“Generations, Know Yourselves”
What is Paruyr Sevak trying to convey to us with this message? That once we were powerful and ruled the world. We were forgiving and yielding, and now, even though we are neither powerful nor dominant, we remain forgiving and submissive. Remaining in this illusion, we still do not understand the order of the world. We do not understand that one can afford to be forgiving and yielding only when strong. We fail to grasp that today the world is governed by brute force and strict national interests.
Under the pretext of adopting Christianity, we have been deceived time and again, and each time we have forgotten that we were deceived. Sometimes we realized it and resisted, rebelled, but later we were again carried away by false promises and deceived once more. Our so-called “friendly” neighbors — whether near or far — plunderers and rootless nomads came and took possession of our land.
What happened, Paruyr Sevak? Why did we become so weak and diminished?
Why did our neighbors, whether pagan or otherwise, preserve their pantheons, while we did not — on the contrary, we destroyed ours? Even during Soviet times, they preserved their mosques and churches and became either fierce Bolsheviks or fervent believers.
We see that today in the world a wild, animalistic force is raging — nations tearing each other apart like furious wolves, impoverishing one another, enslaving and subjugating others, ruling as their interests dictate.
What happened to Paruyr Sevak’s slogan:
“We exist, we shall remain, and we shall multiply…”
Fortunately, this slogan still lives in the hearts of thousands of Armenians — those who remember who we were, how we survived, and where we are going.
The answer to “we shall remain and multiply” is to properly understand the world. We must become like a wolf that fiercely protects its young.
We must place our hope neither in the West nor in the East. Let us remember history — how Persia sold the Armenian people and lands to Byzantium, Byzantium to the Arabs, the Russians to the French, and the French to the Turks.
Even today, nothing has changed. Every nation is ready to deceive and sell anything for its own interests. We should not wait, with bowed heads, for salvation from across the ocean. That would be a grave mistake. We must be like a fierce wolf that, united, tears apart any attacker and never surrenders.
Because we are in an extreme situation. Let us awaken the dormant “genetic” strength within us. Such situations have occurred many times in our long history. Let us become a fierce pack and say to Paruyr Sevak:
“Let us plunge into the heart of our enemy…”
