Mr. Cohen champions the Armenians’ genocide claim. He doesn’t mention that the Azerbaijanis accuse the Armenians of ethnic cleansing (and vice versa). He has championed the Kurds even though they unlawfully detain Sunni women and children in conditions far worse than those suffered by Central Americans detained by the US. Separated children and cages are tame when compared with Kurdish atrocities. Inconsistency after inconsistency. Inaccuracy after inaccuracy. And unsupportable conclusions.
As I note elsewhere, the vote on Armenian genocide — a matter on which volumes have been written on both sides—was taken in Congress without meaningful debate, ignoring a century of historical analysis.
Well-informed Americans may know everything about matters from sea to shining sea. But few venture beyond, except as to matters abroad that affect the US. Thankfully, there is an answer to our ignorance.
BBC. Al-jazeera. The Guardian. Reuters. Etc.
2
In 2001, France was the first major European country to recognize the massacres of Armenians by the Ottomans in 1915, as genocide. France has a large Armenian community, and in April of this year France held its first national day of commemoration of the Armenian genocide, which, predictably, sparked fury in Ankara and brought accusations by Erdogan that France was seeking to “sully” Turkey. During the ceremony French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe spoke of “crimes against humanity and civilization,” but also of “reconciliation.”
How sad it was that Charles Aznavour, whose parents were part of the Armenian diaspora, and who for so many years worked so tirelessly and sang so movingly about Armenia, died in 2018 before the ceremony.
35
Mr. Cohen is a master at stating the obvious, and in such high falutin’ language: “People prefer agency over unaccountable rule.” In other words, people would like to make their own decisions. And then he has to go all the way to Armenia to call our president a “loud-mouthed con man” and take another dig at him in his final sentence. If you’d really like to get a sense of the Armenian’s tortured history, I’d recommend you see Atom Egoyan’s film “Ararat.”
3
"History, not terminated after all, ushered in a new wave of nationalism, nativism and xenophobia."
You expected something other than a rise in nationalism after the defeat of the Soviet Union in the Cold War?
Not one mention of President Reagan - you can count the continuation of airbrushing among those skills that continue.
2
"One enduring lesson of 1989 is that the truth will out. Even the Trump White House will one day discover this."
This is one of the biggest prevailing problems in political thinking. It is a potentially fatal mistake to see progress -- whether we're talking political, social, or economic -- as inevitable. History actually suggests the opposite; the propagation and consolidation of democracy is if anything, the exception to the rule.
Don't get too comfortable with tropes. Democracy and progress require constant safeguarding, maintenance, and even a bit of anxiety to keep.
3
What about China and Russia?
1
Some fine writing as well as insights here. Perhaps having some hope can be more than a psychological reed. Beyond that, I was struck by two things. The elevation, however brief, of water and climate change into big picture foreign affairs thinking. They are not usually seen there. And the questioning of at least two, once formerly strongly held mindsets: "The end of history" and "Apologies are a sign of weakness." These kind of mindsets can be such barriers to badly needed big change because they freeze thinking and give artificial certainty to complex events, something to which we can be prone. Speaking of which, there is at least one big mindset barrier remaining. Getting better at "the quantum world," and even linking that to efforts to restore democracy (thanks for that, though) are necessary, but very insufficient. There is no mention of the biodiversity crisis. Over one million species are threatened. (See https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/). The idea that humans and other species are independent is fallacious scientifically, historically, ethically, practically, psychologically, Saving and restoring ecosystems has to be promoted to the big boy class of international affairs issues.
1
We're gonna need all the spirit that brought down the Berlin Wall that we can get. My then high-schooler daughter and I sat watching on TV the Wall come down, both of us were in tears it was so emotional. Oh the hopes we had for the future!
"People prefer agency to the dead hand of unaccountable rule. They prefer the rule of law to arbitrary arrest."
Yes, many of us do. Meanwhile, thank you, Jane Fonda, now arrested four times for protesting climate change inaction, actually sabotage. We've created a toxic stew politically and environmentally and economically and judicially and on and on. Climate change will definitely stir this pot.
17
Thank you for this optimistic piece.
5
The most important act of liberation was the Russian revolution of August 1991, which brought down the USSR.
I spent two months in Gdańsk, Poland, where Solidarność was born.
My friends there were part of the leadership's central staff. We spoke endlessly about the outlook for Poland.
It was the fall of 1981, inspiring and ominous, both. The revolt might be able to displace the puppet government, but "the Russians will turn off our [natural] gas", (Walęsa).
East Berlin 1953, Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968: the revolutions were momentarily tolerated by the Soviet Union. When that acquiescence ended, the revolutions were crushed.
My friend and I talked a lot about it. I remarked that the rebellion had to spread to Russia. He said: don't you think that's utopian? And I said, yes. Just like Solidarność was two years ago. (I'm Russian-American, so an easy belief)
He grinned.
As it turned out, I was right.
In 1989, Gorbachev ruled out military intervention against the occupied states. Their freedom quickly followed.
But, they could be reconquered.
In August 1991, the Stalinists staged a coup to end all of the liberation nonsense.
East Europe and Russia were saved by a democratic uprising in the army united with an uprising of millions of Russians who occupied the streets of the country.
Our chief strategist of the Cold War, Kennan, called it "the greatest non-violent revolution in history."
The proudest and happiest moment of my Russian life.
8
In the final paragraph of his essay, Mr. Cohen states that the truth will out and one day “Even the Trump White House will one day discover this.” I find this to be a rather ambiguous sentence. So what if Trump discovers the truth - whatever that may be. Will Trump, upon this discovery, suddenly develop a moral center? I seriously doubt that.
The American people have to discover the truth and rid ourselves of the corruption that lives White House — then, and only then, will “truth will out.”
