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A 21st Century Zartonk: An iRevival in the Modern Age of iFedayees

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  • A 21st Century Zartonk: An iRevival in the Modern Age of iFedayees

    A 21st Century Zartonk: An iRevival in the Modern Age of iFedayees

    http://asbarez.com/112664/a-21st-century-zartonk-an-irevival-in-the-modern-age-of-ifedayees/
    Friday, August 9th, 2013

    Armenian youth assemble to protest in Los Angeles

    95 years of questioning the reality of planned, brutal mass
    executions, the ethnic cleansing of a people from their place is far
    too long. Up against a looming deadline, a threat of losing their
    history and identity, a new generation of Armenians is waking up to an
    economic collapse, disappearing Diasporas, and questionable
    leadership. The time has come for modern-day Fedayees to take action,
    to use modern technologies and create global media messages about
    their legacy, history, and their future. This is our prophecy.

    BY PAUL CHADERJIAN AND ALLEN YEKIKAN

    At twenty-four minutes past four o'clock on the afternoon of April 24,
    a war for cultural survival wages on the streets of this metropolis.
    In the fight of their lifetime are young Armenians on the sidewalks of
    Wilshire, changing the rules, questioning Baby Boomer values,
    inventing a new movement, and sending a message to the world that
    justice will be served and their ancient culture will survive and
    thrive.

    On the front lines of this epic war are the Digital Natives,
    Generation Z, armed with nothing more than their cell phones, cameras,
    and their laptop computers. This war is a battle for cultural revival,
    a battle to re-energize the Armenian spirit in the far corners of the
    Diaspora and in suffocated and abused community like Javakhk. This
    fight is for the universal acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide and
    global recognition of the independent Republic of Karabagh. This
    battle for national survival is not only being waged on these streets
    of La La Land but in the abstract place called the Internet.

    Why is this generation - born into the most pampered of lives - out on
    the sidewalks instead of sipping beers at a beach-side cantina off the
    Pacific, on rides in Disneyland, or in the great malls of commerce,
    shopping, eating, or enjoying a Saturday afternoon matinee?

    Where is this sense of injustice and this passion for change coming
    from? How is their passion being fueled? Why does the world outside
    their suburban lives matter more now than ever before? And why does a
    95-year-old crime against their ancestors warrant the display of such
    passion - nearly a century later and a world away - on the streets of
    California?

    A Generation in Question
    Perhaps these question's are because the progeny of the Genocide has
    awakened to an uncertain, apocalyptic future. A new generation of
    young men and women are coming of age to the threat that their
    lifestyles may be a memory of the good old days.

    Young people are opening their eyes to headlines that those in their
    20s and 30s are facing 50% unemployment. Their jobs have been shipped
    off to China and India. Their universities are broke and have no room
    for new students. Their forests are cut down and natural resources
    fast depleting.Their bankrupt government is waging unnecessary wars
    overseas, throwing billions of dollars in smart bombs on foreign
    lands, and their corrupt leaders throwing billions of bonuses to those
    sociopath capitalists who bankrupted a bogus financial industry.

    Perhaps their stark realities are now coming into focus because they
    wake up to accusations that their very existence as Armenians is based
    on a lie. This rabid movement is being ignited because they turn on
    CNN to hear the Turkish Prime Minister say that there had been no such
    thing as Genocide and that Armenians had been the criminals that
    victimized the Turks.

    Baby Boomers' democratic leaders have not only failed at setting the
    record straight on the Genocide, but they have also failed at
    guaranteeing that our way of life can be sustainable for the next
    generation and for generations to come.

    Youth today are threatened with the possibility of never owning their
    own homes, not affording to go on vacations to their ancestral
    Homeland, and no longer being able to afford to provide an Armenian
    education to their children or keeping the doors of their ancient
    churches open that is fueling the crisis.

    How does their government and their President get away with destroying
    their future and making empty promises like `change.' Hadn't Mr. Obama
    promised Genocide recognition? Wasn't he now turning his back on his
    promises and bowing down to the lying Ottoman politicians of the 21st
    century?

    21st Century Re-awakening
    The activists in the 6300 block of Wilshire are following a noble
    path, a path traversed by their forefathers. One which they were
    destined to retrace.

    When they realized the older generations, in their affluent
    self-assurance, wasn't going to listen to their ideas about cultural
    preservation and nationhood, this generation looked back to their
    people's history. They found inspiration in stories about fools and
    revolutionaries who dared to question authority. They found hope in
    the actions of those in the late 19th century who ventured into the
    villages and founded schools, and who brought the European
    enlightenment to the Armenian countryside.

