Someone once said that time is our most valuable commodity.  However, if we look at the 
division of our Armenian churches and communities in North America, it’s as though the 
eternal clock stopped ticking for us sixty-four-years ago when Archbishop Tourian was 
assassinated at the altar of Holy Cross Church in New York by ARF sympathetics.  
Generations have passed and generations have followed since that fateful day and except 
for our divided Armenian churches and communities in North America, the eternal clock 
has not, nor will it ever stop ticking. 


Being an intimate part of this abnormality since the beginning, I can’t help but wonder: 
When the hell are we going to come to our senses and put an end to this lunacy?  Did 
1,500,000 of our ancestors and relatives perish at the hands of the Ottoman Turks so that 
we might have the privilege of turning their dreams and hopes into the plastic throw away 
that exists today? 


As for myself, I got off the "It’s not us, it’s them" treadmill years ago because I refused to 
continue supporting hypocrisy.  And sad to say, this hypocrisy will continue if the rest of 
us don’t get off that treadmill and stop following blindly till, inevitably, all hope of 
resurrecting our Armenian future is lost.


Our forbearers who suffered and survived the massacres had reason to be proud, but if it 
were possible for them to see how we have allowed their tragic sacrifices to become 
bounty for our political and religious self-seeking opportunists, they wouldn’t be proud 
anymore.


Today, the foremost enemy we face in our Diaspora is not the Turk; it’s time and 
assimilation.  I am certain that with all of their indifference, some of our division-causing 
antagonists may be well-meaning, but well-meaning or not, it doesn’t justify the 
separation that they continue to cause between our churches and communities. 

	
Omar Khayam once wrote:
"And strange to tell, among the Earthen Lot
Some could articulate, while others not:
And suddenly one more impatient cried--
‘Who is the potter, pray, and who the pot?’"

A question we should all be asking ourselves: Who are the potters, pray, and who are the 
pots?


Joseph Vosbikian