1981_09 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper September 1981

              Page 9
Hye Sharzhoom
September, 1981
100 Years, from page 8
proportion in the city's professions. Mark, Dick, Jerry, Warren, Barlow,
Jack, Bill are now also Armenian names. Even the newcomers are caught
in the spirit...
and they keep on coming.. .the Armenians are coming!
They are coming from Los Angeles, From the East Coast, from war
torn Lebanon and from Iran, they are coming to this great country, where
freedom and justice are not endangered species, but real things. WTien
one of these newcomers was asked why he preferred to come to America,
he replied: ' 'Why do you think I came to America - to have my son grow
up better than me.''
This is the beginning of the second 100 years...
r
1
■
A Man oj the Theater'
William Saroyan as "a man of the theater"will be the subject
of a special course offered Thursday evenings at Fresno State
by Professor Dickran Kouymjian. The course was conceived last
fall by Kouymjian and Saroyan after the writer turned over to the
Armenian Studies Program a number of films made of his plays
in the 1950's for broadcast on the famous Omnibus television
series pioneered by Allister Cook. Saroyan had promised "you
show these films and I'll come to watch and hear what your
students think."
Among films to be viewed will be a full length version of
"The Time of Your Life" and also a version of the novel "The
Human Comedy." Actors to be seen will include Helen Hayes,
Burgess Meredith, and William Bendix.
Other major plays to be read and studied during the term include the early successes "My Heart's in the Highlands,"
"Love's Old Sweet Song," "The Beautiful People," and "Hello
Out There." Also, some very, very short, sometimes one page
only plays will be read. A special feature of the course will be the
study of Saroyan's play technique through unpublished typescripts. These will include his "Armenian" play "Haratch"
written in 1979, and a play written in his last year, "Tales of the
Vienna Streets," which will receive its world premiere in Vienna
this fall. Guest lecturers from the U.S. and Europe will discuss
various aspects of Saroyan' s life as it relates to his stage craft.
The class, Armenian Studies 50T, 3 credits, is open to all.
Members of the community may register through the University
Extension on a credit/no-credit/audit basis, or simply appear at
the first class meeting, Thursdays, 6:30-9:30, room 169 Lab
School Building (official auditors are welcome.)
For further information, contact the Armenian
Studies-Ethnic Studies office, 239 San Ramon Building no. 5,
new Tel.: (209) 294-2832.
\
April 24th —
The Wrong Priority?
By Rahageets
Too often, the overpowering effect of the fact of the near extermination
of our people in their ancestral lands submerges our presently evermore
important and continuing collective experience—forced exile. Armenians
as a group no longer face the danger of physical annihilation. 1915 is behind us. Although alive in the eyes of our grandparents, 1915 is history
and while we must strive to counter those revisionists who would rewrite
history to justify the status quo, it is a mistake to accord 1915 the centrality
which it now enjoys in Armenian self-definition. Focus on the past has
overshadowed most perception of the great and more pressing injustice
of today, when the American-armed Turkish army, much of it stationed in
occupied Armenia, obstructs our return.
The Turkish policy of 1915 was to tear the Armenians from their land
such that Armenia without Armenians be incorporated into an expanded
Turkish homeland. But the crime did not end with the last massacre of an
Armenian village or the last human convoy to set out on the death march
to Deir Ez-Zor. The crime continues still today for it is, in essence, the
disassociation, the eviction, of the Armenian from the land. Massacre
and deportation formerly served as instruments of that crime. Today it is
the prohibition against our return which functions as the final stage in its
implementation. If, over time with the assimilation into the life of their
countries of exile, Armenians give up all claims of their right Of return, the
crime will be complete, because then Armenians will have been completely disassociated from their lands; their eviction, final and unchallenged.
The media understandably finds it awkward and difficult to relate the
attempted genocide of 1915 with assassinations and bombings today, and
so it often attributes actions by ASALA*and others to motives of revenge
or retaliation. References in newspaper editorials to "innocent Turkish
diplomats not even alive during the Massacres" illustrates the failure of
Armenians to properly project their grievances. If the crime addressed by
the Armenians were the attempted genocide of 1915 and that alone, then
of course the present Turkish Government and its diplomats are innocent
or at least guilty of nothing more than distortion of history. If such were
the case, a journalist might rightly consider Armenian attacks after the
passage of so many years astonishing, inexcusable, and racist. But the
crime is eviction of a people from their homeland, and, by seeking to
ensure our continued exile, the present Turkish Government, along with
its tanks and diplomats, is a party to that which began in 1915 and continues to this day.
When we Armenians perfunctorily look to April 24th activities as central
to our struggle or when one of our well-intentioned Armenian underground groups refers to itself as "Justice Commandos of the Armenian
Genocide," we tend only to reinforce impressions that Armenians protest
against or seek revenge for events which occured over 60 years ago. The
Genocide is the how and why of our exile, then and now, which must
serve as the substantive basis of our claims to*the occupied territories.
Palestinians suffered eviction from their homeland in 1948 and again in
1967, but despite the passage of over 30 years, the media would never
suggest that the motivational underpinnings of Palestinian military
activity rest in vengeance for deaths and orphans of the past. Journalists
depict Palestinian actions as part of their struggle for self-determination
and an end to their exile. However, instead of likening the struggle of the
Armenian seeking to return to Van with that of the Palestinian seeking to
return to Jaffa, the media likens Armenian attacks on Turkish targets to
what would be today—were they to take place—senseless attacks by Jews
on German targets.
But if jounalists are confused on this point, perhaps it is because so
many Armenians, dazed by the enormity of the horror that was the Genocide, have themselves failed to develop a perspective and orientation that
looks beyond 1915. A people cannot struggle against an historical event.
We no longer struggle against the prospect of physical annihilation and
once our presentation to outsiders centers upon our exile of today and not
events of the past, then there can be no more talk in the media of innocent
Turkish diplomats, the passage of so many years, race hatred, vendetta,
and the desire for vengeance.
* Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia