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Armenians who think protest and letter-writing are going to get the president to acknowledge that another country killed it’s own citizens 100 years ago. The president won’t even acknowledge that he’s killed citizens of his own country.
There’s a revolution going down in Yerevan right now. Sort of.
My uncle is friends with Raffi Hovannisian, the man who supposedly won the election but was cheated out by the incumbent, Serzh Sargsyan. I’ve been told he is the Ron Paul of Armenia, but I don’t personally know anything else about him. I really don’t care who wins because Armenia has gigantic issues that probably won’t be solved within the next decade, but the situation is interesting to monitor for a few reasons.
Armenia received a lot of US funds over the past few years for a lot of reasons. Armenia is the only democratic christian state in the region and has a common boarder with Iran. The US built, what was at the time, the largest US embassy in the world in Yerevan. The US gave Armenia even more money in order to establish some comity with the Armenian legal system and for Armenia to begin extraditing felons who fled America for a safe haven in Armenia. Recently, the US came out in full support of Serzh’s re-election and they seem pretty set on supporting his administration for many reasons, including those listed above.
Personally, it really makes no difference to me but I’m interested because it’s pretty sad and pathetic that Armenians are fighting other Armenians, especially on the eve of the Armenian Genocide memorial coming up this month and also one of the companies I work for has been investing a ton of money in that country and instability isn’t exactly a welcomes site.
A lot of the political infighting stems around which super power people prefer to associate with or which Armenian conglomerate business owner the politician is friends with. If you think Corporatism is a major issue in America, Armenia is the flawless, if you can call it flawless, example of Corporatism at it’s peak. If you want to know what the future of American politics might look like, look to the situation in Armenia.
The news has probably completely ignored the situation but it’s pretty important as far as American Foreign Policy is concerned. I hate to say it, but I think the US might step in, especially if they see their man, Serzh, losing power and they see Raffi take office.
Follow along:
https://www.facebook.com/ArmenianWeekly?group_id=0
https://www.facebook.com/garabet.moumdjian
“But it can’t happen in America, we’re a democracy!”
Not to take away from your “Government kills” argument, but this first picture is of the Armenian Genocide.
sugashane reblogged your link: Barack Obama’s Track Record of Armenian Genocide Recognition
Sadly all of my friends and family, and even I, believed him at the time. He was calling out names all the wayI’ll definitely read that link you provided sometime this afternoon and share a more detailed response with you, but in short: yes, I agree that it won’t necessarily DO anything for the Armenian people if a US president acknowledges their suffering as genocide. But to me, this is an issue that illuminates the bullshit that government runs on.
Millions suffered and/or died at the hands of a government. It should be a no-brainer that people around the world would acknowledge it for what it was. But in the name of political expediency, our government has refused to do that. If our government is willing to more or less publicly deny that a genocide occurred in which millions suffered, all in the name of political ends, why should we EVER think they have our best interests in mind? It’s just asinine to think they give a fuck about human beings.
Is it really a shock that an imperialistic country (USA) who systematically kills (drone strikes) millions of people based on a race or religious belief (Muslims) under the guise of safety (terrorism) but in reality for both power and profit (oil, strategic land occupation) would refuse to call out another imperialistic country (Ottoman Empire) who systematically kills (death marches, execution, starvation) millions of people based on a race or religious belief (Armenian, non-Turkish) under the guise of safety (Economic blame) but in reality for both power and profit (control of industries, strategic land occupation).
It would be one hell of a hypocritical move for America to call out the Turks.
R.I.P. to all the Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and Kurds that were slaughtered at the hands of Turks under the guise of national security.
We don’t need to convince the US Government that the Genocide was real. We need to convince the Turkish Government. We need to educate the Turkish populous, those that have grown up with incomplete history books and shady politicians presiding over them. It will be through their voice that the Turkish Government will finally hear our outrage. That’s who you should be protesting, not America.
Protesting the US government does nothing for us. Even if they recognize it, what then? Are we satisfied? I won’t be and I know none of you will be, either. Look to France as an example. A powerful and large nation who’s recognized the Genocide for many years and has even taken it a step further to outlaw it’s denial and what was the result? Did it somehow convince the Turks? Did it some how lower their level of denial? Did it force them to negotiate with our countries and our people? No. It did the opposite. It infuriated the Turkish Government. It drove them to lash back and get vocal in opposition.
Why? Because the Turkish citizens still have their back and politicians, regardless of ethnicity or creed, will bend in the direction that the majority moves in. And for now, through institutional controls, their citizens deny the genocide because they are sheltered from it.
Just like people used to deny the existence of an America, or a round planet, or the idea that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of our solar system. But through time and education, knowledge and truth will prevail. That’s why Hrant Dink was assassinated. He was on the inside, lifting the veil of darkness from the eyes of the Turkish people. And that’s why they assassinated him. But with that loss, adding to the 1.5 million before him, more eyes were opened.
The path to recognition is not paved with the same violent methods that got us here. It’s paved with the education of the Turkish people. So I urge everyone to not badmouth the Turkish people but to befriend them. Show them that we aren’t vile, as their gov’t has told them. We aren’t liars. We are humans, like them, and like them, we’re missing 97 years of our history.
