Interview: Writer Ara Baliozian
Features — By Liana Aghajanian on October 13, 2009 1:13 pm
“A writer’s two best assets: the sensitivity of an open wound and the hide of a rhino,” writes Ara Baliozian on his blog, which houses his daily thoughts on topics ranging from religion, to money, politics, literature and of course Armenian matters. An author and translator, Baliozian’s writing has received a fare share of criticism from Armenian readers, but that doesn’t stop him from dishing out criticism and commentary.
Baliozian, born in Greece and educated in Venice, now lives in Kitchener, Canada and has published dozens of books, including “Armenians: Their History and Culture” and “In the New World” and translated many others. He now mostly posts his works on various Armenian internet discussion boards, but took the time out to answer some pertinent questions.
Q: My first question is simple, but perhaps it does not have a quite so simple answer: Why do you write?
A: I write because writing has become a habit and habits, as you know, are easier to keep than to give up.
Q: What is the best advice you can give to an Armenian writer like me?
A: Be honest with yourself and your readers. Do not accept anything on anyone’s authority. In our environment, the higher they rise, the bigger the lies.
Q: Many writers of your generation, whether they’re Armenian or not haven’t adapted to the web as easily as you have. How and when did you start using the Internet to share your writings? What made you do it?
A: I owe my use of the Internet to my good friend Noubar Poladian, who would visit me from Toronto (a distance of 60 miles) regularly in order to teach me how to use the computer even when I said I had no interest in abandoning my old typewriter.
Q: What sort of writing rituals do you have, if any? Is there a specific time of day you write or a place?
A: I write very early in the morning when everyone is asleep and it’s dark outside. I write no more than a single page. I may make notes during the day, most of which I reject in the morning.
Q: What are your thoughts on the protocols between Armenia and Turkey and how do you feel about those in the diaspora who are campaigning against the protocols? If you don’t agree with the protocols, what is the alternative? And what do you feel is the best way for the diaspora to express their concerns?
A: I am all for friendship with our enemies on the grounds that we may get more concessions from them as friends rather than enemies. May I say that I do not take the protocols seriously. But they are a beginning,which is better than no beginning at all. The Homeland and the Diaspora have different priorities. it would be selfish of us to assert our priorities are superior or more urgent than the Homeland’s. Live and let live. Let the Homeland take care of its own. The Turks already know that Armenia does not represent the Diaspora. As for our own concerns: I think the Turks know about them too. If it’s their intention to divide us, let us not fall in their trap.
Q: What kinds of concessions?
A: We could begin by asking the Turks to allow us to take care of our antiquities in Ani, Van, and elsewhere. About territorial concessions: it seems to me if we move in the direction of some kind of Union or freedom of movement within a United States of the Middle East or the Caucasus, the borders of historic Armenia and Azerbaijan may become an irrelevance.
Q: You’ve had your fair share of criticism from many Armenians who disagree with your writings and opinions and have even gone so far as to insult you on many occasions. How do you deal with this and what is it about what you write that upsets Armenians?
A: As a rule, I am insulted by brainwashed readers who have been exposed to countless sermons and speeches but not a single writer. What upsets them is the fact that I refuse to recycle chauvinist propaganda. Things like the Battle of Avarair (which even some of our own historians say it never happened), first nation to convert to Christianity (the real question is: have we ever been good Christians?), first nation to be targeted for Genocide? (why brag about that?) We are smart? In politics we do not even qualify as retards.
Q: You recently wrote on your blog: “I believe the Genocide to be a result of two colossal blunders committed by nationalist fanatics and fools on both sides. It goes without saying that to massacre innocent civilians is a far more serious crime than stupidity or ignorance.Ignorance may be the most innocent of all transgressions but in life it is the most severely punished. If there are inflexible laws in life, this surely must be one of them. And speaking of inflexible laws, here is another: If you refuse to learn from your blunders, you condemn yourself to repeat them. What have we learned from our genocide? What else but to say we are at the mercy of inevitable historic conditions or forces beyond our control? Same mistake, same propaganda, same Big Lie fabricated and recycled by men who are too lazy or stupid to think for themselves.”
