Opinion
Let Me Off Here, Thanks
“Well I know this…and anybody who has tried to live knows this… What you say about somebody else, anybody else, reveals you. What I think of you as being is dictated by my own necessities, my own psychology, my own fears and desires. I’m not describing you when I talk about you… I’m describing me.”
In 1963, the novelist James Baldwin gave one of the most honest and insightful interviews about American racism. I return to it often because it’s also about something more. It’
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A very inspiring and beautiful article. I hope you enjoy your stay in Armenia and you don’t just hang-out in Yerevan Cafés and forget the real Armenia… the countryside!
Come and visit us on top of our mountain in Yeghegnadzor. Ask for the Kanadatsis. I would love to see how you fit and what we can do.
Best wishes
Bravo Arto Vaun, very-very well stated observations about America and Armenia.
You better teach those Undergrad AUA kids a thing or two about life. Some of them are really quality and others need to unlearn some the newer bad cultural traits of materialism and centuries old honor.
Don’t get too upset about the continued centralized power of Serzh. It’s very upsetting but either fight and not let it cut too deep into your heart or enjoy the life outside politics of cultural advancement. The politics has gotten deep within me at times but it naturally accumulates after various events.
Yerevan’s a nice city and really interesting. Make sure you leave the city as often as possible especially when working and be careful with your money, its not as cheap as you think. And make those kids think about hate and racism and national interest (contradicting but not when seen through an objective lens)
Best Wishes Arto!!
Any more complaints about the US, Arto? My God.
As for your statement that “gay rights” should be a “non-issue”, I guess you never heard of dissent and free speech. Who are you to decide what people think should be an issue? Most people disagree with you. You have a problem with that?
I think he means that gay rights are non-issues because after all the international conventions and horrors we’ve had limiting and categorizing humans (and citizens) now emphasizing on to their behavior in the bedroom is a violation of human rights and is discriminatory. I think Armenians who have faced Ottoman second-class repression, Kemalism in Turkey and Soviet anti-nationalism should understand that discrimination is wrong (the ARF and Hnchakians socialist tradition has waned away unfortunately). He is also saying that child poverty is a much more important issue and a bigger danger to society than a small fraction of the population that has much less impact on society than what poverty leaves behind. I live in Armenia and LGBT people here are not anywhere near a big deal compared to what poverty and corruption leave behind which hinder a healthy societies’s growth and go against my “national” values and constitution.
Of course, for any thinking person, there is a problem with that. Dissent is never acceptable when you are talking about taking rights that you enjoy away from others. Armenians should know better but alas, many have not learned from their background. Good luck, Arto, and I hope you find what you are seeking. If you do not, there’s always a warm return awaiting you from some of us.
Bravo Arto. I say this is a tour de force piece, one with which so many of us deeply associate. Through your journey, I hope you point at least some of us to something of an Armenian response to Camus’s Sisyphus– if the absurd is to be addressed, Armenia is a good place for it. Please keep us posted. And all our best.
Arto Vaun – I like your article very much. I am an aged German living in Yerevan since 4 years. I am regularly coming here since 25 years. So I can assure you that the first comment on your article given by Antoine Terjanian is very right.
Don´t misjudge Armenia by looking at Yerevan. You´ll get a totally wrong impression. Try to go to that “Canadian” mountain at Yeghegnadzor. I`d like to come there too and meet you then.
Good luck in Hayastan !
@ WR from Germany in Yerevan.
Thank you for your comment and for choosing Armenia for 25 years (you beat me :).
I would love it if you joined Arto and visited us on top of our mountain. Our phone is 0281-24837. We’ll be there april 2 to May 27, and then Sept 2 to Nov 17.
Thank you Arto for the beautiful article. Thanks for the objectivity!
Thank you Arto for the objectivity and your beautiful article!
Thank you Arto for the objectivity & the beautiful article.
Wish you well, success and happiness in Armenia. Hopefully you will mature and be more objective and balanced. Your are entitled to your opinions, but when you say ” they conveniently forget either that thei success was simply handed down from wealthy parents, or that they thrived partly due to hard work but most due to luck, timing and help from others” you are being disrespectful and insulting because that statement is totally inaccurate and sounds envious,and is immature.
I know a lot of Americans from various ethnic backgrounds, including a
a large number of Armenian-Americans, either born here, or immigrated, who have been successful in their businesses or careers without having wealthy parents or luck of any kind, but simply real dedicated hard work.
I wish you had known some of them and had been mentored by them.
Vart Adjemian
Arto: I was nodding my head vigorously, uttering, “I could have written these exact words!”, at several points while reading your piece, up to where you reveal your decision to move to Armenia. It struck me the same way as did the end of the film, Grandmother’s Tattoos, where Suzanne Khardalian, the filmmaker, intimates that the resolution of generations of trauma are to be sought in an apricot orchard in Armenia. I find myself wondering whether “going to Armenia”, metaphorically or physically, is a solution or a foreclosure.
