A person whom I like very much has just reproached me because, according to him, I generalize about the Turks. He reminds me that there are Muslim Armenians converted under the Ottoman sword and that there are Christian Mongols.

It is true, I am generalizing, because the dictator of Azerbaijan calls Armenians dogs, and I was affected by it. He doesn’t know me, if he knows that I am here and by generalizing he includes me in his story, I answer him, that’s all. I realized that without even knowing him, I had him as an enemy. No one has the right to disrespect anyone, unless they really deserve it. The Turks, and I am still generalizing, are the ones who massacred my maternal family in Tigranakert (Western Armenia) usurped by Turkey. It is impossible for me to know who the perpetrators of these massacres are. Not being able to identify them, I generalize them; and in doing so, I touch them in a certain way.

Let me give you an example: if a Chinese person commits a crime outside his country, his country, in the eyes of world opinion, is just as guilty as the perpetrator. That is why I have stressed more than once that each of us, children and grandchildren who survived the genocide perpetrated by the Turkish state against our great Armenian family, unwittingly reproduces the image of our people by our behavior, because we are ambassadors without portfolio representing a thousand-year-old people who survived barbarism.

Aliev, he includes me in his prayers and grievances, and by what right?  All my life I have been an honest man, I have not harmed anyone, I have not swindled, I have not stolen, I have not killed, and this moron comes to insult me because he thinks of it… Whoever he is, that’s an aggravated assault on me. It’s true, you’ll tell me, but you’re not a dog, what do you care?

I don’t understand why I should overlook this offense. For the Turk Aliev, I don’t have a finger, and now I don’t even respect him. So, as it occurs to me, I will return kindness for kindness in my writing, despite my politeness.

Respectfully.

Raymond Rupén Berberian

To be; is to belong!

The Republic of Western Armenia brings us closer to our roots, think about it!