Can you explain this a little further – what have been the biggest blunders of the Armenian culture as a whole? How do you feel we can make progress?
A: Our big mistake — or rather the mistake of our revolutionaries — was trusting the verbal commitments of the Great Powers. The idea that their support made us invulnerable. In international diplomacy verbal commitments, even treaties, are worthless if you don’t have the power to implement them.
Our second big mistake is to ascribe our present misfortunes (exodus from the Homeland, and assimilation in the Diaspora — also known as White Genocide — to social, political, and cultural conditions beyond our control…that is to say to assume a passive stance, instead of assuming an active role by getting organized, enhancing our solidarity, ending internecine conflicts and divisions.
Q: Do you have any regrets, either professionally or personally?
A: One of my greatest regrets is that I waited until I was 30 before dedicating my full time to writing.
I should have done it sooner.
Q: Who are your heroes in life?
A: Plato, Gandhi, Thoreau…to mention only three among many others.
Q: If you can pinpoint anyone, who would you say are the best role models/leaders within the Armenian community that Armenians can learn a lot from? Or if you think none exist, can you explain why?
A: We can learn a great deal from our writers — Naregatsi, Raffi, Baronian, Odian, Zohrab, Zarian, Massikian… I don’t know anyone alive today who can come close to them, alas!
Q: Why do you think it is so difficult for Armenians to have a fair and reasoned civil conversation without confrontation, bias or judgment?
A: The brainwashed tend to be dogmatic, that is to say, intolerant, and the intolerant cannot engage in dialogue; they prefer to sermonize and speechify.
Q: When you’re not writing, what do you do in your spare time?
Nothing gives me more pleasure than playing Bach on a pipe organ.
Q: As someone who decided he wanted to be a writer, you could have easily not
written about issues concerning Armenians. Why did you decide to?
A: I began by writing and publishing fiction, for which I was awarded several Canadian literary prizes and government grants — until I realized that the aim of fiction is entertaining the bourgeoisie. To understand and explain reality: that is what I want to do now…and I enjoy it better than writing love stories or, in Sartre’s words, about “the mutual torments of love.”
Q: What are your favorite books?
A: In Armenian: Zarian’s TRAVELLER & HIS ROAD.
In Russian: Turgenev’s FATHERS AND SONS.
In English: Toynbee’s RECONSIDERATIONS.
In French: Sartre’s LES MOTS.
In Greek: ZORBA THE GREEK by Kazantsakis.
Q: What are your favorite Armenian foods?
A: I am a vegetarian.
Tags: ara baliozian, armenian writer
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9 Comments
Thanks for this!
Note that Baliozian translated Zarian’s “The Traveller & His Road”.
Very nice interview. Thank you much.
I had the misfortune to encounter Ara on an online discussion board in the 1990s. I am afraid that he is one of the most bitter and self hating of all Armenians I have met. And while he has made contributions to Armenian culture, I am afraid he is the epitome of intolerant dialog.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
*******************************************
HOW TO JUDGE
A POLITICAL LEADER
***********************************************
In John Buchan’s GREENMANTLE (1916)
the Young Turks are described as
“a collection of Jews and gypsies.”
True or false?
I don’t know and I don’t care.
What matters here is not their family tree
but the fact that some of our greatest intellectual
and political leaders trusted them.
*
It is not my intention to convince anyone
to think as I do, but only to show that
(one) recycling enemy propaganda
is not the only way to think, and
(two) just because someone speaks in the name of
patriotism, nationalism or some other noble cause,
it doesn’t necessarily follow he is right.
*
All enemies of democracy
speak in the name of an ideology.
No fascist has ever declared himself
to be anti-nationalist or anti-patriotic.
On the contrary,
*
some of the most celebrated proponents of patriotism
have been foreign intruders and outsiders.
