkis, as we did. My parents were in the Armenian Youth Federation with Mitch. I was in the AYF with his daughters Grace, Janet, and Karen. His people hail from an ancient Armenian village, Khoops, near modern day Erzerum. The larger city, or as Mitch called it the county seat, was Keghi. There was a
very large contingent of Keghi-Khoops survivors in Detroit.
     Mitch is a writer by trade. He began his career as a journalist in the year I was born. He started his career at The Detroit Times, he moved on to the Columbus Citizen Journal, and then settled in at the Macomb Daily for the bulk of his career. Rising to editor of the Macomb Daily, Mitch became revered both locally and nationally.
     On the occasion of his retirement in 2005, Representative Sander Levin gave paid tribute to Mitch on the House floor.

Mitch Kehetian loved and believed in the work of journalism. He was a reporter's reporter committed to the news, and the trusted role of the ``newsman'' in our country. Michigan was better off with his reporter's eye and his editor's pen at work in our community. His dedication to his work allowed him to enjoy mentoring young and aspiring journalists often at the beginning of their careers. Mr. Kehetian served as both the President and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Detroit Press Club, and as President of the Metro Detroit Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2002, the Society bestowed its highest honor upon him, ``Lifetime Achievement Award.'' He has also been awarded countless journalism awards from the Associated Press, United Press International, Michigan Press Association, to name just a few.

     Giants of the Earth was published in 2009. The book was a long time coming and captures a quest he embarked in the late 1960s. His quest was to find his father’s youngest sister Parancim.
     He had not really known about his aunt. In fact, he thought Parancim was his father’s cousin and that she had perished in the Genocide. He found out, in Moscow, during a trip to Soviet Armenia in 1968 that Parancim had survived and lived in Keghi.
     When he later learned that Parancim was his aunt, Mitch embarked on a trip to find her. He did this in a time where there were very few people venturing to Soviet Armenia and virtually no one was visiting the once Armenian lands of Eastern Turkey. But, Mitch did just that.
     With help from his Congressman Lucien Nedzi, Mitch arranged a trip to go find his aunt. His story is amazing, inspirational, and heart wrenching. He learns, sadly, that Parancim passed but is led to her grave, overlooking the Euphrates, by his half-Armenian half-Turkish cousin, Parancim’s son.
     Mitch’s memoir is laced with history, family history, and his struggles being in the land of his father i.e. in a land were there no more Armenians. It is an excellent book that is also a treasure in my library.

     Orhan’s Inheritance: This book is different for a few reasons. First, it is a novel. Second, I did not personally know the author, Aline Ohanesian. We have become Facebook friends since.
     Aline is not of my parents’ generation. Nor is she of mine. My grandparents were survivors. Her great-grandparents were survivors. To me, this novel is proof that this thing, this Genocide, that happened to our people is still something we are still dealing with. It is still important and central in our lives.

     This is her first novel. While I cannot find the reference, I do recall reading or hearing Aline say in an interview that this book is the result of a twelve-year effort. It was certainly worth the wait. It is a different kind of novel, a bit like The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian, that has a leg today with the other in 1915.
     Also, like The Sandcastle Girls and, the lesser known but equally good novel by Mark Mustian, The Gendarme, Orhan’s Inheritence weaves a story of Armenians and Turks, showing both need closure and peace on this issue. They are all about personal stories that take place in a time of great conflict. The personal stories are insignificant in the scheme of the Genocide. But, they are stories. These stories, while fiction, are a bit different than the other stories, the tragic stories of our martyrs and survivors. They were all stories I did not want to read, but was very glad that I forced myself to read them.
     I did not plow through Uncle Aram’s or Mitch’s books. I sipped them and at times had to stop and let things soak in. At other times, I had to stop and let the angst and anguish subside.
     With Aline’s book, I read it in two nights. I could not put it down. While reading it, I knew I was going to write something about her book. Something about her writing style bothered me. Two thoughts occurred to me. English is not her first language. Very few people could write so well in a second or third tongue. Also, as I just mentioned, I could not put it down. In reading the New York Times review of her book, Andersen Tepper noted, “Despite Ohanesian’s penchant for flowery prose, her narrative proceeds with stirring vigor…” This statement summed up whatever I was thinking. Truly, the stirring vigor overwhelmed the penchant for flowery prose.
     We need more stories that involve Turks and Turkified Armenians. We need to hear about the Turks that helped Armenians survive. We should be able to list a few Schindlers and tell their story. In reading Mitch’s book, I felt horrible that he did not get to meet his Aunt Parancim. I wanted to know what she thought all those years living in her ancestral village not knowing anything about where her people ended up and how they were doing. How did she feel about her Turkified life? Did she meld in and comply adapt to her changed life? Or did she secretly harbor an inner desire to be a bit more Armenian.
     These novels of Aline Ohanesian, Chris Bohjalian, and Mark Mustian expand our minds. They remind us, in a most personal way, that this history is not a closed and resolved in Turkey. They are a synthesis of all the stories. Each puts their own unique spin and flavor on their crafted tale. We have some gifted writers and I look forward to more from each of them.
     The books by Mitch and Uncle Aram. They are treasures. I wish I had more books like this chronicling as much as possible what was and is no more. Who were the people that did not survive?

