Garen Yegparian
BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
No, this is not about a dark-themed, three-decade old movie, but it does involve suffering of a different sort.
It involves Turkey, and it’s wanna-be imperialist government’s actions, causing untold misery and utterly unnecessary deprivation to Armenians and hundreds of thousands of others.
It involves brave, dedicated, decent Armenians helping everyone around them who is in need.
It involves standing up for what’s right.
It involves coming to the aid of our compatriots who are quite literally under fire.
It involves presenting a unified front against the fanatic mentality that is playing out in Mesopotamia and the Levant today, the same mindset that enabled genocidal/Machiavellian “princes” ensconced in Constantinople a century ago to “sign the death warrant of a whole race” as Henry Morgenthau described it.
It involves telling off the nitwits in D.C., Riyadh, Ankara, Paris, London, and any other capitals supporting the murderous forces wrecking two countries and millions of people’s lives in the name of removing from power their protagonists (justice seeking Kurds and a seriously flawed, but stable, rational, president). This farcical desire for “regime-change” is based either on arcane and inane religious/sectarian considerations or great-power machinations in pursuit of advantages in geopolitical competitions. These chicken-hawks are wrecking the lives of our compatriots along with others’.
It involves setting straight clueless media who parrot their governments’ propaganda lines.
It involves honoring the tradition of the Near East Relief Foundation not just by recognizing the great work it did for us in the immediate post-Genocide era, but by doing now what so many people did a century ago – giving to help people in a humanitarian crisis utterly not of their own making.
It involves enjoying the wry irony of where all this chaos is happening, the same places as our predecessors were death marched or interned in concentration camps to die.
It involves recognizing the “coincidence” of the Armenian neighborhoods of Aleppo being bombed by the anti-regime forces on the day of the Republic of Armenia’s re-independence by forces trained, supported, and armed by Turkey.
It involves doing the right thing.
It involves planning ahead so you don’t overspend in this holiday time of giving so your budget allows for a significant contribution.
It involves encouraging and engaging others, not just Armenians, to watch TV for a few hours, to support people who are just in much in need as “Jerry’s kids” or Ethiopians/Indians of a different time or victims of tsunamis/earthquakes.
It involves loosening your purse strings as a way of showing all the malign forces listed above that we are watching, we care about our compatriots, we will support them in their time of need, and we absolutely condemn the inept, immoral, hypocritical, and destructive policies being pursued by much of the West in the battle against Daesh/ISIL.
From the time of this writing, you have 9 ½ weeks to prepare, save up, avoid Starbucks, talk things up with friends, so you can proudly participate in SARF’s (Syrian Armenian Relief Fund) Save-A-Life telethon on February 21. Make sure you chip in with the largest contribution you can possibly afford.
Source: Asbarez
Link: 9 ½ Weeks