Napoleon was not a Frenchman,
Stalin was not a Russian,
Hitler was not a German,
and one of our greatest symbols
of patriotism and heroism,
Vartan Mamigonian,
was not an Armenian.
*
Moral of the story:
what matters about a political leader
is not his dedication to a noble cause
but his respect for human rights, free speech, and democracy.
The rest is enemy propaganda.
#
Monday, April 11, 2011
*******************************************
IN AN UNDEMOCRATIC ENVIRONMENT
THE SCUM RISES TO THE TOP
***********************************************
“If you speak
you are kesh.
If you don’t speak
you are esh.”
*
I came across this charming haiku
in an Armenian website the other day.
I have been called both kesh and esh by readers
Who have somehow managed to convince themselves
they are better and wiser.
*
With age comes wisdom,
except when your aim is power,
in which case with age
comes more greed, prejudice,
ignorance, and intolerance.
*
We tend to look up to our bosses, bishops, and benefactors
on the grounds that they have more money and power.
In this context we consistently avoid asking the question,
What have these gentlemen done for us so far
except to divide, deceive, and lead us
to massacre, exile, and subservience?
*
Now then, I ask you ladies and gentlemen
(if you will forgive the overstatements)
what have our dissidents done
except trying to enhance our solidarity
and share their understanding with us.
Why should solidarity, tolerance, and understanding
be treated as failings or vices
and divisiveness, dogmatism, and intolerance
as desirable patriotic duties and virtues?
*
What makes you think your bishop
knows better than someone else’s pope, imam, or rabbi?
*
God is with us?
That was one of Hitler’s favorite slogans too.
Why is it that where God enters
intolerance follows, and with intolerance,
heresies, persecution, and death? –
the death of the spirit if not the body.
*
The scum rises to the top
even in democratic environments.
That’s because, as Plato explains somewhere:
honest men will use only honest means
to achieve their goals,
unlike crooks
who will use both honest and dishonest means.
#
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
*******************************************
SYSTEMS
***********************************************
We are brought up to think
all belief systems are wrong except our own.
All politicians are crooks except our own.
All historians lie except our own.
Terrorists?
We never had them.
Ours were freedom fighters.
All our wars were defensive wars.
All our defeats were moral victories.
This may suggest that
the aim of propaganda is not to inform
but to brainwash,
and the aim of educational systems
is not to educate but to moronize.
#
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
*******************************************
MEMORIES AND REFLECTIONS
***********************************************
As a child I thought of war, starvation, and homelessness
(all of which I experienced)
as inevitable facts of life.
I was brought up to believe in God
who in His infinite wisdom had a plan for me.
What exactly had been His plan
for those who did not survive?
That was a question I did not ask.
In my infantile eyes Almighty God made the decisions
and men had no choice but to say “Thank you, Lord!”
*
When as a teenager I met an adult
who spoke as I write today,
my initial impression was that he must be nuts.
How dare he question God’s wisdom?
I know now that what he was questioning
was not God’s wisdom or even His existence
but the judgment of those who speak in His name –
popes, imams, and rabbis
who in another era would condemn one another to death
as frauds, heretics, and blasphemers.
#
Though I don’t have much experience with his writing, his seems to be a necessary, albeit difficult, perspective. I enjoy the fact that he doesn’t beat around the bush; it’s refreshing. Thanks for the interview.
Great you did this interview. The problem is that we expect everyone to think like clones. I’m glad there is still independent and free thought out there.
Ironically, however, when there is it is always ascribed to ‘self-hating’ or even ‘foreign conspiracies.’
In reality, this is the only way nations evolve…
That is, through free and independent thought and discussion. As it stands, the lack of it seems more likely to prevent development IMHO…
Saturday, April 09, 2011
*******************************************
THE UGLY ARMENIAN
************************************
We have many problems which we will never solve
if we don’t teach ourselves to separate fact from fiction.
Like the rest of mankind
we are not as lovable as we think we are.
