“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.