The older generation, of course, remembers Samuel Marshak’s famous satirical poem, Mr. Twister, which satirizes perceived or real racism in Americans. A former minister, and at that time a rich businessman (the work was written in the early 1930s) comes to Leningrad, is confronted with the national and racial tolerance of the Soviet people, is very upset, but finally agrees to live in the “luxury” of the Angleterre Hotel. Despite the fact that his neighbors will be people with different skin colors and different nationalities.
The official “religion” of the Soviet Union was internationalism, and the empire was so strong and influential that people, regardless of their inner convictions, were forced, at least publicly, not to express their feelings. Currently, the official “religion” of the USA and the West is “multiculturalism,” and those individuals who deviate from this “religion” are severely condemned, if not administratively punished. In Germany, there is a state commission to combat anti-Semitism. In the 20th century, to put it mildly, they “stumbled” in this matter and do not want to repeat the terrible mistakes of their ancestors.
Moreover, under the influence of globalization, many representatives of the new generation in the post-Soviet countries, fortunately, also share the ideas of national tolerance. I can give my own example: when I call African-Americans the “wrong word” (not meaning anything bad, of course, just out of inertia), my kids correct me.
Another question is how deeply this (certainly correct and welcome) behavior is rooted, and to what extent it is related to Armenian-Azerbaijani and Armenian-Turkish relations.
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The official “religion” of Azerbaijan is Armenian hatred, and against this background, preaching “internationalism” or endless national tolerance is kind of unnatural, and pacifism, which is not justified by anything, is not appropriate, in my opinion. But, on the other hand, it seems to me that living with revenge and revenge is also not effective. It is also not acceptable for me when the word with the root “Turk” is used in the internal political struggle of Armenia.
The fact is that we have not yet developed a national and state concept in these matters, which will be applicable both in the case of victories and defeats.
Aram Abrahamyan