Saroyan’s “stylized” Armenians (his own qualifier)
may be cute and lovable
but according to the published memoirs of his wife and son,
Saroyan himself was far from lovable.
To the Russians we are known as “cowards.”
To the Greeks as “Turkish gypsies.”
To the French as “filthy.”
To the Italians as smarter than Jews – meaning,
worse than Jews and thus to be avoided in the marketplace.
To the Americans, as Middle-East variants of their native Indians.
*
The truth is, as poor and homeless displaced people
we were welcome nowhere, including our own homeland.
Armenian survivors of World War II who repatriated
were not only called “aghber”
but also treated like garbage.
Not that our Sovietized brothers and sisters
treated one another more humanely.
If they had, several generations of our ablest men
would have survived successive waves of Stalinist purges.
*
When I am expected to believe
Arabs of the Middle East welcomed survivors
of the Genocide with open arms,
forgive me if I find that hard to believe.
We are told many Armenian orphans were adopted
and treated kindly by their new parents.
What we are not told
how many of them were abused and raped.
We are told 97% of the population in Armenia is Armenian.
What we are not told
Why is it that minorities are practically non-existent there?
Is it because we are intolerant, unfriendly, clannish,
tribal, and hostile to all outsiders?
I will let you answer that question.
And if you think I write as I do
because I am driven by self-hatred,
please don’t tell me you are one of those
narcissistic Armenians who have been brainwashed to believe
since we are beyond criticism we can do no wrong.
#
Sunday, September 11, 2011
*****************************************
AS I SEE IT
********************************************
All children believe in what adults tell them
especially in matters dealing with God and Country.
The world conspires to make us dupes;
and by the time we realize what happened
we have either killed or died as soldiers, terrorists,
and believers in false gods and big lies.
*
We are not smart – we never were
in things that really matter.
For 600 years we dropped our pants and exposed ourselves
to the Turks.
Tell me, my friend,
how smart is that?
*
The more we try to control events,
the deeper the realization of our powerlessness.
*
The source of all wisdom is within your subconscious,
very much like the Kingdom of God.
*
Strinberg: “Ever since childhood,
I have looked for God and found the Devil.”
Perhaps because they are one and the same.
Either that or our perception of reality is so defective
that we confuse one with the other.
*
The astonishing ease with which blessings become curses.
#
Monday, September 12, 2011
*****************************************
ON FREEDOM
********************************************
Imperial powers prefer to deal with corrupt regimes
because the corrupt are more easily manipulated.
This is as true of America as it is of Russia.
Remember that next time you speak of our big brothers.
*
Freedom in a democratic context
means much more than free elections.
It means freedom from want,
freedom of expression,
freedom of assembly, movement, and faith.
Have we ever been free?
Do we know what freedom is?
Freedom to grow a fat belly – is that
the beginning and end of all freedom for us?
*
During the day they speechify
on freedom and patriotism,
on God and Country,
but at night they engage in wheeling-and-dealing.
Hence their favorite slogan, “Do as I say…”
#
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
*****************************************
CORRECT ME
IF I AM WRONG
********************************************
On man’s inhumanity to man:
If you have ever asked yourself,
How can one human being do such a thing
to another human being?
My tentative answer is:
Some human beings cease to be human
when they join a party or group
that subscribes to a belief system.
*
They oppressed us with fire and sword.
We oppress ourselves with ignorance and intolerance.
The result is the same.
The massacre continues.
*
Even people who act in the name of the Devil say
“God is with us.”
*
To fanatics moderation is treason.
So is reason to the unthinking.
*
Freedom of speech allows the fanatic
to expose himself as a fool.
*
We should have a commandment
or a constitutional amendment to protect free speech
instead of a tacit consensus to violate it.
*
Memo to my anonymous critics:
Democracy and intolerance of dissent
are mutually exclusive concepts.
If I am wrong I can be corrected.
But if those in power are wrong
the damage can be as incalculable as another genocide.