I love what you expressed words that I had in my mind and I couldn’t fine the letters to describe on plain paper , I loved 1st impression of my visit and cleared my doubts of Armenia and since I have been dissolved to my Australian Armenians that not only they express their insecurity by negative insurgency in any dialog about Armenia ,I have teeth grindley focused of what I had in my eye witnessed in Armenia and I liked it so much that after all my failours to fit in western society is a despair to run away . Do not misunderstand as I was a reach and had very successful life but all I had was money and reputation and that was all ! no dignity and growing possibility that becoming one of “them” eating me inside ,so I will leave to pour my heart to the land that knows me in my blood and not by my money.
Good life and I hope we meet someday in Armenia
Arto, your article is well written, and I don’t only refer to its literary quality, but also, and even more, to the fact that you here are opening your heart and sharing many of your highly personal thoughts and feelings with all. It is in some sense risky, and it takes courage to express strong opinions on political, economic and cultural issues, as you have done here. And you are making an important decision and move in your life. Many persons would go on doing a similar thing without a strong and emotional statement like you are doing. But you obviously feel need to express yourself in this way, you’ve got a talent for it, and you have, of course, full right to do so, and it is admirable. Great!
I have lived in Armenia the first half of my life (I am over 50). The other half I am living in different places, mainly in Europe, and have visited Armenia many times (more than 15). I think your analysis of USA is very good, and I understand you very well. I think your ideas about the Republic of Armenia are a mix of much romanticism and a heavy dose of naivety about the rotten realities. So what? Happiness and suffering, fascination and disappointment, you will experience all these in depth, close-up, and you will feel more alive. It does not matter at all if people will think you succeeded or failed, as most of them think in completely other terms than what really matters.
Whatever you will do, is your success. Don’t worry too much. Don’t be afraid at all. Absolutely never regret for what you are doing, no matter what will happen and how long you will stay in Armenia. Not only because regretting will be pointless, but because your new experience will enrich your life, it will make you bigger as a person, stronger and wiser. Ignore people’s moralist, judgmental and negative comments, for they will try to bring your spirit down. This is your life. Enjoy.
Arto, after reading your beautifully written and well versed article , I remembered you as a teenager visiting us with your cousin Silva .
I am happy for your accomplishments and wish you happiness in Armenia . I hope you inject hope and joy to your students
At AUA . They need that . Before doing so you NEED to change your attitude towards life in general . Energize your imagination thinking
Positively . I felt sorry for you , your fear of success and successful people is overwhelminglly saddening to me .
Be free of fear and envy . Your Dad was a happy man unlike your description of him . He always had a Big smile and was hopeful for your future . I hope you remember that . With maturity and responsibility you will realize that having love and peace will motivate you to hard work and that in turn will bring you joy in life . After all what remains when you are dying is how much you were loved and how much you will be missed . That is the reflection of a truly mature and successful man .
Good luck !
Very well said! I just hope the dysfunctional Armenia is not worse than the dysfunctional US, which is, as you accurately described, now the bastion of ultra-capitalism and unlimited greed. Just remember that while you might miss creature comforts like flush toilets, you will have sweet flavorful apricots, fresh pomegranates and dried mulberries by the bucketful. Everything is life is a tradeoff, and I will be happy to learn more about how yours goes as time moves on. Please do send in updates and let us all know! Pari janabahr!
Somebody tell this author the difference between “illicit” and “elicit.” “Beautifully written”? It’s a rant. And the best you can do is run away?
Thank you for this Arto. A tour de force essay, with which so many of us associate. I hope you point the way for us– take on the Armenian Sisyphus. Armenia is likely a good place to start to confront that sense of the absurd. Please keep us posted. And all our best–
Dear Arto Vaun,
Old American adage, as we say in the United States of America,”Don’t let door hit you in the ass”
I hope and pray you bought a one-way ticket.
Non-conformity in Armenia? Seriously? If that’s what you’re hoping for, you’re in a for a surprise.
Arto, maybe when you go to Armenia, since you seem to be so in favor of gay rights, you can get legislation passed to legalize same sex marriage. This is exactly what Armenia, with a low birth rate and high immigration rate, needs, huh – men marrying men? This will advance freedom so much, huh?
Any other way you wish to change traditional Armenian culture? Do away with the Armenian church and its superstitions, decrepit old churches, and become officially atheist? Throw out those old-fashioned folk tales? Introduce young Armenian children to gay literature such as the American book “King and King”? Maybe you can get the Soros Foundation and modern, hip, EU-affiliated (and all pro-Turkish) organizations to come into Armenia and introduce more modern ways, huh? Yes, let’s move on from our old ways into the Brave New World.
I don’t think Arto is out to change Armenian culture; he seems to have been commenting on US culture and politics.
I have heard Hayastantsiner comment about how westerners brought homosexuality to Armenia. Not true; what the west incited was a failure to buy into the self-shaming that has been a part of homosexual life for so many for so many centuries(?) Human sexuality is a complex trait, and has been for millennia and at least nearly around the world.
As a gay non-Armenian, I will, if you wish, remember that I am not welcome in Armenia, simply because I’m gay. If that is not what you wish, please inform me. (I’m not looking for sex with Armenian guys. Interested in Armenia because I’m interested in ancient near eastern cultures and churches.)
Be Well,
Bob Griffin
Brilliantly written piece. Every culture is dysfunctional is its own way. I hope Armenia is open and welcoming.
Beverly
Thank you for your eloquent and sincere writing. So many points of identification here as third generation, so many critical issues.