Time to Deep-Six a Popular Saroyan Quote
By Jirair Tutunjian
The framed quote hung from the wall of the Armenian restaurant for several years. When a non-Armenian bought the restaurant, he didn’t remove it. I wished he had although many Armenians agreed with William Saroyan’s speed-reading version of their near-three thousand history.
” I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.”
For years I had tried to understand why Armenians of different persuasion had approved of the regrettable quote by American Armenian William Saroyan.
It took all of one hundred words for Saroyan to summarize the three millennia history of the Armenian people. And yet, Armenians not only agreed with him but were also proud of the false words.
Saroyan called the Armenian nation “a small tribe of unimportant people. A people who had lost all their wars. A people whose buildings lay in ruin. A nation whose literature is unread and the music ignored.” Even God—the all-loving and compassionate Creator–had given up on the hapless and hopeless Armenians.
With great bravado, Saroyan had even challenged non-Armenians to try to destroy the sad sack Armenians.
But Saroyan was not finished his stamp-size analysis of the nation which has brought so much to humanity’s banquet of achievements.
The Fresno-born writer says Armenians laugh and sing after being subjected to exile and genocide, although during the century following the 1915-1923 genocide, Armenians shed a sea of tears, wrote countless articles, thousands of books, an unknown number of letters to-the-editor telling the truth about the genocide and to express their grief. They demonstrated, raised money to lobby for the recognition of the genocide, built monuments and museums to commemorate the genocide. They took on the well-funded Turkish propaganda untruths. They made April 24—the date the genocide was launched in 1915–a day to remember and to affirm their commitment to their proud nation.
Armenians have more than survived for three thousand years. They have contributed to human civilization by enriching the arts and the sciences. They have contributed to practically every branch of civilization…from the culinary arts to the composition of music…to architecture, astronomy, literature, fair governance, history writing, war strategy, battle tactics, ecclesiastical music and ritual, martial architecture and vast manuscript publishing Not only have they given birth to great leaders—civic and martial—they have provided nearly forty percent of Byzantine emperors…emperors who ran the empire at its peak, and generals who prevented encroachments to the empire’s eastern frontiers. The Armenian presence was so pervasive in Byzantium that some historians have said the proper name of the empire should be Armeno-Byzantium. In the 11th century, Armenian refugees created a kingdom in a foreign land and bravely battled Arab and Turk, Mongol and Mamelukes for more than three centuries. They also provided seven caliphs of the Fatimid Empire while an Armenian defended Jerusalem during the First Crusade. The successes of Armenians since the genocide are too vast to attempt summarizing.
It’s too late for the late Saroyan to take back his words. It’s not too late to deep six his misinformed take.