9
@Marvin
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
- George Orwell
8
We could use a healthy dose of the truth. Then we need the will to clear away of the fog that prevents many from seeing it. I can hardly wait for the out part.
5
Ah Cohen, dear Cohen. What would I do without without my occasional lotus fix from my favorite source?
2
Chile? Argentina? Bolivia? Ecuador?
1
Russia gave up East Germany because it couldn't stomach it. Neither could West Germany. After all the celebrating - reality set in and it was not pretty.
5
Another discerning historic piece by Cohen. What struck me was President Sarkissian of Armenia insightful observation: "We are living in a quantum world because more than half of life is virtual,” that can only emanate from the mouth of a physicist. Upon checking, I indeed found that Sarkissian is an eminent physicist and computer scientist. Taking a clue from another leading politician and trained physicist, Angela Merkel, I feel reassured that Armenia will have a deservedly bright future.
10
Some of the comments get nuttier and nuttier.
1989 was a year of great historical significance and one to be celebrated. Hundreds of millions of people threw off the yoke of totalitarian socialism. What followed was not neat and perfect, but few would want to go back.
Those alive at the time, at least as sentient adults, remember it with amazement, pride, and love.
3
Thanks for the piece on a part of the world which interested me quite a bit when I had a daughter in the Peace Corps in that neighborhood years and years ago. Glad to hear the Armenian people are upbeat and hope it stays that way. For awhile.
It appears Erdogan has what he wants in the Syrian Kurd region. If he stays president and runs out of mileage on Syria, I wonder if he might turn his eye to the east? World recognized national borders don't seem to mean much to him.
5
If we are living in a quantum world where 1/2 of life is virtual, that reality has declining long run average cost curves throughout the relevant range of user-volume. The possibility exists for people to earn a high universal income, if they work a lot and are paid for this; principle applies to Armenians, Lebanese & Americans. As for Armenians & Georgians, they should study on the internet U.C. Davis viticulture to improve their wines for everyone's enjoyment.
1
I think we were on our way with acceptance of Tech's conditions.
Trump is politically expedient. Democrats are clueless.
How do you foster a good stock of tech workers?
According to current CEOs, hire lots of foreign workers at low wages and make lazy Americans keep up.
There were never lazy Americans in tech! They work hard because they like their work!
How to you kill a nation? Make it's citizens feel deflated, unimportant and defeated.
Does this align with party lines? No. Should it? Well, if it is supposed to, China and Russia don't know about it.
You absolutely stupid morons in tech! I hate you all because you're ruining this country.
I have a really smart group that makes up my family, and none of them want tech careers. We were tech, now we're, let's go somewhere else kind of people.
The finance leaders should have crashed and burned. They failed. Now we're mush. Easily taken over by Chinese interests.
Oh well, we had our time. It's over.
Ah yes. Who could forget 1989? In truth, I actually know almost nothing about 1989. Reagan was President, the Berlin Wall fell, and the last good Indiana Jones movie was released. Something about Flavor Flav and Noriega? That's about it.
I was pondering this week what history will look like 30 years from now. 90s-themed street fashion and competitive cosplay actually exists. Oh, and something about impeachment I think. At least the 90s-themed haircuts have stayed mostly in the 90s. That's good. The truth will out indeed: "Friends" is a really terrible television show. What were you thinking?
Just not as bad as Trump in the White House capitulating to Russia on every front. Oh boy. I half expected him to try selling the Suez canal to Putin. Meanwhile, 30 years from now will all be wondering why people 60 years didn't do anything about climate change back in 1989. In fact, I'm wondering now. Plutonium? Right...
1
Bush, not Reagan was President for most of 1989.
1
Beautifully written. There has to be hope in the tiny chinks, for life must go on, even in the face of those who preach nothingness. In the spirit of change and hope lies man's future.
4
"every individual has a voice that “is exercised and expressed daily.” That's part of the problem. Donald Trump, neo-nazis, and numerous mal-contents on Facebook all express their opinions daily.
4
A couple of months ago, I had a chance to ask a resident of Armenia, well-educated and professionally accomplished but not from Yerevan, what he thought of the first year of Nikol Pashinyan's rule. He agreed that the old government had to go and the old political elite had to step aside - but then proceeded to recount the ancient tale of a brave knight who defies all odds to slay the dragon who had been menacing a small kingdom, only to discover that the dragon is cursed: whoever slays the dragon turns into a dragon himself and is doomed to carry out the dragon's evil deeds until yet another brave knight kills him and becomes the next dragon...
52
@AT The Who said it better: Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
12
Truth may out, but liberty and equality require brave hearts and strong voices. The human condition depends on people who defy tyrants and totalitarian regimes. Bravo Armenia! Let's hope by Election Day next year we can shout, "Bravo America!"
78
I'm writing from a cruise ship in the East China Sea. Among English-speaking passengers, mostly Americans, Canadians, Britons and Australians, conversation is replete with Trumpism, cheers for Brexit, anti-Trudeau envy, anti-immigrant Aussie exceptionalism. Every old cliche gets traded from one nationality's reps to the others. No one seems embarrassed wolfing down double orders of lobster and snails while denouncing Native American and Latino "welfare cheats", First Nations and Quebecois as special pleaders, the EU as "socialists", the Australian left as tree-huggers and spendthrifts.
I've heard praise for Calvin Coolidge ("The business of America is business"); and Boris Johnson ("Finally someone looking out for Britain"); standard denunciations of "socialized medicine" from British tax-exiles and retired American doctors from Florida or Nevada; secessionist rants by rich Albertans; almost unanimous condemnation of Hong Kong youth. Not a harsh word for Putin or even Kim; horror at the mention of Warren, Sanders and Corbyn. My fellow passengers are not hedge-fund managers or cosmopolitan bankers, but epitomize smug, angry middle-class resentment. I can't explain this except to surmise that Trumpism, and its cognates in Canada, Europe, and elsewhere, have permitted public expression of the class hatred and venal Know-Nothingness that had only seemed to have passed into history. Thanks to Mr. Cohen for pointing to some old-fashioned decency somewhere out there.