April 2013: The 98th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

     From the onset of this e-letter project, I have dedicated the April letter to the events of 1915: The Genocide of the Armenians by the Turks. This year is no different. As this year marks the 98th anniversary of our national tragedy, you can be assured I will write about this for at least the next two years as 2015 will mark the 100th anniversary.
     We Armenians are obsessed by this. There is no other way to say it. I bristled when a friend said I was obsessed and wrote about it in April 2005. I have to admit that I am and we are. As obsessed as we are by this, the Turks, and I especially mean their government, is as obsessed with adamantly denying it ever happened and suggest that Armenians actually massacred Turks. 
     Here is a hard fact for many Armenians. Let’s face it. They won. They eradicated their country of the vast majority of us. They did whatever they wanted. They did whatever they wanted despite the protests of other countries. After their crushing win over us, they did what winners did... they have continued to do what they want. And what is it they have wanted? Simple stated, they want nothing to do with the Armenians. They wish we would just go away and never be heard from ever again.
     This is a blunt black and white truth. They won.
     We struck back as best we could. In 1918, we fought off the Turks at Sardarabad, Karakeliseh, and Bash Abaran to protect our last presence in the region: the Republic of Armenia. If we had failed then, we would have truly had no presence where we had lived for centuries.
     At the same time, a small group dedicated themselves to assassinating the architects and perpetrators of the genocide. The ARF authorized Operation Nemesis which was a group of dedicated soldiers tasked with executing the perpetrators and architects of the genocide. From June 1920 to July 1922, they killed seven of the guilty that included two of the Young Turk ruling triumvirate: Talaat Pasha and Djemal Pasha.
     With the fall of the 1918 Republic of Armenia to the Soviets, we Armenians went into a deep sleep. We spent that time healing the best we could, building new families, building new churches and community centers in whatever communities we ended up around the world. My Grandparents escaped many in their families did not. My maternal Grandfather was the only in his family to survive. My Mother never knew her Grandparents. My Father only knew his maternal Grandparents and that was because they had the foresight to immigrate to the US after the 1890 and 1905 massacres that were preludes to the 1915 Genocide.
     There are many stories of that generation of survivors not talking about what happened. They were ripped from their 19th century lives and lifestyles and thrust shocked and awed into a gritty and industrial 20th century different in every way from the mostly agrarian they had lived. It was dark times for the Armenian People, but as Armenians have always done, they built new lives, new families, and new communities.
     We did not wake up and collectively confront the Genocide until 1965, the 50th anniversary of our national tragedy.
     We suffered, immeasurably, when it happened. We suffer still in a measured way. If we compare what we may have been if the Young Turks had let us be equal citizens, we would have had much greater numbers today in the Republic of Turkey. Our Western Armenian Culture would have grown and thrived into something that is very different from what we have today. There could be 5 to 10 million Armenians, maybe more, living in what today is Turkey.
     I have often compared the Armenian - Turkish issues with the American - American Indian situation. Allow me to do so again. What would the US look like today, if we had allowed the Indian Culture to survive in autonomous regions rather than imprison them on reservations and try to force fit our culture and values on them. How many Indians would there be in this country today? What would their culture and contribution be? We can barely speculate on the impact that would have on these United States.
     On Facebook, the commemorative posts are in full swing. There are photos of places, people, and lit candles. There are all kinds of messages accompanying the photos. Four of these messages stand out in my mind.

• We will never forget
• We will never forgive
• We will always remember
• Never again

