Does any Armenian have an opportunity to get a Nobel price? The genre of literature can be appreciated the best by the president since he does not have time to read them. However, we think that there is an opportunity when an Armenian may be accepted by the whole world too. It will happen when someone rises up and says that the Turks have killed the Armenians during the Genocide in 1915, one and half million Armenians were killed, but let’s forgive them as a Christian would do. This would be accepted in Armenia just in the same manner as Orhan Pamuk’s petitions to recognize the Armenian Genocide. The Nobel Prize Orhan Pamuk was given witnesses how it was accepted in Armenia and Turkey. Notwithstanding, Orhan Pamuk was not secure in his own country and thus he had to leave Turkey.
In remote villages, when a woman loses her husband, she usually dresses in black, isolates herself from the world, when meeting people speaks about her troubles all the time, ceases contact with the external world, thinks that life is punishment for her, and becomes boring for everyone, even for her family members. This is the way of our society. One century has passed since the Armenian Genocide, but our view and mentality have not changed. Even if someone petitions to make peace in parallel with condemning the Genocide and forgive them, he or she will be labeled by society as a traitor and what is worse, he or she will not even be accepted into political parties. The fact that the world knows about us mainly due to the Genocide issue may look like cynicism, but it is the reality. Our success in foreign affairs is mainly conditioned by the number of countries recognizing the fact of the Armenian Genocide. This is just a moral point and it doesn’t help Armenia prevent migration, improve living conditions, and develop. Again, we are impatiently waiting for the speech of George Bush on April 24 dedicated to the Genocide to see whether it differs from the previous ones and whether he will use the word “Genocide”. It is more than a century that we have been waiting to see any changes in the way they speak about the Genocide. Indeed, there is no scientific explanation why we should walk in place for a century.
In several years it will be the 100th year since the Genocide, which may be organized better than the 90th year. Thus, the government will form governmental commissions, will publish brochures and organize conferences, and also the inflow of Diaspora Armenians will grow. Indeed, what has changed in the Armenian philosophy since 1915? As before, the process of our history is still accepted as survival. The problem is not one of genetic content and that we may change our status of a weak victim only if the one that is much stronger apologizes. Then what? Let’s imagine that they apologize and assure that they will not do that any more. What is the next step? The reality is that we are not yet ready for that. We are already used to a situation where we are extreme, we have in the consciousness the question “who is guilty” (the answer is very simple – the Turks), we know that there are millions of Armenian in the abroad that will help us and that we are an unlucky nation. However we don’t understand yet that the Diaspora cannot exist indefinitely, and after a couple of generations pass it will not help us as a political factor any more. We have often discussed the fact that we don’t have a specific institution in charge of attracting an inflow of Diaspora Armenians into Armenia. This is the reason the Armenians that are coming from the Middle East or Iraq are firstly met by the police and taxation department instead of creating adequate environments for their businesses.
It is already time to develop ties with Turkey. Otherwise, we will no longer be able to give up with the feeling of being weak and helpless. The fact that we are not able to easily contact with foreigners was also clear during the “Tashir” concert festival organized in Russia recently. Our singers were embarrassed in front of even the second class Russian singers, and were either smiling or thanking them. This is a national complex. When petitioning others to recognize the Genocide we don’t think about whether we do that ourselves or not. We are relating one to another without any complexes, as we know very well what the Genocide meant for us; it is a fact that the Turks killed one and half million Armenians. What about the bad, that we are being degraded and are ready to deceive and cheat each other without any shame.
This is how we are finishing the century following the Armenian Genocide: when the old century does not end and the coming one does not start.