We make much of our efforts to “preserve” our culture. Preserve is probably a bad word for what we do, since it implies immutability, stasis, and that means death for culture. I’m reminded of my high school chemistry teacher, Mr. Walker, who would say “the only thing in static equilibrium is a dead body.”

Shakespeare, in Macbeth, writes “(Life) is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” All parts of this quote are keenly applicable to Azerbaijan and its blood-oil money fueled propaganda offensive we’ve been witnessing of late.

It’s unfortunate that some people are stupid. This stupidity can be intellectual, political, or integrity-based (i.e. lacking it).

With all this talk and microscopic (on an atomic scale, if not sub-atomic) progress on our Turkish front, it seems to me we ought to be thinking about, discussing, and putting forth actual steps that can be taken.

For some two decades I’ve snarled, ground my teeth, and bewailed to myself about the great positive publicity Turkey gets from all the write-ups and advertising in the LA Times Travel section.

No doubt you read that Abdullah “Apo” Öcalan called on the Turkish government to recognize the Armenian Genocide. You might not have thought much of it, but here’s why it’s so amazing.

An ever-increasing number of testimonials, or reports, or essays, or travelogues, or… are appearing from and/or about Western Armenia, written by Armenians, Kurds, or Turks.

Dink, Bonk, Bling, Crash, Smush— the sound effects you might see in the emphatic bubbles in the panels of a comic book are what the news from Turkey is starting to sound like lately, a farce of ego, filth, and conflict.

BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
The past year has been rife with intriguing developments on our Turkish (non-Azeri) front. So I realized it would probably be good to put those often-positive-seeming events in some context.
Some 1,000 years ago, Turks arrived in Asia Minor— Anatolia and the Armenian Plateau. That’s when our interaction with them began. These marauding horsemen [...]

BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
War. With the Republics of Mountainous Karabakh and Armenia. That’s what!
Here’s how and why.
By all accounts, Azerbaijan’s oil will run out, practically speaking, in a little more than a decade (most comprehensively explained in Alec Rasizadeh’s “Azerbaijan’s Chances in the Karabakh Conflict.” This doesn’t mean there won’t be any oil left underground. It [...]

Reading the phrase “hell-bent on Armenian-Turkish reconciliation” at the end of Harut Sasounian’s most recent column triggered a profound revulsion coupled with a realization.

There are those who seek it, and know it not. There are those who once were there and should return. There are those who deny it, yet in truth, belong.

I recently attended a program where the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund (HAAF) was discussed.

I recently saw a newsy clip on YouTube about solar water heaters installed in Armenia. The homeowner was happily describing how he expected to recoup his investment in a matter of months.