We should never ever forget. We may, hopefully, become less obsessive about it but we should never forget. As a nation, we still remember Vartan Mamigonian and what he and his followers died for in 451 (click here to read about it). What happened in 1915 is minimally at that level as events go in Armenian history.
     Definitely, as Armenians who experienced the cold calculated plan for our extermination and the barbaric and horrific execution of that plan, we should be the vanguard of Never Again. We should be protesting and screaming whenever Genocide is being attempted. We should be hand in hand with the Jews doing this. We should. They should. We aren't. We aren't for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, is that obsession with what happened to us.
     Secondly, Armenians have never been a people who speak out very loudly for others. We might feel, individually, for others but we never collectively advocate for others. Having had the occasion to visit a Catholic Church a few times this year, they almost always have a second passing of the plate to support a special cause be it a food kitchen here or a medical clinic there or earthquake victims somewhere. I have only seen that in an Armenian church once. We are simply too inwardly focused. We give to our own. The economics of our communities are tenuous and every dollar counts. Armenian organizations locally, nationally, and internationally compete for those dollars. But, simply and truly, we are too inwardly focused. 
     I am not sure I like the Never Forgive part of these messages. Never Forgive is a shackle that will weigh us down and limit our growth and progression as a people. We are the first Christian nation. Our neighbors have for some reason taken great offense at that for centuries. We have been attacked and martyred for it. Our greatest victory Vartanandz was in fact a devastating and crushing military defeat by the Persians. But, they were impressed with how fiercely we fought for our religion that they allowed us to worship freely. 1915, in the simplest and most naive sense, was done for the same reason. We were different, proud, and did not want to assimilate... hence lose our identity.
     Never forgiving is not part of that identity. If we are the first Christian nation, we probably should accept the teachings of the fellow who died to forgive all of us for our sins. It is hard to forgive, however, when officially there has been no contrition.
     The Turkish government is nowhere near contrition. Their simple retort was that it did not happen as the Armenians portray events. They deny any premeditated genocidal intent. They claim it was war time and there were many casualties on both sides. Furthermore, it was, in fact, Armenian brigands and revolutionaries that massacred Turks and not the other way around. Seeds of doubt are cast and nurtured expertly. They fund academics to counteract the Armenian, Turkish, and other scholars that spread the "Armenian version" of the truth. Their intransigence and denial is impressive, infuriating, baffling, and any other a number of adjectives and expletives.
     Minimally, the Turkish strategy is delay until it goes away. In the worst case, the Turks still have some vision of Pan-Turanism and the struggling Republics of Armenia and Artsakh are the first stepping stone of that plan. In either extreme, the Turkish Government never ever wants to and probably never ever will entertain any kinds of restitution. They for sure do not want to give up a pebble of occupied Western Armenia.
     A Wilde Idea: As is often the case in the preparation of these letters, the perfect quote often appears out of the ether of the internet at just the right time. Witness this gem of an example:

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much
                                                                          ~ Oscar Wilde

      After reading this wonderful quote, I firmly believe we should drop the Never part of Never Forgive. We should actually forgive the Turks and we should do it on the grandest scale possible. We should do it on April 24, 2015, the 100th Anniversary of the day we mark as the start of the Genocide. We should do it at Dzidzernapert or Etchmiadzian in the Republic of Armenia. The two Catholicoses should lead and the two Patriarchs should have a role. There should be a requiem service for all that died in the Genocide and all the survivors who have hence passed on. Then, we should have a special service of forgiveness. The leadership of the government of Armenia and all major Diaspora leaders should be present. We should invite major leaders of the world including Obama. All of the church, government, and civic leaders should sign a very formal invitation to the President and Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey to officially attend the service and then partake of Madagh afterwards. Wouldn't that be incredibly powerful? Wouldn't that make us a nation among nations?
     The Turkish leaders would be in a tough position if they agreed to attend. They would be in a tough position if they chose not to attend. Even if they choose not to participate, we should do it anyway. It is the right thing to do according to our professed faith.
     It would be huge. It would be magnanimous. It would be unprecedented in the history of mankind (or what little I know about the history of mankind). It would be headline news like we have never experienced in any Genocide commemoration before or after.
     We are obsessed simply because there has been no closure. Many of us believe we should "Never Forgive" and therefore seal ourselves, as a people, from that closure. If we are not going to get it through contrition and restitution from the Turkish Government any time soon, let’s simply bestow a little closure for both peoples ourselves.
     OK. Let's be honest. The probability of the cockamamie Wilde plan actually happening is pretty close to zero. Clearly, I am motivated by contrarian appeal of Oscar Wilde’s quote.
     The "Never Forgive" crowd will probably never, ever, no way Jose, go for it. They will begin to hate me and I will be thrown under the proverbial "Never Forgive" bus. The academics will consider this as more evidence that I am a dilettante, logically unsound, and naive. I cannot even imagine how the politicians would react.
     One would think that because forgiveness is so fundamental to Christianity, that the church would have a hard time not doing this. I am certain they would find a way. They might simply state that we utter forgiveness ever time we say or sing the Lord's Prayer. We say and sing the Lord's Prayer (as we forgive those who trespass against us) at every Genocide requiem, so therefore, ipso facto, presto chango, we forgive the Turks every year. While this might be technically true, that is not the impression that any Armenians or Turks that I know have.
     This Wilde idea is at least worth discussing and considering. Nothing we have done for 48 years since 1965 has really gotten us anywhere in terms of closure, contrition, and certainly nothing we have done has resulted in any restitution. Maybe this forgiveness idea will but we have to be pure of heart and go into it with no expectations. Minimally, it would, as Wilde noted, annoy the Turks… while we continue to press for recognition, contrition, and restitution from the Republic of Turkey. 
     A much less Wilde idea: I must emphasize that I am in no way advocating that we stop our efforts for restitution and compensation for what was done. Even if we forgive them, we have to work the political side of the issue and drive for closure in that regard. There is an outstanding debt. The Republic of Turkey simply owes the Armenians for the lands, properties, and wealth they stole from us.
     If this resonates with the Armenians reading this letter, than I urge one and all to read Michael Bobelian’s book, Children of Armenia. It is well researched and crafted. It is also, as most books on the subject of the Genocide, disturbing at times to read. He does provide an excellent history of the Genocide and the changing politics surrounding it since.
     If you are an American Armenian it is almost mandatory that you read this excellent book. He covers the political awakening of the Armenians in US beginning with the 50th anniversary of the Genocide. Bobelian reminds us of the bold act of Gourgen Yanikian in 1973 as well as the rise of the Armenian lobbying organizations.
     Bobelian also gives a clear history how the US went from being pro-Armenian to pro-Turkey. He covers the tireless efforts of Vahan Cardashian in the 1920s and 30s. I personally never knew about the role of Admiral Mark L. Bristol, Allen W. Dulles, and Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes in turning the US policy from pro-Armenian to pro-Turkish. They followed the lead of Admiral Bristol’s who was the US high commissioner in the Ottoman Empire post WWI. Admiral Bristol was no friend to the Armenians.
     No matter how Armenians might denigrate the Turks and the Turkish government, we all have to agree on the skills of their leaders and diplomats in influencing and blackmailing the United States. Any progress our lobbying organizations, led by the Armenian National Committee, are making are slow and hard fought.
     We often focus on the numbers of people who were killed in the Genocide. We talk about a lost culture and lifestyle. Michael Bobelian provides a most interesting passage regarding the magnitude of what the Armenians lost economically:

