ARMENIA AGAINST ROME (PART 6)
«Just as in Shakespeare’s works, we look for ourselves in Rome, the mirror of our own essence. And perhaps that is why it captivates everyone so much»… (Avetis Aharonyan)
Standing before the column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, Avetis Aharonyan wrote down his reflections, the final part of which we finally present below.
The beginning is in the previous publications…
6. DOES HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF? This is an old and grim question, and always with different answers, depending on the conditions of time and place. This miserable history repeats itself to the extent that the human creature who forges it – with his blind passions, his emotions, his sometimes destructive, sometimes constructive instincts, sometimes with the wealth of his soul and sometimes captive to the fury of his cursed matter – repeats himself as a social factor. Destructive and unbridled hurricanes and storms, and such ruthless collapses follow one another, just like bright, beautiful dawns from the eternally turbulent bosom of the same nature.
I do not know about other times, but with this past war, it seems that before our stunned eyes, the events that took place two thousand years ago came to flood again, so that the rebellious new generations, awakening from the slumber of centuries, might experience the full thrill of life and human destiny.
Indeed, the first clash between Armenia and Rome, and generally the development of mutual relations between East and West in those times, depressingly reminds us of the political and economic interrelations of the great imperialist powers and the small nations striving for independence in our days. Let us set aside the question of history repeating itself, but after seeing everything that we saw and lived through, how can we not say with sorrowful and soul-wearing bitterness that apparently two thousand years of high civilization on the wings of the wonderful doctrine of the “Great Crucified One” have not been enough to cleanse humanity from the thickness of its original sin, from the epidemic outbursts of its animal nature (atavism), which, like the ebb and flow of the human sea, rise and fall, menstruate with torrents of blood.
Put today’s great powers in the place of Rome, with their greedy aspirations, their treacherous, conspiratorial politics, their predatory, rapacious modus operandi, all their military perfection and capability – against backward or simply numerically smaller peoples, and the picture will be complete. Certainly, twenty centuries and more before this, the name “Rome” and “Roman” resounded throughout the East, just as the name “Europe” and “European” in modern times. In the old days in the East, by saying “Roman” they understood not only strength, power, invincible military capabilities, but also philosophy, schooling, high arts, in a word – civilization, and especially law and justice, which gave so much charm and greatness to this miraculous empire risen in the distant West.
The same was true before the Great War for the Eastern peoples regarding the name of the European, which was always associated not only with the understanding of good manners, educated taste, intellect and military power, but also with something else that is difficult to define, which is the mysterious, magical meaning of Europe, and which, even before its appearance, already morally subjugated and ruled Asia from one end to the other. This difficult-to-define, vague, almost mysterious quality of the European – like the Roman in ancient times, the understanding of human perfection – is a new and more excellent comprehension of high morality, freedom, rights, and justice. Just as in our days, as a result of this world war, the civilized West spread before the East its complete spiritual and moral bankruptcy hidden under an external makeup – in exactly the same way, civilized Rome, along with the superiority of its power in Asia Minor, exhibited miserable pettiness and a conspiratorial policy unworthy of a great empire, a dishonorable trampling of justice and rights, the ruin and oppression of defeated nations and cities – often in its most ruthless forms.
Just as in our times the East knelt before Europe, before the European from afar, without even coming into close contact, so in ancient times Armenia and Asia Minor worshipped the civilization of the West. Certainly, with an unforced impulse, they turned their gaze towards Rome, until they saw and tasted, along with its power, its boundless cruelty and its trampling and contempt towards the so-called “barbarian nations”. And just as today, by a miserable coincidence, Armenia deeply experienced all the bitterness, all the injustice, all the conspiracy and treachery of that fateful encounter. And then, as now, Armenia received the most treacherous blow from the West and observed the morality of the leaders of the great empire up close with disgust.
The nations saw with pain and amazement that Rome’s highly acclaimed law and expression was one thing for the Roman and different for them. And it seems that the Armenian nation, still in the days of Tigranes the Great and his immediate successors, saw the same disappointments that we see, we the living generations, from the inhumanity of the Allied powers. And yet twenty centuries have passed since that time…
Is there a curse upon this West, that it always remained unjust, petty, treacherous, even towards those nations that throw themselves open-heartedly towards the West and its civilization, and whose only flaw is that they are not savage and are “very few” in number? I am speaking about Armenia. The impossibly conspiratorial fraud and inhumanity committed against us has not yet had its full clarification. We saw what brilliant possibilities Rome destroyed in the East and particularly in the Armenian world by destroying our state created by wise and solid Armenian efforts. Thanks to a standing and powerful Armenia, how many subsequent disasters, how many miseries would have disappeared, and from how many ruins and massacres would Armenia and Asia Minor have been saved! How many barbarians of Central Asia would have been buried in their sandy deserts, and the fury and momentum of how many bloodthirsty world conquerors would have been shattered on the granite of our mountains, and the Balkans, Hellas, and the West in general would not have seen the abominable domination of the Turco-Mongol mobs, who for whole centuries pushed back any possibility of civilization in those prosperous countries. It is not in vain that from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean, even today, sprouts rise with difficulty, destroyed forests are still just sending out new shoots, and the mother earth still groans from the blows received by yataghans. The ruin of Armenia – like a divine vengeance, became the ruin of the whole East. And in the 15th century, Byzantium suffered exactly the same fate as Armenia – with its miraculously built capitals.
I said that the full value and depth of the Allies’ conspiracy and inhumanity against Armenia is not yet fully clarified. By the dictate of history and fate, Armenia became the vanguard of Western civilization and the guardian and leader of the Aryan spirit and Aryan peoples in Asia Minor. Armenia – this small Europe of the East, a kind of advanced guard of the West, which was unexpectedly left to its fate at a time when it needed help the most. To leave the lonely and distant guardian without a replacement, without help, against enemies attacking from all sides – that is the sign of the spirit of modern times and the greatest crime of the so-called civilized powers.
There are injustices that carry within them the seed of terrible retribution. Rome and Byzantium destroyed Armenia so that they in turn would feel the weight of the barbarians’ heels. Will this latest hostility and crime committed against Armenia remain without terrible retribution? The future history of the world will tell. For now, what we see is the death of trust and faith towards Europe and the European. The whole East has already been shaken; and there are millions who gnash their teeth and show their fists to the civilized world. In the Russian steppes, the formidable Demos has risen, destroying and annihilating everything for which the Allies supposedly carried out this past impossible war and massacres. The gigantic fraud has been exposed, no one is deceived anymore. The blood of Armenia cries out for justice…
… But I am in the new Rome, standing under the column of Marcus Aurelius, and I am mixing the ashes of the very, very old memories of my native world: Armenia!, Armenia!, you forever unforgettable, you forever sacrificed and always just, let me once again believe in your destiny.
(The End)