155
I just got home from Greece & luckily heard the opposite from the Canadian, British, Australian and New Zealanders I met. Since it is shoulder season, most of us are retired. We discussed how the folks that support what we called the ‘crazy nativists’ are fearful that they & their families are going to lose if the world was actually fair to all people. It is based on unfettered resentment of the ‘other’ & a notion that the world is zero summed.
31
@Martin Daly Reply to Martin Daly, Your post is exactly why "Rome is Burning" and the haves do not care. Until they will have to see what is happening to civilization. Class hatred.
10
@Martin Daly
Looks like you've stumbled on a nice group of folks with you can have an enlightening exchange of views. The Lobster sounds great, with I were there.
2
Is Roger Cohen utterly delusional? What in the world he is talking about?
The fall of the Berlin Wall is the reference for the fall of communism. We should analyze what preceded that era and what followed it.
The October Revolution was created by the Great War, today better known as the WWI.
It was followed by the WWII that was fought between the largest imperialistic empires of this planet.
After the fall of the Berlin War we witnessed the carnage in the Balkans, the endless US wars in the Middle East, the deep freeze of the worker wages and rights all over the capitalist world and seemingly unstoppable rise of the communist China because we exported our capital, technology and factories to that country in the Far East.
If that is the reason for Mr. Cohen to celebrate, then I am totally speechless.
America is teetering on the verge of another civil war. The world is heating up both politically and temperature-wise.
The borrowing is at the incredible high levels as if there were no tomorrow because the greed is untamable and out of control.
America is supportive of the world worst tyrants in Saudi Arabia and Egypt that killed thousands of the people in the streets demanding the respect for the results of the first democratic elections or literally grinded and butchered a critic of the Saudi regime as if it were the worst Hollywood horror movie.
One fact is undisputable. In the age of Johan Guttenberg every war was started by the journalists!
4
This opinion is proof that I know less about world history than I know. I suspect this is true of all.
2
I knew this would happen. I was sure of it.
I was sure the average well-being of the average US citizen would go down as we merged economies with China.
It has happened, and it's still happening.
The top economists claim it's almost over, that we've faced the worst of it, but just hold out a little bit longer and everything will be ok.
It's total garbage. We're not even close to that time. I'd estimate at least 15 years before that happens.
In the mean time we're supposed to deal with aweful inequities, a possible takeover of world affairs by China and the like.
I think they're bonkers! Totally bonkers!
2
The timing of the House of Representative resolution acknowledging the genocide in Armenia is truly pitiful. It happened after the Tump Administration cut a deal with the Erdogan government in Syria in attempt to mend the fences between two regimes.
This resolution was actually a stab in Trump’s back to sabotage his diplomatic efforts.
Why now?
Now you know why!
It is the spirit of hope and congregation in the jilted places
against the trolls of hate and segregation in gilded palaces.
Now there is more of the spirit of america in the middle and central east, and more of the mindset of the middle east in america.
1
The current "end of democracy" is ethnic democracy. It is ascendant.
It has a poor pedigree
1
The Ottoman Empire rose out of nothing in the early 14th century and crossed into Europe because the neighboring orthodox Christian countries of Byzantine, Bulgaria and Serbia were attacking and looting each other and ignoring the Asian tribes crossing into their backyard. The Ottomans used theirs mutual fighting to conquer all of them.
The Ottoman Empire ruled the southeastern Europe for a half of millennium without any genocide. The Greeks, the Bulgarians and the Serbs survived.
The question is why the Armenians have paid the bloody genocidal price?
Genocide is something the Ottoman rulers learned from Europe. After collapse of the Ottoman Empire there was no mercy for the Turks and Muslim population on those previously occupied territories. They were ethnically cleansed through implementation of genocide and other bloody methods.
If Europe acknowledged what it did to the Turks in the 18th and 19th century, it would be much easier for Istanbul to admit what they did to the Armenians during the WWI.
1
To paraphrase a song, "Matrimony" by Gilbert O'Sullivan, Albania, Armenia and Azerbaijan are all "something that begins with "A" and ends in "Alas"! In fact, even neighbouring Europeans generally know next to nothing about them. You may remember a film called "Wag the Dog" in which people's general ignorance of Central Europe made it possible to create an illusory threat of war over Albania - at times very funny, it was none the less deadly serious in that it underlined how ignorant most people are (including world leaders) about the geography of some of the world's "powder-kegs". Trump is no exception, it's just that he fails to mask his ignorance.
4
I am for the impeachment.
I would impeach every single member of the House of Representatives who voted for the resolution of genocide in Armenia.
Why?
They ashamed and belittled America in front of the entire world.
The proper way was to ignore that topic. All those massacred cannot be helped or protected. The Congress should be always focused on the future instead of the past. Leave the past to the historians and the justice!
However, by voting for the genocide resolution NOW, the US Congress ridiculed all those victims and the genocide itself.
Allegedly, it was irrelevant for a longer than a century.
Thus, why now?
Now Turkey is no longer our political ally!
The very moment they placed the politics above the genocide the House Representatives insulted and ashamed all of us and the country!
2
"The spirit that brought us neo-liberalism is getting its austerity-riding rusty-dusty whupped from Chile to gilets jaunes."
There. fixed it for you.
2
Armenia is getting acknowledgment that genocide occurred.
And in no small part because of English voting for Brexit, there is the possibility that the island of Ireland will be united again.
Will wonders never cease?
5
Tear down this wall! Said by?
2
@Elle Roque That was Saint Ronald. Who will say "Tear down that wall!" to Trump?
@Elle Roque:"Tear down this wall! Said by?"
I think it's called "air brushing".
Truth must win out even in the USA. We will send trump and family to an isle deep in the Ocean , FINALLY
3
"The lesson of 1989 is that the truth will out."
My guess is that Turkey will recognize its role in the genocide of Armenians around the same time the United States recognizes its role in the genocide of the First Peoples of the North American continent.
Crickets.
2
@Pseudonym
Don't mean to pop your bubble but the United States will recognize its role in the genocide of the First Peoples when the First Peoples recognize their role in genocide of other First Peoples. I stood in awe and horror last week at the rows and rows of skulls at the Aztec (a name they never used themselves) temple in the middle of Mexico City. Not a pretty sight. The First Peoples of North America and South America did the same as those in Central America. It's not a pretty history.
1
Good to know that the writer is against oppression, but then, apart from those who have the whip hand, who isn"t? Does this piece break new ground, apart from touching, lightly, it seems, on protests, some successful, some not, against misbegotten rulers and states, ending , of course, with a swipe against the current bette noire of the liberal press, the American President: deemed a usurper, on various grounds, from the day he took the oath of office. Surely, Hillary's stand-in, Obama's true legacy, will prevail. Good point, made in this paper, every day by every columnist, commentators, and op-ed contributors . No respite in sight, until the next election has been decided. Then, they can start in with the "t told you so," columns and commentaries. Enough already.
“ Never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth “ - Henrik Ibsen.
You, Sir, may dress as you wish. And Thank You.
1
By way of free association, it seems that the existence of an idiot in the US White House opens the gates of protests everywhere. Why do we put up with this idiocy, this criminality, where oligarchs rake in the money and we toil for bread.
The "leaders" of nations are exposed for their shallowness, ignorance, and corruption for all to see and the sight is not very pretty. Why not protest?
@John
Did anyone protest when Obama's paper tiger Eric Holder refused to turn over the documents for Fast N Furious in contempt of Congress, or refused to prosecute anyone in Wall Street? And guess who he now represents?
2
Changes coming to Armenia? Cannot come soon enough for the LGBT community. Not a nice place.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Armenia
I think you're out of touch with the USA.
The Berlin Wall is a great symbol for American Presidents. JFK went there to say “Ich bin Berliner”, not knowing that a Berliner is a jelly donut. Reagan told Gorbachev to tear down that wall and later took credit when the Wall came down, though not a historian alive agrees. Americans have a tendency to screw up at the Wall and to believe we are the champions of freedom when we are much more the champions of military hardware and basketball.
3
Nonsense.
George Washington, Abraham Lincoln Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Ho Chi Minh were lucky that they didn't face the likes of Alexander, Augustus,Genghis Khan, Ferdinand and Isabella, Sulieman, Napoleon, Victoria, Leopold, Cecil Rhodes, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Hideki Tojo and Mao Zedong.
1
The reunification of Germany, one of the most foolish acts in modern history, reignited the Cold War. After terrible behavior in World War One (ask the French and the Belgians) and monstrous behavior in world war two.
Germany never should have been reunited,and we very well may live to regret it.
Meanwhile, Russia, similar to the USSR but without Gosplan but with a lforf
has a fioreign policy that remains the same, and that is to have friendly or neutralized states at its borders. The Ukraine, far from a US ally, is just as corrupt as its big brother.
American foreign policy should be protective of its democratic allies, but otherwise practice realpolitik with great skill. Protracted land wars should be avoided, and air and sea power should be employed to the maximum, when necessary. Hostile countries should know that we value the lives of our military far more than we do their population, military or civilian.
1
@J.Jones
My father always said after WW2 we should have let Germany keep France, and let Russia keep Germany, and then everyone would have gotten what they deserved.
1
Ah Roger. Or should I say, Dr. Pangloss?
In the future we are all dead. And in the present, where we are alive, no one knows the future. Not even I, not even you. Meanwhile, as we await your shining vision, lots and lots of bad things are happening. Turkey is not a tolerant state. Trump is still in the White House, and his judges are on federal courts everywhere. I won't go on...
Once, many years ago, I attended a seminar by Tom Schelling, who famously gamed nuclear war and other disasters at Rand. He spoke about nuclear proliferation, and said that its dangers were the only thing that had ever made him happy that he was getting old and wouldn't live that much longer. Everyone in the room was truly shocked. Today, I fear, it would be just one more expression of what most (?) of us feel.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but I see little basis for your optimism in the foreseeable future.
2
The true journalism is dead!
We have now the corporate-controlled media outlets and the state-run ones.
In both cases the first victim is the truth because the ultimate priority of the of those corporations is protection of the profits and the political class.
The problem with democracy is that the voters are directly responsible for the current conditions. They have kept voting for the status quo.
Why?
The corruption of entire society starts with corruption of the individual minds.
All those services we think are free – like free TV shows, internet articles, Facebook, Tweeter on Instagram – are the most expensive ones because those are used to brainwash us and make tame, sheepish and obedient.
That’s why the American streets are so peaceful in spite of losing the social privileges, wages and jobs for several decades now.
There are two kinds of shackles – those made of iron and the invisible ones.
The latter are much tougher to break from because we are unaware of their existence…
3
@Kenan Porobic
As a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism (and a former reporter) I can attest that journalism was stillborn. It never really had a chance.
2
I too remember the spirit of 1989. Under Gorbechev's leadership the authoritarian Soviet Union declared its several republics free to decide their own fate.
Since then people from Iran, Iraq, to Venezuela and Cuba have been petitioning the United States to also be free to decide their own fate, but to no avail.
