Recently, during the transmission of P.S. over “A-1+” TV channel, poet David Hovhannes told me about an incident, which in its turn was told by his father, poet Hrachya Hovhannisyan. During William Saroyan’s regular visit to Armenia, he was honored by the Armenian intellectuals and artists, and when the feast was heated up, the participants began remembering which of the country’s artist is of the Armenian origin, and how many moral victories the Armenian people have won over the course of its history. During the conversation, the American-Armenian writer grew gloomy and eventually threw underneath his mustache, “talk of a trifling nation”.
I recalled this story when reading today, to say the least, the “offended” comments about the statements of Euronest Co-chair, Ukrainian MP Boris Tarasyuk. It is said that this figure has a pro-Azerbaijani position on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and a pro-Turkish position on the Armenian Genocide. I do not agree. He supports exclusively his country’s national interests, and from this perspective, Azerbaijan and Turkey are more important and interesting for him than Armenia.
Exactly similarly, we were offended by the Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, who had announced that she will not attend the commemoration ceremony of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide on April 24 in Yerevan, as the relationships between Turkey and Norway are more important. For example, I would thank this lady for she openly and without pretending has mentioned the reason of her not coming to Armenia. If we were more important than Turkey, she indeed would have come. A pure business, there is no “personal problem”. In both cases, the problem is with us. If these people’s or these states’ attitude is so important, then we should become interesting for them. The remaining wailing is provinciality, “talk of a trifling nation”.
Renowned musician and poet Pyotr Mamonov writes that there are two kinds of people we meet: those who love us, and those who try us. The latters’ attitude for us should not be a source of resentment. Rather, it should become a challenge.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