The Ottomans seized bank accounts, assumed businesses, and ransacked communal properties, including 2,043 churches. One contemporaneous estimate of the looted assets totaled $3.7 billion (about $44 billion in today’s dollars). The American consul in Syria described the process as “a gigantic plundering scheme.” No stone was left unturned, not even the riches that could be extracted from the deaths themselves. At one point, Talaat asked the American ambassador Henry Morgenthau to hand over lists of Armenians insured by American companies so that the empire could inherit the proceeds of the dead.

     Where did that money go? It was taken at the end of the Ottoman Empire. It is easily argued that the Republic of Turkey is founded on this plunder. We need more work in this area to see how and where our money was used. Then we need to go after it.
     $44 Billion is a lot of money. We should outline exactly what we want in terms of restitution and reparation. The Turkish Government needs to come clean, do the right thing, and pay us what they stole in today’s dollars. Perhaps if we forgave them, their consciences would weigh so heavy, there would be no choice to offer compensation. I am not counting on this.
     Politically we should never cease our efforts until both sides get closure: recognition, contrition, and restitution.
     It should be an interesting few years leading to the 100th Anniversary of the horrible event in our history.

April 2012: The Armenian Genocide

Every year in April, this letter is dedicated to and focused on the Armenian Genocide.  Every April.  I have looked at this from every angle I can think of and every angle that interests me.  I am not sure I have resolved anything. Clearly, it is an important topic to me.  It is for other Armenians as well.  I do get nice feedback from other Armenians when I write something in these April letters that resonates with them.  It is a recurring theme in our lives and an issue that will not go away until there is closure.  For the Armenian Genocide, closure has been elusive.

In the time I have been formally writing about this there have been changes.  As the internet has made the world smaller, there are Armenians and Turks that have gotten closer together.  It is good to see Turkish scholars and artists that believe what we Armenians have experienced and know to be true.  Beyond the Armenian issue, Turkey is in the throes of trying to determine what kind of country they will be.  The Armenian issue is but one of the issues that are part of this debate.

This year a few questions are on my mind.  First, who were the victims of the Genocide?  Secondly, who actually committed the crimes?  As we approach the 100^th Anniversary of this crime, this Genocide, there are a scant few Armenians alive that actually experienced the event.  By the same token, the Turks responsible for planning and executing the Genocide are all gone. Can I hold the grandchildren responsible for what their grandparents did to my grandparents? 

It is no longer about individuals.  It is for the Armenians about the memory of individuals and the memory of a generation.  It is about the memory of a lost homeland.  It is about the loss of a lifestyle and the chance to evolve a culture in our own land and country.

The issue no is not with the people, it really cannot be any longer.  It is with the government, with the state, who separates itself from the Ottoman State and furthermore denies any wrong doing by that government during World War I.  The most they are willing to admit to is that there were causalities on all sides.  In the worst case, they will accuse Armenians of atrocities.