But with the end of the wall a new spirit of international human rights took momentum. Nations who had repressed freedom might now be held to a higher standard. And with the formation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) violators could no longer find safe haven behind extradition agreements.
But when we look at the court, with few exceptions it appears that it was only designed to prosecute African dictators. My own government, the US declined to sign the treaty. A true act of bipartisanship.
There's a joke told all over the now impoverished Eastern Europe. "Everything the communist told us about communism was a lie! But everything they told us about capitalism was the truth."
They're still waiting for their peace dividend and for that matter, so am I.
6
Maybe that's what drives nationalism; certainly it's race based, but maybe the impact of internet communication has threatened the white men who insist that they control the entire globe. Two of Armenia's borders are closed by the authorities, but those old fashioned checkpoints cannot stop the airwaves.
trump and his folk are pretty excited about walls and moats to keep others out; must be an old fashioned, desperate attempt to maintain 'proper order'.
13
Armenia is a city located in Colombia's coffee triangle. According to several writers the name of the city honors the human beings that died in the genocide you mention. The diaspora is present in Colombia. All persons coming from that part of the world were known as "los Turcos" -the Turkish ones- by the people there.
Thank you for this wonderful article. We don't forget that Putin is a comrade of Stalin. We also know that all the bad things generated by the USSR don't just disappear with the click of a mouse.
Long live Armenia.
8
"One enduring lesson of 1989 is that the truth will out. Even the Trump White House will one day discover."
I was sitting in my living in the US and couldn't tear myself away from the tele for days while watching the BerlinWall fall in birth city of my father, the beautiful city in which I lived as an adult for 15 years until 3 year before the wall fell.
Yes, there are enduring lessons in history that the truth will triumph, but hardly while the Trump White House is still in power.
4
The Armenian president is correct. Turkey is a weak state. It is a relatively young democracy, still mourning the lose of the Ottoman Empire, still struggling to be a secular state or a theocracy and like many states including the US divided between a rural and metropolitan population.
The Turkish state long standing fear of Kurdish identity is the current example of Turkish lack of confidence.
I share Cohen's optimism based on my observations of my grand children. They recognize the dangers of climate change, theocracy, misogyny, racism, homophobia and xenophobia in how they live their daily lives.
It is as if the 60s have come back.
13
Did the Arab Spring fade to winter? Are Russia and China still ruled by self-dealing elites? Is South Sudan a mess?
Yes. That's all true.
And the needle has hardly moved in the Middle East despite 16 years of lethal meddling.
But in 1970 Spain and Portugal were still fascist dictatorships. In 1960 most of Africa was ruled by European empires. In 1988 the Iron Curtain hung just a few miles from Hamburg and Frankfurt. And at around that same time Venezuela (ironically) was the only country in Latin America that had peacefully transferred power more than once from one party to another as a result of an election.
How anyone can be pessimistic in the face of so much evidence that history's arc is, in fact, bending toward justice is beyond me.
There will be those who resist. In this country we call them Republicans. But progress has been grinding slowly but surely forward since the Neolithic Revolution, and it will not be stopped.
19
Nikol Pashinyan was elected as prime minister by parliament in May 2018 after he spearheaded weeks of mass protests against Serzh Sargsyan, who in 2008 became president amidst violent suppression of anti-government protests.
Last year Sargsyan wanted to stay in power as prime minister after changing the constitution. Protesters piled pressure on the the Republican Party through an unprecedented campaign of civil disobedience.
The velvet revolution had transformed Armenia’s political landscape. In December 2018 Pashinyan called a snap election and the Republicans won no seats. He promised to maintain Armenia's strategic alliance with Russia, after Putin sent his congratulations.
While Stalin’s divide and rule policy was responsible for the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorna-Karabakh (an ethnically Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan), which broke out in 1989, Russia under Boris Jelizin brokered a ceasefire in 1994. As no peace deal was reached, intermittent fighting continues.
In 2015 Armenia officially joined Putin’s Eurasian Economic Union, having decided against signing a EU Association Agreement. It is also part of Russia’s regional military alliance, and Russia has a military base that patrols the border.
The new government and public wish to loosen ties with Russia, strengthen them with Europe, and improve relations with neighbouring countries, including Iran, but it depends heavily on Moscow for security.
5
I admire Roger's optimism in this column--indeed, I always admire it--but my experience has led me to a much more worm's eye view of both history and of the future.
And I suspect that Mother Nature, who always bats last as the saying goes, is going to have her say, and it is going to be louder and more inexorable than anything we humans are going to be able to utter; at the very least the reality of climate change is going to vastly alter our ability to live on this planet and completely change our civilizations, and at the worst we may have a complete breakdown with a return to our own version of the Dark Ages.
Humans love to get caught up in their tribal differences over religion and politics and economics systems, but all of these may become quite irrelevant when we face a considerably more hostile planetary environment. We can only hope that it's true that even the bitterest of enemies can be united by a common . . .infection.
15
"Joachim Gauck, the Lutheran pastor and anti-Communist East German activist who later became president of a united Germany..."
The truth about Joachim Gauck is a bit more complicated. There is no real evidence, other than his own words, that he was an anti-Communist East German activist. He was a pastor that mostly laid low. His name is not amongst the brave pastors who began to stand up to the regime in the mid 1980s.
The phrase “Never Forget” became the lasting slogan of outrage by survivors of the Nazi nightmare of the Holocaust. It still is, although it also became a meme referring to 9/11.
The Armenians, in their diaspora, have repeatedly reminded the civilized world of the nearly successful attempt by the Ottoman Empire to erase Armenia and Armenians in 1915. It happened before the word, “genocide,” was coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1944, and the coverup of the Armenian genocide succeeded partly because of western, chiefly French, collaboration.
