You see, the statue of father Gomidas below raises this question.
As a father of mine and many others, he worked relentlessly to set a good example to his kids. He was keen enough to realize that the cultural treasure passed through generations to his contemporaries was in danger of disappearing and took upon himself the task of rescuing what he could.
He fell in love with the remnants of a culture and did his best to rescue every bit he could, to preserve and restore to its original glory. The genocide, ordered by the turks, killed the people he served but spared him to see the disappearance of his house, his children within with their traditions, cultures and language.
"Sirdess neman e en platz dner" _~ " My heart is just as those ruined houses"
A sentence that meant much more... A "house" meant the community, it's culture, treasures and traditions.
The genocide not only destroyed the population physically, which in and by itself is a crime to humanity, but it also destroyed the cultural treasures.
His heart could not withstand the pain. Even though they spared him from physical extermination, they could not eliminate the emotional damage that wrecked havoc with his mind. This "cultural genocide" he could not stand, tolerate, or reconcile with the order of the world.
There are three aspects of genocide:
- Genocide as we know it(the physical extermination of a people such as the armenians, the jews, the kurds....)
- Cultural Genocide (Through the physical extinction, forced relocation/ deportation, or restrictive laws a group's culture is made to disappear from the world.)
- Economic Genocide (through the same methods mentioned above rob the group of it's wealth and it's means of survival and the preservation of it's culture.)
- Any wonder why my father went mad??? Instead of rescuing the cultural treasures carried through generations, sharing it with others(admired by Claude Debussy and othe illustrious cultural figures of europe), composing music... So much of his work disappeared through his adverse mental health caused by the cultural genocide he observed.
40-50 years of his contributions to armenian music was robbed of him, his people
and the whole world.
What are we doing to counter this trend???
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY
