My letter to Hovel Shnorhokian: How I stand.

The attached blog is a letter to Hovel Shnorhokian who shared with me as well his vision for a better future for Armenia in an article he has penned on September 9, 2023, and published in his diasporam.org website. The title of his article is “Rebirth” ( https://diasporarm.org/rebirth/) Vahe H. Apelian

Hovel, I read your article “Rebirth” you shared with me as well. It is a theme that is dear to your heart and you have articulated about it in past years as well. I do not dispute you when you search for the reasons as to why “from the highly regarded glory of the past, we currently find ourselves in this terrible, pitiful state.” Of course, “It is important to have a proper diagnosis before seeking a remedy.”

But I do not ascribe to your notion that our past was glorious. After all, from the fall of Cilician Kingdom in 1375 to the establishment of the free and independent republic of Armenia in 1918, we were stateless people. We spoke a variety of dialects that was an amalgam of  mostly Turkish, but also Persian and Armenian words with distinct regional accents often incomprehensible to other Armenians. The overwhelming majority of us during those years, was illiterate and lived in abject poverty. For heaven’s sake, we only had a handful number of bibles during those centuries and in a language only a select few persons understood. In fact, those were in the dark period of our history. It is term I do not hear now, but I have heard during my Armenian schooling, as the khavar – Խաւար – dark -period of our history in spite of the few stars who brightened our darkened sky. That was our literary lot until the Armenian evangelical movement in 1846 and social enlightenment of the 19the century that culminated in the founding of the Republic of Armenia. 

 Honestly, I rather live in the present day Armenia, not only as the state but as the global nation, than in those dark years, unless of course if my father was Jean Baptiste-Colbert, King Louis XIV’s France’s Minister of State or Lord Paul Khachik Chater, the famed Indian Armenian “Merchant Prince". I know little of these men, that is why I say if I was their son.  But I would not have wanted to be Calouste Gulbenkian’s son, of whom I have read, and I do not envy his son Noubar’s upbringing at the least. You know that it was his father Calouste, who had an Armenian doctor examine the general health of a prostitute, Calouste provided for his teenage son in his mid-teens, because Calouste thought the time has come for his son to experience the pleasures of the flesh. I would not have wanted such a controlling father. Nor would I recommend a man who kept successive young women in his old age as a remedy for his rejuvination, to be looked as an historically illustrious person to emulate in guest of achieving the glorious past that never existed. I mentioned these names because you cited them.

We have a democratically elected government in Armenia, at the present headed by PM Nikol Pachinyan. True, the second democratic republic of Armenia is existentially challenged. But I believe we have laid the foundation for a cohesive nation unlike any time before in our history, and no different than the social structure of any other nation, whom we perceive to be cohesive. True, that it is has not forged a perfect union among Armenians. But after 240 years, the longest democratic republic the world has ever known, the United States of America - save the Roman Republic? – is still in want to forge a better union. In fact, democratic institutions remain live because they are in a race without a finish line. Should they ever think they made it to the finish line, it is then they petrify into a totalitarian regime.

Now that we have laid down the foundation and have a democratically elected government, it behooves us to uphold it. I have no magical solution or proposal for anyone else, but I have my own, for myself.

 I am Diaspora born Armenian and live in Diaspora. I am not a citizen of Armenia. I do not exercise the rudimentals for upholding a democratic republic. I pay no taxes to the republic of Armenia. I have no one in my immediate or extended family who has served, serving or may serve in the republic of Armenia armed forces. Thence, I stand in support of the the citizens of Armenia, who shoulder these responsibilities and in the government they  have elected. I believe in their collective wisdom when they express and exercise it freely without fear of retribution, through a democratic process. I believe that they do not need my wisdom for they are wise enough and know what they need far better than I do. Of course, I remain supporting their well-being through charity, business, technology, sharing knowledge in art, science and services, such as medical, dental, etc., etc, etc.

In a nutshell, that is how my “rebirth” is and that is how, I conceive myself as a reborn Armenian.