The biggest reason the steady murder of Armenians in Anatolia was so thorough was an Ottoman army officer, Mustafa Kemal, who fought as a German ally at Gallipoli during World War I and then four years later deposed the last Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed VI. Kemal modernized the nation and was awarded the surname, Ataturk, father of the Turks.
This seemingly enlightened man, however, continued the slaughter of Armenians.
Roger Cohen is right that optimism in the face of impossible odds may prevail when the struggle is founded on an underlying belief in the rule of law. It happened in East Germany and elsewhere, and it will happen in Hong Kong and in Armenia.
7
Roger Cohen captures the strangeness of today's global realignments.
But he gives short shrift to the real oddity of America's failings when he writes, "The United States, attacked and wounded, tried managed decline, and at last, in wild frustration, elected a loudmouthed con man to its highest office."
The Soviet Union may have fallen apart, but what's replacing it isn't true freedom and opportunity, given the survival of the "old" Russia and it's strongman's rape of resources to buying loyalty with hard cash.
Today's conflicts don't seem so much ideological as mercernary. Wars are fought in cyberspace, winning battles (for truth) without killing a soul.
Of course, what happens when these battles kill the unreplaceable, the soul of a nation? American borders stay the same but our values-- honesty, reliability, justice, generosity-have been extinguished.
9
Enough with the myth that St. Ronnie ended the cold war! It was Saudi Arabia, they opened the oil spigot and bankrupted the Soviets
Will the massive demonstrations against Beijing's PRC by the people of Hong Kong bring down Communism, as the broken Berlin Wall brought down Communism in 1989? The spirit of 1989 is alive in Iraq, Chile, Lebanon and bloodless demonstrations are bringing back hope in those corrupt and undemocratic countries. But in our country, "the U.S. elected...a loudmouthed con man president in 2016" (Cohen 11/02/19), no chances of a bloodless coup in the "Witch Hunt... preposterous hoax" (Trump, Tupelo MI, 11/01/19) of impeachment. Is the spirit of 1989 still alive in America?
No demonstrations against Donald Trump here yet. Though the Democratic Party through the Congress's articles of impeachment are seeking to unseat our 45th President from office, along with his G.O.P. enablers and sychophants. Putin and Xi Jingping aren't ready to fall yet, and for our Republican sui-generis president to fall will require more than a bloodless coup in America. The spirit of 1989 is dead as a doornail in the U.S. today. We await for deliverance without blood in the streets.
1
These times are not conducive to optimism (you can make your own list), even if a few little sprigs appear.
Thanks for a beautiful column about Armenia, one of oldest nations in word, one day on the periphery of the Roman Empire, the other at the heart of the Byzantine Empire, a true hybrid of Europe and Asia, still hybridizing and trying new things.
Putin knows the Turkey is both morally weak and military powerful. Turkey shot down a Russian airplane. But Turkey is a weak spot of NATO. When it comes to controlling Ukraine and the Balkans, Russia and Turkey are enemies. When it comes to weakening US influence, they are friends. Denying the Genocide is weakness.
It must be recognized that Armenia has not been militarily obliterated because of Russia. In the eyes of Russia, an Armenia defeated by Turkey and Azerbaijan (two allies) would concede the Caucasus to Turkic and muslims, pushing away the dream of the third Rome that Moscow has always harbored. But at some point, Russia and Turkey or Iran and Turkey or in a ugly threesome confrontation, things can get to blows, and who knows what happens there. Turkey just got a taste that frontiers can be remade. We are back to drawing board. And Trump's USA decided to drop the pen.
3
Framing the emerging popular and political sentiments in Armenia in a “corrupt rule” prism is interesting but insufficient.
What has happened in Armenia since the 1990s is now a familiar script of liberalization run amuck. Events in Armenia in 2018 (as well as those underway in Lebanon and Chile) reflect a popular revolt against a political and economic regime that has failed to deliver.
One does not have to be a Marxist to recognize the fundamental force responsible for promoting and sustaining dysfunctional governance: neoliberal ideology and practices of privatization, deregulation, and corporate monopoly. Neoliberalism has — more than anything else — contributed to inequality, stagnation, and corruption.
And the masses have increasingly taken to the streets to express resentment of a political-economic system that does not deliver the goods. The challenge is less about “corrupt rule” and more about social justice, equal opportunity, and human dignity.
1
With you until the last sentence. I doubt that the Trump White House or Trump himself will ever recognize the truth if it contradicts their preferred version of events. Trump will always feel victimized, resentful, and betrayed if his personal set of facts (subject to change on a moments notice as convenient) is challenged. "Proof" has no meaning as another conspiracy theory can always be spun; no one other than deep Trump loyalists and sycophants will ever be trusted.
4
Actually, life expectancy dropped significantly in the former "Soviet Republics" following the fall of the Soviet Union. This is because poor people lost access to medical care.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9508159
Overall, the fall of the Berlin Wall was a good thing, but like always there was some serious suffering due to the sudden changes associated with a sudden revolution.
3
Mr. Cohen places far too much hope in democracy. The masses may rise up for democracy but in the end what they get will be something else. The people are not equipped to know what to vote for: everything depends on which elites are chosen to rule in the name but not really by or for the people. As Samuel Johnson said 250 years or so ago, "the people, Sir, is a great beast."
4
I'm writing from a cruise ship in the East China Sea. Among English-speaking passengers, mostly Americans, Canadians, Britons and Australians, conversation is replete with Trumpism, cheers for Brexit, anti-Trudeau envy, anti-immigrant Aussie exceptionalism. Every old cliche gets traded from one nationality's reps to the others. No one seems embarrassed wolfing down double orders of lobster and snails while denouncing Native American and Latino "welfare cheats", First Nations and Quebecois as special pleaders, the EU as "socialists", the Australian left as tree-huggers and spendthrifts.
