Speaking to One Another - The International Raoul Wallenberg ...

“I don’t Know...”Why did this great tragedy happen to us? How is it possible to resolve it? In fact our 35 respondents do notanswer this question. I believe, we can assert that their answer can be summed up as one indefinite statement:“I don’t know.” Many people replied just like that – “I don’t know.” Of course, there are also simplisticanswers, like “Turks did not like Armenians”, “Turks and Armenians do not like each other” (Gyozal Hovhannisyan);“Turks always massacred to get into possession of our wealth, our land” (Almast Harutyunyan);“Because Turks are cruel” (Eleonora Ghazaryan); “Because we are Christians - Turks said, you shouldchange your religion, adopt Turkish religion, but we didn’t want to change our beliefs”, “Turks didn’t wantArmenians to live” (Tamar Poghosyan); “Because Turks are enemies to Armenians” (many respondents),etc. This uncertainty and these answers are very noteworthy. They are at least evidence of one thing – that,despite discussion of various hypotheses of the causes of Genocide, mainly of geopolitical nature, in Armenia’spresent socioeconomic life, in essence, these do not affect the thinking of common citizens. Simple,sensual reasons are more understandable to survivors of massacres, at least to most of our respondents.And, along with this, there is perhaps the desire to refuse comprehending the incomprehensible. How toexplain, how to understand, why something, which cannot be explained by any logic, happened?These questions require answers. In the quest of our respondents around these questions Garegin Chugaszyan’spursuits come to the lack of common sense concerning the notion of “Genocide”: “To say it frankly, Ispoke to numerous people, trying to understand that tragedy... But this is even not a tragedy. A tragedy mustmake sense; when something makes no sense, this is not a tragedy already, it is something else... I tried tofind the sense of the Genocide in literature, in the stories told by people... Me myself, I made an electronicdisk, I looked through an enormous amount of material... Among Chukaszians, the son of my grandfather’sbrother has written a book in America, numerous articles... He described their way of escape through the DerZor desert, which he went along with our relatives; when only he survived... Only he was left alive among ourrelatives, along with another child... Two kids... For a long period of time my father was inviting survivors toour home, he was talking to them, he was recording hours of their conversations. You name it - what thesepeople haven’t told. But I can factually tell it today that I did not understand the essence of this notion...What I was able to understand, is that it wasn’t a simple tragedy... This is a much more complicated problem,it simply... trying to find some sense in it, to see some sense in it all... I don’t know what sense could bethere... what sense can be in it... What for? For the sake of what this sacrifice was made? The bright idea offraternity between Armenians and Turks was on the table, just a few years before this, and it has been sacrificed...To what? ... Who had won? ... What has he won? ... I don’t think that it is only us who lost. It is notonly us, who lost... I do not know how they would evaluate their losses but their... basic grounds were lost...They lost their basic grounds... Turks, Turks have lost their basic grounds... If you look back at the murder of133