Poof, Another Village Gone

Dr. Berge Minassian, Toronto, 28 July 2013

It is summer; sun and scents are intoxicating.

One-hundred-thousand Armenians leaving Armenia each year. That's  approximately 50 villages of 2,000 people per year, one village each week. Poof, gone, disappeared.

One village each week. Poof, gone, disappeared.

Each week an article by Harut Sassounian about some gaffe by a Turkish prime minister, or exhorting Armenians to demand their lands back from Turkey.

Dr. Berge Minassian, Toronto, 28 July 2013

It is summer; sun and scents are intoxicating.

One-hundred-thousand Armenians leaving Armenia each year. That's  approximately 50 villages of 2,000 people per year, one village each week. Poof, gone, disappeared.

One village each week. Poof, gone, disappeared.

Each week an article by Harut Sassounian about some gaffe by a Turkish prime minister, or exhorting Armenians to demand their lands back from Turkey.

Poof, one more village gone.

Each week an article by Migopress about an Armenian winning a chess championship, an Armenian scoring a great football goal in Dortmund.

See, see that picturesque village? See what? Where? Poof, gone.

Each week "RAG Mamoul", Appo Jabarian's "Armenian Life Magazine" article arrive by email… Oh, it's a Sassounian column republished, right, delete.

Hey! What are those starving cows moaning about in the village of Ani Gayaran across the Akhourian from the ruins of Ani and the huge village on the Turkish side? Ani Gayaran? Poof, going, going, gone.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation? In an inexplicable coma.

Poof, another village gone.

It's an emergency, an entire nation needs to rally together to save itself.

Rally how? Where are the leaders? The government, composed of crooks who care not for the people, and sadly the people know it, which is why…

Poof, one more village gone.

The Diasporan parties? The ARF? Wake up, wake up, wake up! Comatose.

Poof, poof, gone one, gone another.

In Armenia, NakhaKhorhrdaran (NK) and other civic movements; in the Diaspora, Armenian Renaissance (AR).

Poof, gone yet another village.

NK is not sophisticated enough. AR is too new. How do we know they can succeed? Why should I bother lending them a hand and helping them become the rallying cry so critically needed? Won't I be wasting my precious time?

Poof, one more village gone. The crooks still milking the famished Hayastan cow, the ARF still comatose.

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, a nation is dying.

NK, AR, and some others will at least be trying, as poof, poof, poof, the villages go, and the nation dozes, finding many good reasons to say and do nothing.