The American Indians:  This last statement actually makes me think of the United States and what was done to the American Indians in the creation of this country coast to coast, sea to shining sea.  I have alluded to this before in these April letters.  I am going to expound on it more in this one.

We, the United States of America, were none too kind to the American Indians.  We basically took this entire land from them or from the English, French, or Spanish who were already in the process of taking this land from the Indians.  For the most part we did not do it nicely.  We cheated them out of Manhattan.  We pushed them out of their homelands by an ever increasing population of settlers who simply built towns which turned into cities on the lands.  We took land and made them into our farms.  If and when the Indians protested we used force to inflict our will on them.   The coast to coast nation was well established before the coining of the term Manifest Destiny in 1845.  We quickly finished the job after the Civil War preparing ourselves for the American Century.  Certainly, we negotiated treaties with them and at times even bought land from them.  I do not think that any of these deals were fair.  Certainly killing all the buffalo was wrong.  Read about The Trail of Tears and see some eerie similarities even if the numbers involved were not the same. 

Key to Manifest Destiny was the belief we were taking civilization to west to the Pacific Ocean.  We were doing a good thing.  Since our definition of civilization inherently included Christianity, we were essentially doing God’s will or work.  Who was in our way?  Indians.  Injuns.  Redmen.  Injuns.  Heathens.  Non-believers i.e. giavurs.  These savages did not look like us.  They did not believe in our God and his only begotten Son.  They had no written language.  They did not have the same notion of property ownership as we did.

They were savages.  If left unchecked, they would attack us.  They would take our women and children.  It was not safe, or even possible, to live peacefully among them.  They could not be trusted. 

I learned this viewpoint 100 years after the fact watching cowboy and Indian movies with my maternal grandfather growing up.  As kids, we played cowboys and Indians.  Our goal was what the culture taught us:  to kill the Indians, to protect our homes from these heathen savages.  Indeed, the only good pretend Indian was a dead pretend Indian. 

When I look at some of the same movies now, I see they were not quite so biased.  But, very few gave the Indians a fair shake.  In the 1960s and 1970s, with emergence the various liberation movements for Blacks, Women, Homosexuals, and others, we began to confront our treatment of the American Indians.  Films like Little Big Man and The Outlaw Josie Wales began portraying the US as the bad guy in the American Indian Wars.  Books like James Michener’s Centennial portraying the Cheyennes, who referred to themselves as the human beings, as simply noble versus noble savage or just plain savage. 

There is a great soliloquy in The Outlaw Josie Wales:

I'm an Indian alright but here in The Nations they call us the civilized tribes.  They call us civilized because we are easy to sneak up on.  White men have been sneaking up on us for years.  They sneaked up on us and they told us we wouldn't be happy.

They told us we would be happy in The Nations.  So they took away our tribal lands and sent us here.  I had a fine woman and two sons but they all died on the Trail of Tears.  I wore a frock coat to Washington before The War.   We wore them because we belonged to the five civilized tribes.

We dressed ourselves up like Abraham Lincoln.   We got to see the secretary of the interior.  He said, "Boy, you boys sure look civilized."   He congratulated us and he gave us medals for looking so civilized.  We told him about how our tribal lands had been stolen and how our humans were dying.

When we finished he shook our hands and said "Endeavor to persevere!"  They stood us in a line John Jumper, Chili McIntosh, Buffalo Hump, Jim Buckmark, and me, I am Lone Waite.  The newspapers took our picture and said, "Indians vow to endeavor to persevere."   We thought about for a long time, endeavor to preserver, and when we had thought about it long enough, we declared war on the Union.

~ Lone Waite, Indian chief. Lone Waite was played by Chief Dan George who also stole several scenes in Little Big Man.

Endeavor to persevere indeed.  That is the battle Armenians are fighting in the Diaspora especially in the United States.  If it were not for recent generations of immigrants from the Middle East and now Armenia, our community here would have certainly assimilated into the melting pot.

Lone Waite and company went to meet with the Secretary of the Interior.  It was another Minister of the Interior, Mehmed Talaat, who was the nemesis of the Armenians.  I do not think he ever used the word persevere and Armenians in the same sentence however.

We endeavor to persevere.  My friend Ken Hachikian and his colleagues at the Armenian National Committee endeavor to keep this issue alive.  They endeavor to make sure the current Turkish government does not forget that they have a long pending wrong with people who were and still might have been productive citizens of their empire and now their republic.  Yes, it is a different government in terms of constitution but there was a nice linear flow of leadership.

Was the current Germany responsible for the crimes against their Jewish citizenry?  Is the American Government responsible to the crimes we committed against the American Indians?  I believe the answer to that is:  Yes.

Do I believe that Joe Average American or Cemal Average Turk is responsible for what was done by their government and by their military one hundred years ago?  I do in so much as they are citizens of the country that is responsible. 

As a citizen of the United States of America, I could ask myself.  Am I responsible for what was done by this country to the American Indians 150 years ago?  Am I responsible for the dropping of the only two atomic bombs on human populations? How would I react if somehow I was told that I live on Potawatomi land and have to forsake my home because of a wrong done generations ago?  My reaction would be like I would expect to hear from the Turks or Kurds living in my great-grandfather’s house in Keserig.  I would protest and tell my government and the Potawatomis “this is our home.  I am sorry about what happened so long ago, but I was not responsible for that and I am the legal owner of this property now.”

How similar is the Armenian and American Indian situations?  I see similarities.  Other Armenians do not agree with me.  I had a discussion with a lady a few weeks ago.  She refused to see any similarities between the Armenian Genocide and the American Indian Genocide.  I see this in Armenians sadly.  We think this only has happened to us or that Genocide is worse and more heinous than that of other peoples. 

Google “American Indian Genocide” or “American Indian Holocaust” and read some of the material.  Judge for yourself if there are any similarities.   

Mi Amigo Juan:  I have an Armenian friend, Juan Payassian in Argentina.  We met exchanging music videos on YouTube.  We both love the same kind of music: Armenian and a la Turca.  I just exchange videos, Juan makes them.  He takes old recordings and adds his own images.  He does a great job as he is an artist by trade.  You can view all of his videos on his YouTube channel:  Juan's Channel .  Juan has put some great music and wonderful montages to go with the videos.  I especially like the following:

·         Udi Hrant - Hüseyni saz semai

·         Konyalim

·         Eddie Mekjian Ensemble - Kharnatzsi

·         Selim Sesler - Topal oyun havasi & Macka yollari tasli

·         Juan reciting Neruda's Mi Voz

I wish I had known Juan when I was still travelling to Buenos Aires on business.  It would have been fun hanging out with on Calle Armenia at the Café Armenia and other shops on that Armenian street in Buenos Aires.  For now, we communicate by email and music sharing.

I bring up Juan in this letter because he recently posted a most interesting, brave, and heartfelt video on his channel.  On April 7, he posted this video:  My apologies to Turkish people.  I listened to this video and read the text of his speech several times.  I was amazed.  I read the comments and was also amazed.

Juan’s words fit into this year’s April 24^th letter.  I am dancing around many of the sentiments that Juan expressed but have not quite come to his conclusion.  As they say, Juan stoops to conquer.  He has laid his heart and soul out.  I am sure some Armenians will chastise him, or any Armenian, for uttering these kinds of words.  I truly hope that this letter does not bring those sentiments to Juan for what he has bravely posted.

It is not odd and it did not surprise me that there were no comments from Armenians on Juan’s video.  I will comment and leave a link to this letter when it is done.

Should the American Indians apologize to the rest of us Americans?  Should the Jews apologize to the Germans?  Juan did just that.  He did not apologize to the Turkish government.  There is a difference. 

There is a legal issue.  It has yet to be resolved.  People like my friend Ken are working to resolve that.  They are leading the effort to recognize that church lands and buildings were taken from the Armenian people, trying to get this confiscation recognized, and then trying to get the lands back or compensation.  The Turkish Government wants to avoid this at all costs as it will raise the issue of where did all the Armenians go, who why did they leave, and why did they simply abandon their churches and schools.  There is no doubt that compensation for church and school properties will be a prelude the larger and more general compensation issue regarding the genocide.

What about at the person to person level?  Has there been an improvement of relations between Armenians and Turks.  Yes at the personal level and no at the state level.  In my own case, I had very few relations with any Turks growing up.  I had a good friend at Wayne State University in the 1980s, Halim Anisoglu, with whom I lost touch until late last year.  In this century, I have make friends and acquaintances with whom I play music, exchange music, or whose postings I follow on various websites.

I think of Osman Koker who is a wonderful fellow and friend.  He has published a beautiful collection of Armenian postcards which is a great testimony to our having been there.  He knows where all the Armenian Churches were and where most of the stones of the torn down churches are. 

I know Suha Guzel an engineer and great friend of humanity.  We began sharing videos on YouTube but have evolved to corresponding about the issues between Armenians and Kurds and both Armenians and Kurds with the Turks. 

I know two other folks.  I had included their names but they asked that I take their names off of this posting.  They are Turkish and friends of mine.  They both love the music I love.  They are very knowledgeable and one of them knows the words to every Turkish song one can think of.  We have practiced and performed together.  We never talk politics though sometimes I feel in hangs like a thick mist in the air around us. The fact that I was asked to remove their names confirms to me the strain between our two peoples.  They are truly non-political so their sentiment to not have their names mentioned is heartfelt and sincere.  But, there is a fear, also, of how they will be perceived.  I did comply and remove their names. 

Do I view these lovely people as Turks or Kurds?  Partially… because it is part of what they are.  More so, I view them as talented and interesting friends.  I view us sharing a culture. 

