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Armenian Studies Program
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APRIL 24, 1992:
A TIME OF PARADOX Seventy-seven years ago tonight the Armenian intelligentsia of Istanbul, then the most populous Armenian center in the world, were arrested by officials of the Turkish Government and later killed. All of them were citizens in good standing of Ottoman Turkey. Simultaneously a general persecution of their fellow Armenians by deportation and massacre was started throughout the Eastern provinces, especially in those areas the Turks officially called Armenia -- "Ermenistan" -- until 1844. It was Genocide because the state itself, under the leadership of the Young Turk government, decided to eliminate, for geopolitical reasons, a group of its own citizens with a separate ethnic origin. At the time, this unending series of atrocities was called a "crime against humanity," the legal term for genocide, until that word was invented after the Second World War. The result of this Turkish violence against a part of its own citizenry was the death of millions of innocent and law abiding people through the cruelest and most barbaric methods the modern world had known up to that time. The Genocide emptied Armenia of the Armenians. Afterward the modern Turkish Republic continued the process by destroying remaining cultural monuments belonging to the Armenians or effacing all identifying marks on them, and by changing virtually all Armenian place names, literally thousands of them, to Turkish ones. The Armenians became a dispersed people; a small and ancient Armenian exiled community became for the first time a large diaspora. More Armenians lived outside the historic homeland than within. These victims of the worst crime that man has been able to name suffered its consequences for the three generations and today still live under its conscious and subconscious power. We are here to remember that....But in Karabagh Armenians are dying. All of us suffer the victimization of Genocide. In addition to the other demands on our lives -- family, work, citizenship, society -- we must remember 1915, we are impelled to commemorate the mass murder of our nation. It is a psychological pain that no Armenian escapes whether participating in such memorial services or staying at home. Trying to forget it, "to put it behind us," as we say, is absurd, it has no meaning, because it is impossible. The act must be remembered so that its lesson is not forgotten: And the lesson is this -- a state is capable of willfully and violently killing a group of its own respectable citizens. We must remember the Genocide in order to consciously overcome its inhuman effects. If we forget we may be condemned to witness its repetition. By understanding genocide and reassessing its meaning regularly, we can overcome its curse. Though the historical event, the details of the suffering of each of the million and a half lives sacrificed for political reasons of the state, is always the same, each year we understand it differently, and, I believe, better, even though the horror of it seems to become more abstract as the few remaining survivors pass away. Since last April 24th the Armenian world has again changed dramatically. The unimaginable wish has come true. Armenia exists as a free and independent republic. It has a freely and popularly elected president. It has been recognized by nearly all countries in the world, it has opened embassies in countries with large Armenian populations, like the United States, and European, Middle Eastern and American embassies now exist in Erevan. The acceptance of the new Republic in the United Nations has finally given Armenia its own voice in international forums....But in Karabagh Armenians are dying. This Republic, this unique symbol of resurrection of a people that suffered the crucifixion of Genocide, came into being three years after the start of the first and most massive popular protest action in the former Soviet Union -- the Karabagh Movement -- sparked by the promises of perestroika and glasnost. But 1988 was also the year of the Armenian massacres of Sumgait and Baku and the forced exile and deportation of nearly three hundred thousand Armenians from Azerbaijan. The year ended with the devastation of the December earthquake which took the lives of tens of thousands, maimed and crippled thousands of others, destroyed an entire region of Armenia, left hundreds of thousands more homeless, and subjected the Armenians to another insupportable test of faith against the inexplicable cause of this new disaster. How strongly we all feel the miracle of the new Armenia. Each of us rejoices inwardly knowing that Armenians in Armenia once again have control over their collective lives....But in Karabagh Armenians are dying. Our joy for Armenia, though tempered by the constant foreboding of renewed calamity, is a real and exhilarating one, a satisfying happiness that we all share. Our feelings cannot be too different than those of our parents and grandparents in 1918 when just three years after April 1915, after Genocide and destruction, the first Armenian