By Robert Aydabirian
No, my Armenian brother is not my enemy!
When we read the words and messages circulating on social networks, when we hear the insults that are uttered in the streets of Yerevan, at various Armenian demonstrations outside the Republic of Armenia, between individuals or in front of public buildings, we wonder why and for what purpose are these slanderous words uttered?
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When we ask a Turk or a Jew who his best friend is, for the first, he answers the Turk; for the second, he answers the Jew. If we ask the same question to an Armenian, his answer is often more ambiguous, and the most often heard is the following: “We are our worst enemies.”
When, for some time now, in the Republic of Armenia as in Armenian circles outside the country we hear insults, outrages vociferations, invectives, in short, all kinds of words that come from the gutter and display a zero level of decency in social relations and politics, we are all going backwards together, we all become losers, we all regress together; and we are severing our connection with the values the Armenian people have achieved over more than 3000 years of history: developing a civilization recognized for the high quality of its culture, its writings, and its architectural heritage.
Of course, we are still paying the price of the military defeat of 2020. Of course, defeat is an orphan and brings out the worst in a people: hatred, baseness, ignominy, intolerance, infamy, and excess.
Of course, military defeat generates the defeat of the debate which, in turn, generates the defeat of ideas. But let this spiral of chaos of thought stop, let this individual and collective stupidity stop and let each of us, bearers of a part of this multi-millennial history, become the advocate of tolerance, of a sense of proportion and respect for oneself and others. Because insulting others is first and foremost insulting oneself.
No, my Armenian brother is neither my enemy nor a traitor! He has the right not to think like me and to express ideas different from mine in the same way that I have the right to express myself freely with respect and tolerance.
Nor do you have to be a fortune teller to understand that all this benefits our opponents who, arrogant and sure of themselves, intend to dominate us, or even reduce us to a people on the way to complete assimilation or to total despair. It is up to each of us –without a monopoly on the cause that requires defense, nor self- proclaimed exclusive authority – to continue to be the custodians of a living identity, a living language, a living cultural heritage, a living history and collective rights.
More than ever in a world in turmoil, where the dividing lines of the great powers pass through the South Caucasus, we need internal unity in diversity. That is to say, respect, listening, rationality, and courage. By definitively putting an end to invectives, autism, hubris, emotion and fear.
And that we, Armenians, whatever our convictions and our geographical position, look at the Other as our brother and not as our enemy. He is the only one to share with us our past, our present and especially the future of our children and grandchildren.
“We are accountable to our elders, our contemporaries and those to come,” said Amilcar Cabral, revolutionary leader of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde. And in his speech in Havana in 1966 he called on the people to “Fight against their own weaknesses… whatever the difficulties created by the enemy.”
As the author of these few lines, I would like to point out that I am as much a child of the diaspora, son and grandson of survivors of the 1915 genocide, as I am a French citizen who has long been involved in the economic and social development of the Republic of Armenia. I also have a background as an activist, having held, in the past, responsible positions in the Committee for the Defense of the Armenian Cause (ANCA) and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, and as one who still respects the commitment of each.
It is with this desire to surpass oneself that I address this invitation to all of you, which I hope will find a positive echo in each reader.
(Robert Aydabirian of Paris, France, has published this letter also previously in French through ArmeNews and in Armenian in Nor Haratch, both published in France.)