That is key.  That is part of what Juan was saying.  We shared a culture.  We share it still.  The humble stone homes with tin roofs on one side of the Arax river look exactly like those on the other side.  The people look the same.  The music and food overlap considerably.  Generations down the road we need to look for similarities and build bridges.

Where to from here:  While I view us as sharing a culture, some people have worked hard to keep the peoples separate.  First, it was hardliners on Turkish side who were the architects and perpetrators of the Genocide.  They have been joined equally adamant hardliners on the Armenian side.  I am more sympathetic to those on the Armenian side mostly because I am Armenian but also because they are reacting to a great historical crime and continuing injustice.

Me?  I believe in the Armenian political agenda.  I do.  I believe we must work until the Turkish State admits to what was done.  Then and only then can the Turks and Armenians create an environment where we can work, coexist, and build good relations between the two peoples.  That would be excellent.  What is the probability of it actually happening?  It used to be horribly extremely low.  Now, it is just extremely low so we are making some progress. 

I believe the Turkish government is waiting and stalling as long as they possibly can.  They are waiting and stalling so that when they do admit to the crimes of the Ottomans and Young Turks, it will be like the Americans admitting to the horrible way this land was taken from the Indians… but it was so long ago.  I can the successors of Erdogan and Davutoglu mouthing these kinds of words someday and nothing more.

I will continue to ponder the Genocide.  I will continue to support the Armenian political agenda as championed by the Armenian National Committee here in the US.  I will also continue to look for and build bridges with Armenians, Turks, and Kurds who also want to build bridges.

————— • —————

Tonight April 23^rd and tomorrow April 24^th I will think of those great people in the generation that survived.  I will think of my great-grandparents who I never met.  I will listen to Lone Waite’s and Juan Payassian’s soliloquies on YouTube.  I will listen to the most beautiful and saddest song I know as I do every year:   Adanayi Voghperke.

Michigan State 24 - Michigan 14

This is my third football posting in as many weeks.  I must be a frustrated sportswriter...

October 14:  I left Illinois this afternoon at 3 pm and headed east on 1-94.  I was going to Detroit.  I am visiting my parents and attending the Michigan - Michigan State Game which will take place in E. Lansing tomorrow at noon.  I am going with my good friend Jack Hachigian, his family, and friends.  He gives me a ticket when the game is at Spartan Stadium.  I reciprocate when the game is in Ann Arbor.

It should be a good game tomorrow.  Michigan, somehow, is rated in the top ten and Michigan State is in the high teens.  I am not sure how Michigan is rated above Michigan State especially given that the Spartans are favored by three over the Wolverines!?  But such is the dichotomies of college football subjective rankings. 

This will be the best game in the past few years.  The Spartans have won the last three games.  If they win tomorrow, it will be the first time MSU won four in a row over Michigan since the 1950s.  I sure hope that doesn't happen. 

There are lots of such instate rivalries:  Iowa - Iowa State, USC - UCLA, Auburn - Alabama, Florida - Florida State, and Washington - Washington State to name a few.  Around here, where I grew up in Detroit, there is no other in state rivalry that matches Michigan vs. Michigan State.  But, I bet they say the same thing in Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, and Iowa.  The announcers will always say it is for in state bragging rights not only of the players but for the fans as well. 

I am a different kind of fan.  I fully understand that you cannot have a rivalry without the rival.  I also understand that for a rivalry has to be close to 50-50 in victories.  If one team dominates the other year after year, the passion dissipates.  The rivalry becomes lame.  It has to be evenly matched to maintain the intensity.  Not everyone sees it like me.  Most want to pound the other team into a pulp every year winning 63-0.  These folks do not understand the dynamics of a good rivalry. 

When it comes to Michigan State, I generally like the Spartans.  I tell anyone and everyone that the Spartans are my second favorite team in any college sport.  I want them only to lose to Michigan, but I want them to beat everyone else.  It is that simple.  If they beat Michigan in football or basketball, I want them to win the Big Ten and a National Championship.  I enjoyed the basketball success of the school since Magic Johnson was there.  I am glad that their football program is reborn and competitive under the tutelage of Coach Dantonio.  He has done a great job.

There is an exception, actually two exceptions:  Ohio State and Southern Cal.  I like seeing these teams lose as many games as possible.  I am not sure why?  It may be their obnoxious attitudes.  I do believe Ohio State and their fans are actually poor winners (you heard that term coined here first).  Something is wrong when collectively the team and fans are poor winners.  If you ask me who my favorite team is, I am likely to answer Michigan and then Michigan State.  I am equally likely to answer, Michigan and whoever is playing Ohio State.  When Ohio State and Southern Cal play, I wonder if it is possible for both teams to lose.