Republic was proclaimed. It was a proof of survival, a demonstration that Armenians had overcome collective death. And though it was a joy unanimously felt, it was also one mixed with starvation, deprivation, and war. It is thus no accident that the present government of the Armenian Republic has adopted through parliamentary vote the symbols of the first Republic -- the tricolors, May 28 - Independence Day, the coat of arms, the national anthem. These were the visible signs of resurrection in 1918, of hope to the remnants of a people who had suffered death. Today they have the same renewing power, especially for our countrymen living in Armenia....But in Karabagh Armenians are dying. This year things are different. We are forced to reevaluate the meaning of being Armenian, particularly we who live in the diaspora. Before there was only one bond universally recognized by all Armenians -- the remembering of the victims of the genocide through public commemorations that attempted to provoke the governments of the world to recognize, and, thus, remember it. Our goal was and is to put political and moral pressure on the present Turkish Government to admit to it. Now we have a second, more dynamic pole around which we gather in unanimity, the Republic of Armenia. Furthermore, it is positive in essence, based on rebuilding and renewal rather than death and mourning....But in Karabagh Armenians are dying. Armenians are confronted with a new order. We have been told that Armenian life in exile will be changed. We have each of us reflected on the new meanings generated by the Republic and the present meaninglessness of our old ways and institutions. We are confused because the country and the system we got used to has disappeared. We must act in different ways, but we are not sure which are the right ways. Before, everything was decided for Armenia and our role was to react to those decisions. The people of a free nation, however, must decide for themselves and be prepared to face the consequences of each decision. In Armenia and Karabagh those living on the land have taken their fate in their own hands and are suffering the results of their actions, and in Karabagh Armenians are dying. Yes, in Karabagh the war goes on, and the fear of massacre, of deportation, even of Genocide is upon us and upon those in Stepanakert and Erevan. Yet things are different, the children and grandchildren of the victims of Genocide refuse to be victims again, so in Karabagh the war goes on and Armenians are dying. While we grieve April 24th tonight the war goes on; while we exchange sentiments of love and happiness toward the new Republic the war goes on. We cannot think of one without recalling the other. We must accept this paradox and learn to live with it. We must accept at the same time joy in the present Republic, sorrow for the past Genocide, and fear toward the uncertain future for those in Karabagh and Armenia. The contradictions of these simultaneous sentiments will paralyze us if we ignore them, if we pretend they can be magically, or at least painlessly, resolved. If we, however, hold these paradoxes up before us as the unpleasant but unavoidable consequences of belonging to a nation defined by history and betrayed by Genocide, we will be able to act forcefully for the universal recognition of the Genocide and against the Turkish denial of it; we will be able to act forcefully in support of the reorganization and stabilization of the new Armenian Republic; we will be able to act forcefully to negotiate the end of hostilities in Karabagh, while unfailingly supporting those compelled to defend their lives and their land by force. Armenian life is full of such paradoxes. We commemorate the Genocide but fear another will take place while the world remains unconcerned, or worse, simply indifferent because we see that indifference daily towards Palestinians, towards Kurds, and towards our own homeless. We are amazed by the determination of Armenians to completely refashion their new nation, while wondering how much longer the populations of Erevan and Stepanakert can survive without electricity, gas or bread. We celebrate the government of Armenia and the political wisdom of its President, Levon Ter-Petrossian while questioning his efforts to establish normal relations with Turkey. We rejoice in the notion of a democracy in Armenia, while refusing to accept its consequences, namely conflicting points of view in Armenian political life. We live a life of constantly opposed sentiments, love and hate, hope and despair. Armenians are troubled by such conflicting emotions as they collectively reflect on the tragic fate of the innocent dead. But tonight let us fearlessly embrace the joy of having our new Armenia while holding on to our profound sorrow for the victims of an ignored Genocide. Let each of us use the dynamic of paradox to help make sure that next April 24th the Genocide will be less ignored and the new Republic stronger. Let us strive together to guarantee that next year we will not have to say, "but in Karabagh Armenians are dying." Dr.
Dickran Kouymjian |
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