Yes, this title has echoes of an
old man rant. But don’t worry, I’m not going
to be sitting on my front porch yelling at the kids to get off my lawn anytime
soon. As I have stated in previous articles, I have a bachelor’s degree in history
and spent some time in graduate school. The study of history I believe is critically
important to a society for it tells the story of how that world in which it
lives in came to be. It is also an
incredible predictor of future events, because as a species we humans have the
tendency to attempt the same schemes and ideas time and time again. And, often to our disappointment, with the same
unwanted results.
The closest I will get to a political
statement in this blog about the U.S. is that the legacy media and political
institutions of this country, on either side of the political aisle, have their
own version of history that they profess to further their political/economic
goals. Wow, that was a mouthful. But just remember, everyone has a reason as
to why they want you to remember their version of events.
Whoever said the victors write
the history books was not entirely correct.
In today’s world, we constantly see news stories or political movements
that try to put a new spin or interpretation on current events and what the root
cause of a particular crisis might be. This
is called historical revisionism. However,
I am not going to wander directly into the minefield of current social /political
issues. There are plenty of others who are undertaking
that task already.
Historical revisionism is nothing
new in the modern world. During the closing
days of World War Two in Europe, the crimes of the Nazi Regime came to light as
the Allied Powers liberated Nazi death camps.
War is hell, U.S. General William “Tecumseh” Sherman once wrote. However, as American, British, and Soviet
forces liberated one death camp after another, the men who liberated these camps
and saw them first hand were shocked and horrified at the levels of cruelty and
depravity the Nazis were capable of. Millions
of people were tortured, killed en masse in gas chambers, or worked to death in camps
with names such as Dachau, Auschwitz, and Treblinka. World War Two was a particularly brutal
affair, but the level of barbarity allied soldiers discovered in these camps
was beyond comprehension. The evidence
that was uncovered was so appalling that future U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower,
then Supreme Commander of the western Allies, ordered each liberated camp to be
meticulously filmed, photographed, and documented and have as many soldiers and
civilians brought to the camps to see the carnage with their own eyes. Eisenhower was a man with a gift of foresight,
and wanted the crimes of the Nazi regime so thoroughly documented that “no
bastard in 100 years could claim that this never happened.” Sadly, today, there are some very vocal Holocaust
deniers that dispute or discount the mountains of evidence that unequivocally prove
one of the darkest chapters in American history.
Story telling has a power or magic within it. Since humans have had the ability to communicate
with one another, we have told stories. In
prehistoric times, our ancestors told stories around camp fires or painted
vivid images on cave walls. The telling
of stories and our history is something that is very human. As I have written in previous articles even fantastic
stories are a way of passing down certain truths or events in human
memory. I borrow from history repeatedly
throughout my books. I play with events
and names and take full creative license to create a fully imaginative and fictitious
world. My fantasy books are in no way meant
to be taken literally or as an authoritative take on events that occurred. When I publish a non-fiction book, I will
make it very clear that a work is nonfiction.
As a writer of fantasy/science fiction,
I am in a market full of talented and successful competition. If I wish to be noticed in an ever-increasing
ocean of books, there must be something uniquely different about the books I publish.
Sure, the tropes of the genre have not changed, but the spin I put to them must
capture the imagination of my audience.
That is one reason why I have created a world which relies heavily on
names that I borrowed from the Armenian language. I wanted words, places, and names that
sounded unique when spoken in the English language but also were based in
reality and were not just complete gobbledygook that I made up. Tolkien’s works have withstood the test of time
in part because many of languages that he invented for Middle-Earth were based
on old European languages such as Welsh and Finnish and he drew inspiration from
the mythologies of those cultures. I am
no linguist like Tolkien, but I do feel a connection to the languages that my ancestors
spoke for countless generations. (Like
most Americans, I am not 100% of any one ethnic group, but can trace my ancestry
back across several ancient European countries.)
For the current series I am working
on, there is a distinct Armenian influence on character and place names. I do this not only to give a distinct feel
and sound to my books, but to also bring awareness to the plight of the
Armenian people. The Armenians are an ancient
people whose country occupies only 1/10th of its historical lands. A victim of circumstance, history, and
genocide only 100 years ago, over the last thousand years Armenia has often
found itself under the domination of either the Persians (modern Iranians), Turks
(Seljuks and Ottomans) and Russians.
Though the Armenians were given at times varying degrees of autonomy and
freedom, neither of these empires went out of their way to ensure that the indigenous
Armenians were able to survive and thrive on their ancestral lands. My maternal grandfather was Armenian and his family
was directly impacted by the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks
in the early 20th century.
Modern Armenia gained its independence with
the breakup of the USSR, and was immediately put into protracted conflict with
its neighbor Azerbaijan, another former Soviet Republic in the south Caucuses. The Caucuses is a crossroads between Europe
and Asia and it is one of the most diverse places on earth when ethnicity and
language are taken into effect. Though
historical Armenia covers much of the Caucuses, they are not the only people who
now call that region home. While Armenia
has a population of around 3 million, its neighbor Azerbaijan to the east has a
population of 10 million. So
demographically, Armenia does not even have the ability to put a claim on much of
its historical homeland.
Late September – early November 2020 Armenia
and Azerbaijan fought a vicious 6-week war over a disputed region called Nagorno-Karabakh,
known as Artsakh in Armenian. To the disbelief
of the Armenian people and the Armenia diaspora, Azerbaijan was victorious in
this 6-week war and gained control of several formally Armenian controlled territories. The great fear by many is that the Armenian
identity from these areas will be erased by Azerbaijani authorities. This fear
is well founded because of documented cases such as in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (a region
part of Azerbaijan) in which Azerbaijani forces systematically replaced and
destroyed all traces of Armenian heritage and habitation. With certain areas of Artsakh under Azerbaijan
control, the regime of that country has continued to put forth their own
version of history and downplay if not outright reject the Armenian heritage of
the region. In the age of “fake news”
accusations, it is the state policy of Azerbaijan to erase Armenian history from
the region and delegitimize the actual existence of the Armenian nation. Additionally, there was documentation during
this war of the Azeris targeting Armenian civilians and Armenian cultural
landmarks such as churches and graveyards.
On several news sites you can watch footage of an Armenian church being
bombed repeatedly within the same day.
I am just one person giving my
opinions to the internet. But I cannot
stand by, even if it just means that 5 people read this, while a people not indigenous
to the Caucuses (that’s a whole other article) attempts to ethnically cleanse lands
that my ancestors and their descendants have inhabited for thousands of years. History has literally been weaponized by one
group of people, the Azeris, to be used against the Armenians. Its scary that someone can ignore or laugh at
thousands of years of documents, buildings, graveyards, churches, place names,
and every other hallmark of a civilization and claim that there is no proof of
your existence! People are entitled to
have different opinions, but I draw the line when convenient facts are invented
to further a political end. That’s one
reason why I try to stay out of current American politics in this blog.
As a writer, part of my mission is to always
search for the truth, in whatever shades of grey it sometimes will come in. My
writing is my way of exploring the human experience and all that it entails. And if my use of Armenian words and names helps
even in a small way the world to remember this ancient people in dire need of
help, I consider it a cause worth undertaking.
JAQ
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