Thanksgiving 1998


It’s Thanksgiving morning and I’m sitting alone counting my blessings.  My entire family
including my wife, children, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, 
brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, along with my entire clan of relatives and khunamees,
are all doing well.  Even my daughter’s two cats, Michelob and Budweiser are fine, 
as is our 12-year-old family dog, Voski.

	On the home front, there is the usual domestic and international political 
wrangling going on with President Clinton’s infidelities still taking some of the 
limelight.  But on the bright side, our United States’ economy is still going strong. 
 
	On this note, I suppose I should even be thankful for the fact that our little 
Republic of Armenia’s ship of state is still afloat.  However, I’m reserving judgment 
on this matter at present, and I would venture to say for good reason.  Fact is, I 
don’t believe there are many among us who would be the least bit surprised if we were 
to see some sort of political upheaval over there.  And I would even venture to say 
that if the opposing political forces over there do not cultivate a long term attitude 
including the good sense of compromising some of their differences, then, sad to say, 
we may be back on the road to obscurity again.  Question is: Do we or do we not have 
the ability and maturity to self-govern?

	Destiny gave Armenia an early pick at history, yet when push came to shove, 
we always allowed the internal posturing of political rivalry to dominate and divide 
us.  Incredibly, we’ve survived for three thousand years, but our tormented history 
is more abundant in defeats and suffering than it is in victories and prosperity.

	When Armenia first declared its independence in 1990, we rallied round the 
flag, but then that age-old virus of political rivalry and distrust crept in and 
controversy forced Armenia’s first elected President Levon DerBedrossian to 
peacefully resign.  Shortly thereafter, Armenia elected Robert Kocharian as 
its second president and again, everybody rallied around the flag.  But, sad to say, 
that same old virus of discontent and distrust seems to be rearing its ugly head again.

  According to late news reports, there seems to be some rising discontent over how 
he is presently steering Armenia’s ship of state.  I sincerely hope that it is 
not another political play for power and if more changes do take place, that they 
continue to do so in a mature and peaceful manner, with the preservation of 
Armenia’s and Karabagh’s independence remaining as their utmost highest objective.

	At this juncture in time, Armenia cannot afford hostile and divisive 
political rivalry, much less succumb to the rule of hotheads whose “shoot from
the hip” attitude would inevitably destroy any chance for peaceful solutions 
in the future.

	One has only to look at how political irresponsibility and immaturity divided
our North American Armenian Diaspora sixty-five years ago to understand where 
I’m coming from.   Even after most of the old political issues have died a 
natural death, we’re still living with the remnants of religiously one but 
administratively divided churches and communities here in North America except 
with one major difference: Over here in America, we’re being destroyed by assimilation.
No one is charged and even worse, those in the guise of political and religious 
leaders who continue helping this process along, do not seem to take any responsibility
for what they are doing.  And since there’s no fear of being massacred, we in turn 
don’t stop them.  In Armenia and Karabagh, however, divisiveness caused by emotional 
or selfish, short term judgments is non-forgiving and it can once again cause bloodshed.
Such being the case, our people had better start looking at examples from our tragic
past otherwise the only Turkey we may be talking about in the future, may be the ones
on our tables at Thanksgiving.


Joseph Vosbikian