I've heard praise for Calvin Coolidge ("The business of America is business"); and Boris Johnson ("Finally someone looking out for Britain"); standard denunciations of "socialized medicine" from British tax-exiles and retired American doctors from Florida or Nevada; secessionist rants by rich Albertans; almost unanimous condemnation of Hong Kong youth. Not a harsh word for Putin or even Kim; horror at the mention of Warren, Sanders and Corbyn. My fellow passengers are not hedge-fund managers or cosmopolitan bankers, but epitomize smug, angry middle-class resentment. I can't explain this except to surmise that Trumpism, and its cognates in Canada, Europe, and elsewhere, have permitted public expression of the class hatred and venal Know-Nothingness that had only seemed to have passed into history. Thanks to Mr. Cohen for pointing to some old-fashioned decency somewhere out there.
8
@Martin Daly I liked your comment. Yet what is so wrong on a logical middle class resentment? Indeed Trump's revolution if can be defined that way is baout "liberating their tongue" They can now express freely their hate for the self indulgent political and intellectual elites. These elites also enjoy of good salaries and praise themselves for promoting what an important part of the population ( not a majority though) feel is hateful.
Old fashion decency? I might agree with you, but lets face it.....an important part of our population despise that "decency" and has a different "decency"
4
@Martin Daly
Get off the ship.
Now, more than recent years, the people outside of the U.S. demonstrating for democracy need to see the U.S. exemplify a peaceful remedy to abuse of power (the correlate to a peaceful transition of power).
All the attention on impeachment in the U.S. has been domestic (albeit about abuse of foreign relations—which wouldn't especially bother isolationist Trumpists voters). But collaborative global leadership is necessary.
The exemplarity of American democracy must be restored for the sake of greater global hope, then greater stability, so that humanity can address the shared crises of climate change, sustainability, and residual autocracies through effective global institutions.
14
Though human quest for liberty is eternal yet it is subject to the dynamics of history that also present the hurdles and enertia required to test human resolve and commitment to keep alive this spirit of freedom. Thus the spirit of liberation released after the fall of the Berlin Wall was a short lived euphoria soon to be crushed under the weight of the populist and xenophobic nativist forces, which in itself is on decline now to give way to a new dawn pregnant with new hope and possibilities. That way the spirit of freedom will live on.
11
@Prof. Jai Prakash Sharma. I gather you view history as a see saw. That suggests that freedom will prevail if we put a fat guy on the correct end. Trump is surely the wrong fat guy. Maybe we can resurrect Teddy Roosevelt.
1
The article is an interesting 'pot pourri' of themes as diverse as genocide, water shortage and protest marches. But the real danger to the globe is none of the superficial problems on everyone's front pages: The real problem is the failure of Capitalism to create socio-economic justice. Capitalism has failed, for it has merely created legalised kleptocracies across the globe.
From Beto O'Rourke, who had to withdraw his campaign efforts for lack of money, to the billions across the globe who earn below minimum subsistence levels, the clear lesson is that laws on campaign finance, income taxes, tax evasion and resource distribution must be radically altered. This applies especially to the United States, which should be leading the change instead of opposing it.
100
We're approaching the life expetency of them while Europe moves up in general.
It wasn't so bad to live in Soviet Russia.
It wasn't the best, but it wasn't horrible for most. I'm comparing it with life in the US currently.
Russia vs. the US, and China vs. the US are converging.
I knew it would happen. I think most people of importanct knew it would happen, and they purposely brought down the US to meet China.
It didn't have to happen this way.
They did it anyway.
4
@Dave
Sorry, I really need to correct that statement about life in the Soviet Union being "not so bad". I've worked there. Yes, our level of lying by the government is now reaching Soviet heights, but in the Soviet Union everybody lied, not just the government -- they had to.
And the old Soviet mind-set -- and corruption -- are still going strong, and will continue to be until the generation that learned to govern under the Soviet system finally die off.
Although, come to think of it, the level of corruption in our government is sort of starting to resemble . . .
25
@Linda.... Of course , our president , full of admiration for Putin and other autocrats , is attempting to govern after the ex-KGB operative's playbook . And Trump's enablers in the House and Congress are drooling over the possibilities Russian style Kleptocratic governance would open up to them . We just cant let that happen , they all have to be voted out !
6
@Gerda Bekerman
Vote them all out. Every single one of them, out.
Then go for the lobbyists.
2
We're approaching the life expetency of them while Europe moves up in general.
It wasn't so bad to live in Soviet Russia.
It wasn't the best, but it wasn't horrible for most. I'm comparing it with life in the US currently.
Russia vs. the US, and China vs. the US are converging.
I knew it would happen. I think most people of importanct knew it would happen, and they purposely brought down the US to meet China.
It didn't have to happen this way.
They did it anyway.
3
There is general agreement that hundreds of thousands of Armenians died when the Ottoman Turks deported them en masse from eastern Anatolia to the Syrian desert and elsewhere in 1915-16. They were killed or died from starvation or disease. The dispute regarding genocide concerns the question of premeditation - the degree to which the killings were orchestrated. And historians around the world are divided on this question.
Mr. Cohen suggests that Turkish genocide is beyond dispute. But there is no question that it is widely disputed.
The House vote on the genocide question was overwhelmingly in favor. And it reflected the overwhelming condemnation of Turkish aggression in Northern Syria.
Anyone paying attention knows that the House vote had nothing to do with historical fact -- it was all about political opposition to Turkey. The timing makes this obvious. Our Congressmen chose to condemn the Turks of a century ago because of what Erdogan did a week earlier. Across the aisle, in overwhelming numbers, Congress prostituted itself and took a stand on a historical matter under dispute in order to placate public opinion regarding the Turks and the Kurds and the indefensible withdrawal of American troops by Trump.