Having said this, and had my little hissy fit, I cannot really hate Ohio State.  As I said, there is no rivalry without the rival.  Furthermore, the series has to kind of be 50-50.  It was great fun, but not a great rivalry when we beat them 10 out of 12 times in the late 1980s and 1990s.  It has been out right dismal and also not a great rivalry in this century when Ohio State has turned the tables on us and won like 8-9 games in a row.  The Ohio State and Michigan rivalry has not been that great in the past 20 years.  It has been lopsided.  Now, in the famed ten year war between Woody and Bo, the record was 5-4-1 in favor of Bo.  It was crazy intense and really took the game to another level.

That is what I want for Michigan State and Michigan.  I want Hoke and Dantonio to commence a ten year war tomorrow.  It would be a blessing to both schools and their fans.  I am totally OK with us winning the first round.

October 15:  Well for all the hype and all the excitement, Michigan is not yet ready to resume this rivalry.  We lost today, 28-14.

The Spartan defense was just too good for the Michigan offense.  We were held to just 250 yards which is the lowest production of the year for our high powered offense.  Michigan relies on the running game, specifically the running game of quarterback Denard Robinson.  The MSU defense was aggressive, tough, and quite skilled.  They held the Wolverines to a mere 82 yards rushing.  Coming into this game, Denard Robinson was the leading rusher in the Big Ten.  Today, I am sure he is nursing his banged and bruised body from the punishment doled out by the Spartans.  The Spartan defense put pressure on the Michigan quarterbacks the entire game.  In the second half, they seemed to sack our QB with increasing frequency.  Their defensive front are monsters... very fast and agile monsters.

The Spartans came out of the tunnel on fire.  They were pretty jacked up.  That intensity and excitement was not contained.  They were penalized 13 times for 124 yards.  Something like six of these penalties were for late hits, roughing the passer, and unnecessary roughness.  Late in the 4th Quarter they knocked Denard out of the game by slamming him to the turf after he had already passed the ball.  That resulted in a roughing the passer penalty.  I have to believe beating our guys up was part of their strategy.

Before the game I thought we would score some points and the game would be settled by our defense versus their offense.  Their offense scored 21 points on our defense.  I had assumed our potent offense would finally rack up some points on MSU.  I was wrong.  Our first down productivity was not very good.  We seemed to be facing 2nd and 10 or 8 on every series.  Our second down productivity was not much better.

I knew we were mis-matched most of the game.  We were clearly a better team than the last few years, but still not ready for the prime time.  We were clearly not deserving of our high ranking in the poll.  We will no doubt move down and the Spartans should definitely move up. 

While I knew we were mis-matched as the game progressed into the 2nd Quarter.  I began to get upset and angry.  I did not realize how much or why until about twenty minutes after the game ended.  Now, there is no reason to get upset at a football game simply because they represent a school I graduated from in 1974 and 1978.  I should not really be upset because of the main fact that I had no control or influence on the outcome of the game... no matter how much I yelled or cheered.  I probably have very little in common with most of the so called students playing for either team.  Most of them could not have gotten into either school if they had to rely on their academics alone.  Yet, I am not alone in this living and dying with our teams. 

I knew my being upset and angry was due, simply, to the fact that I had drunk the Kool-Aid that my team was back and competitive.  I was mostly upset and angry with myself for not being more rational and objective about our status.  The State fans were proud and happy as well they should be.    The Sparty fans did not lord their victory over us either.  They were gracious.  Most of them thought that the game was in question until Denard was intercepted in the 4th Quarter that was run back for the final score of the game.  I realized that my being upset and angry was exactly how the Spartan fans felt for many years between the Duffy Dougherty glory years of the 1950s-1960s until Mark Dantanio won the first of this current run of four in a row.

People in the same row were I was sitting unfurled a banner that read "Who is arrogant now??? 4-0."  They were referring to a term, Arrogant Asses, that a former MSU coach used when referencing the University of Michigan and their fans.  It was said in frustration with the lopsided record and, truly, our arrogant attitude in that regard.  We had a superiority complex and they had a serious inferiority complex.  I looked at the sign and did not like it.  But, the truth is the truth.  I had to rely on the philosophical belief that we are improving and the last haven of the recently beaten... wait until next year.

I have seen the look of how I was feeling and no doubt was easily discerned from my visage.  I have seen that feeling in the eyes and body language of my good friend and host for the day, Jack Hachigian, several times when Michigan beat MSU.  I remember when he stood next to me at the famous triple overtime game when Michigan, who was pushed around most of the game, came back to tie the game and then win it in dynamic fashion in three overtimes.  It was one of the great victories for Michigan in the series.  It was one of the most bitter defeats for MSU and their fans.  This loss for us was nowhere near as bitter.  In fact, if we had taken the game to multiple OTs, I would have felt we were on equal footing again with our in-state rivals.

We shall see what next year brings...