#
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
*****************************************
CORRECT ME
IF I AM WRONG (II)
********************************************
In theory we are all against the massacre
of unarmed and innocent civilians,
but give us a chance and we will gladly even the score
and call it justice.
This is only a guess, of course,
based on how mean we can be in disagreement.
*
To how many of my critics I could say:
“Don’t stop, please! Keep writing.
You are a living proof of everything
I have been saying about Armenians –
narrow-minded, rude, intolerant, ignorant, dogmatic,
self-satisfied, loud-mouth…”
*
God is not in the business of explaining the incomprehensible.
We must either find a meaning in our genocide
or dismiss it as incomprehensible.
By making of it a collective obsession
we accomplish nothing but reinforce our image
as perennial victims and losers.
As for justice: let’s leave that to belly-slitting lawyers –
we can afford them.
*
It was only after observing the ease with which
we are Americanized that I was able to identify
our Ottomanized and Sovietized brothers.
*
A peculiarity of dupes is that
they tend to take themselves and their views very seriously.
*
Let’s make one thing clear once and for all.
They did not divide and rule us.
We divided ourselves.
#
Sunday, September 18, 2011
*****************************************
THE GOOD BOOK
********************************************
My ideas are subversive and dangerous?
What about the ideas in the Bible?
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
“Without vision the people perish.”
“Thou shalt not bear false witness.”
“Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
The trouble with our censorship is that
its ultimate aim is to violate
not only my human right
but also God’s divine right of free speech.
#
Monday, September 19, 2011
*****************************************
AS I SEE IT
********************************************
Divisions don’t bother me as much as
the lies that are spoken in their defense.
*
Liars don’t bother me as much as
their efforts to make you believe that
they believe in their own lies
and they expect you to do likewise.
*
I may consider making an effort to agree
with our bosses, bishops, and benefactors
on the day they make an effort
to agree with one another.
*
My answer to those who tell me
if I do this that and the other
I may be more popular:
My obscurity is too well established
to be vulnerable to any kind of
promotional or advertising campaign.
*
I have committed so many blunders
that I don’t deserve to live.
The only thing that keeps me going
is the fact that almost everyone I know
has committed worse blunders
yet nothing could be further from their thoughts
than suicide.
*
Instead of voicing your suspicions
redouble your vigilance.
#
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
*****************************************
OBSERVATIONS
********************************************
He who violates my human right of free speech
is in no position to determine his degree of guilt or innocence.
If it were up to fascists to judge themselves,
they would be unanimous in pronouncing their victims guilty.
*
The sons and daughters of well-known Armenian writers
that I have met or heard from
prefer solitude to the proximity of their fellow Armenians.
That may be because they know something
most Armenians don’t — namely: to survive
in our environment one must either lie
or be penalized for his honesty.
*
I repeat myself?
That may be because I am a bad writer
and you are a worse reader
for reading a writer who is not worth reading.
*
All problems and solutions begin and end
in the convolutions of our breains – which of course
does not apply to the brainless.
*
Love is the mightiest creative force of all
because it sees somebody in nobody
and meaning in the meanigless.
#
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
*****************************************
READING
********************************************
Gerald Durrell’s memoir MY FAMILY
AND OTHER ANIMALS (1956) contains
a hilarious portrait of Gostan Zarian.
Gerald Durrell: not to be confused
with his better-known brother Lawrence
(THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET)
who also wrote extensively on Zarian.
*
A headline reads:
“Syria blames terrorists for country’s violence.”
The trick here is and it has always been,
to portray yourself as a victim even as you victimize.
*
In detective stories I am more interested in the dialogue
than the plot.
*
If only there were writers
who specialized in rewriting difficult texts –
Hegel rewritten by Chekhov.
*
Dupes hate critics.
They view criticism as enemy action.
*
Poetry, it has been said,
is when two words meet for the first time – as in
“fearful symmetry” (Blake) and “beeloud glade” (Yeats).
*
His handwriting is so bad that
his “morale” looks like “merde.”
*
I am a failure because my readers know better.
If only I could choose a different audience…
#
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