After a hundred years of sitting on the fence, the House adopted the Armenian view with absolutely no debate of the matter. This is not a victory for the truth. And It may be as sound a defeat for the truth as any House vote ever.
16
What is called "the Armenian genocide" was a fight between the Armenians, the Turks and the Kurds. The Armenians were right to demand a land of their own. Unfortunately for them they were all around Anatolia, islands in the vast sea of the Turks and the Kurds. Their uprising was met moving almost all Armenians (400 000 remained in Anatolia) to Syria, an Ottoman province. As in every war, the innocents suffered most, the children (many were left behind with neighbors and lived as Muslims), the women and the innocent peasants.
2
A nice sentiment" The truth will out. Even the Trump White House will one day discover this".
Another nice sentiment: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice"
It's comforting to think that the Trump White House will "discover" something, or have to face something, or be accountable, or that their lies and misdeeds will one day be overtaken by truth. But there is no reason that this has to happen, or happen within our lifetimes, or without enormous misery and pain.
Human affairs, alas, are not destined for "justice" by some natural law, or cosmic fate. We are just as likely to be enslaved by autocracy and lies, for decades or longer, or experience more conflict, bloodshed, and backward sliding.
We should know by now that Americans are not immune from the idiocies and weaknesses that have plagued other societies. So at this juncture, I am not so sanguine that the Trump White House will "discover" or face truth - at least not before an enormous amount of suffering is borne.
As John Maynard Keynes wrote: "In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons then can only tell us that when the storm is long past the ocean is flat again".
And so it is with Cohen's hope, and with the moral arc. The arc may bend toward justice, but many of us may be long gone before the arc bends in the direction we seek.
50
You cited two statements from the column to introduce and conclude your comment as to say of the probable impossibility for two kinds of justice: human and above-human. You called the latter cosmic justice, which the faithful renames divine justice, which though, is the same as the cosmic for people regarding God as a vehicle of universal phenomena.
I disagree with you on your lamentation. That one day in the far future beyond our lifetime (which means the lifetime of NYT readers today), justice will or may be reached at the end of arc is a bending pessimism, may I dare to say?
To me, Armenian President’s words are straightforward interests. Very speedily, our time is entering the unprecedented newness. *Every* individual will soon find the way to express each voice for any or all matters of importance. Publicly open digital media can be abused and misused on different levels, that is an ongoing fact. Nevertheless, human strength in morality will be able to direct algorithms’ data collection, and it would become naturally a norm over the misuse of digital means, I predict. When happening, that would break through the old norm of time and life in our concept.
@Space Needle. As you no doubt know, the notion that we must endure suffering is the teaching of Christ. Hedonists are widely looked down upon. But as those of us who are not religious know, a life without suffering is acceptable. And it's much better for your complexion.
I always like reading Roger Cohen's columns. But this one has to be my favorite. Is both well thought-out and well versed. A big-brushed tribute to the historical events 30 years ago with deft analysis of what happened since. Yes, history did not end after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It has taken a curved and bumpy path. Despite the all the ills of today, Roger Cohen still retains--and he wants us to share with him--a strong sense of optimism. I certainly hope he is right, for we must be hopeful of the future.
36
@LBob Response to LBob, It is hard to be hopeful.
The Armenian president is right: Taking responsibility for an act of evil - in this instance, the genocidal campaign waged by Turkey against Armenians - is a praiseworthy gesture. The refusal to do so is an indication that intolerance simmers. The recent war against Kurds validates that concern.
In fairness to Turkey, only a handful of countries have had the courage to take responsibility for past actions. Nevertheless, nations' cowardice and malignancy in refusing to atone for past atrocities, do not excuse Turkey's denial. It is a member of NATO - an organization that was founded to defend Western liberalism. Armenia, Kurds, Turkish ultra-nationalism, President Erdogan's authoritarian leadership and the country pivoting toward Russia are signs that Turkey is no longer compatible with NATO.
59
"One enduring lesson of 1989 is that the truth will out. Even the Trump White House will one day discover this."
Let's hope that this discovery does not come too late for the rest of us.
Why do Americans have such difficulty peacefully taking to the streets en masse in the ways we see in so many other countries? That is the real question. How bad does it have to get?
A famous person once said that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
We need to keep these words in mind as they continue to echo through the corridors of time.
60
@Blue Moon
We're too damn busy working the three jobs it takes to survive in the US. We can't take time to demonstrate in the streets or we'll be fired from at least one of them.
How bad does it have to get? We're already long past the point where we should have been demonstrating en masse. But we're just too damn beaten down by forty years of corruption disguised as "business friendly" policy. What is really needed is general strikes. Do you see that happening? I do not. I wish I could be more optimistic.
5
@pedigrees
Don't worry. It will be bad enough soon enough. Then there will be plenty of unemployed people to take to the streets to protest. We don't want to wait for that to happen during a second term for Trump. We need to do the best we can with what we have, and the time is now.
MoveOn.org is planning nationwide protests on the eve of impeachment. Can you find time for that?
3
"Even the Trump White House will one day discover this."
Sooner rather than later, we hope.
An uplifting piece. Thank you!
12
A bloodless revolution is also a collapse of what was. It just folds its tent and slinks away in failure and shame. Nobody defends it, not its police, not even its office holders.
Yes, we are seeing that level of failed governance all over the world.
We very nearly have it here at home too.
31
@Mark Thomason
This country would never have a bloodless revolution akin to the one of the unarmed East German's tearing down the Wall of the city I used to live in before 1989.
In a country that has more guns than people, some Toms, Dicks and even Harriets might use them in order to protect their so-called freedom.
2
@Mark Thomason very nearly?
2