    >From Madras/Chanai to Venice/San Lazzaro, in the seminaries, merchant
    communities, and universities of the Armenian Diaspora, Armenians of
    the day began to look toward their Homeland with despair. They sought
    solutions to the nation's problems. Having grown tired of being told
    what they couldn't do by their parents, these individuals began to
    imagine a better future. They envisioned it and then worked to create
    it.

    What began as a spark became a movement of awakening, a Zartonk, and
    it spread like a modern-day viral video across the Armenian world. The
    medium of that era was not the Internet but the printing press.
    Newspapers, pamphlets, and books created a Diaspora-wide dialogue
    about cultural, linguistic and social demands. The printing press
    created a consciousness and awareness that resulted in change.

    In the 1700s when Armenians were living under foreign rule, Armenians
    in the Diaspora experienced the Age of Enlightenment and closely
    followed the French and American independence movements and the births
    of democracies.

    As the framers of the US constitution were dreaming up their new
    nation, free from British rule, Armenians like Shahamir Shahamirian
    were thinking up a bill of rights for Armenians and a means for
    liberation from Turkish oppression. Their weapon was a printing press,
    which spread new ideas to the masses.

    Through the printed word, ancient tales of heroic exploits and battles
    were brought to life, dialogue about democratic governance and social
    justice were popularized, and Armenian students studying in the
    universities of Europe were given a struggle in which to believe.

    Armenians in the Age of Enlightenment gave birth to young enlightened
    thinkers, selfless teachers, and the fearless Fedayees.

    The iPeople
    One of the historic acts of the enlightened Armenians was the
    development a modern language that could be understood by the masses.
    This Askharabahr became the language of their revolution. It defied
    the Church and authority to become the medium through which dreams and
    means for emancipation and liberation were conveyed.

    Today, 21st century Fedayees also have a new way to speak the language
    of the new masses. Their Ashkharabahr-the language of their world-is
    the Internet and social media. This new media in the age of
    hyper-connectivity is the foundation of this reawakening. That any two
    or ten million Armenians anywhere can come together at anytime through
    the unfathomable global access of the Internet is what makes the
    iZaronk a reality.

    Armed with their laptops, cell and smart phones, this new breed of
    freedom fighter is waging a struggle for freedom from their people's
    established norms, norms which are staid and are slowly suffocating if
    not killing a new generation of young Armenians. Clear, concise
    messages, video images in abundance, passionate Armenians speaking up,
    jumping in front of their cameras, getting behind their iPhones,
    punching their keyboards with words small and big - these are what can
    and will turn around a people in a deep sleep in the early years of
    the 21st Century. The time has come, and the alarm is sounding; the
    war of yesterday is now the war in Cyberspace. The weapon is new
    media.

    Armen loads his video camera with a fresh tape. His batteries are
    charged. His tripod is set-up. He has his MacBook, and he's on the
    front lines of the Armenian Cause in the 21st Century. He knows that
    supremacy in the information age is getting his messages heard, using
    the information superhighways prolifically, and producing sexy, viral
    messages that are watched by millions of people, scoring thousands of
    hits on the net.

    Varant is clicking photos of police officers guarding the Consulate
    doors. He's uploading them with captions via his BlackBerry to
    thousands who are checking his real-time Facebook updates.

    These youth are on the front lines of the Internet, where video,
    audio, and viral messaging can help Armenians reach the tipping point
    into nationhood, where democracy and social justice prevail; ensure
    cultural survival; secure the international recognition of the
    Armenian Genocide; achieve autonomy and self-rule in Javakhk, and
    protect the inalienable right of self-determination of the people of
    the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh.

    Cameras are a modern weapon of the iFedayee

    Alina clicks away all day, texting friends, posting messages,
    videotaping images. She is not wasting her time communicating about
    which movie she saw or who is dating whom. Instead, she is living and
    breathing the Armenian Cause, by making the issues on the table more
    intriguing than what and who is walking on the red carpet or getting
    drunk in Vegas.

    Like Armen, Varant and Alina, thousands of Armenian youth today have
    greater power than any government, than any conglomerate, than any
    old-world call-to-arms. Their war of a lifetime is waged through
    thoughts, through outspokenness, and through clicks on their
    communications technologies.

    The time has come for a 21st century Zartonk, a national revival using
    the new weapons of modern civilization -the communications tools that
    every citizen of the world either has access to or knows someone with
    access. These tools, cameras, keyboards, editing software, iPad and
    iPods, FlipCams and iPhones, are all what can create the iZartonk.

    iMedia
    >From the dance halls of the Ani barakhoomp, to the Armenian language
    classes at Mesrobian, from the film sets of the aspiring filmmakers,
    to the performances of young playwrights, iZartonk is Armenians
    breaking free of their pedagogical restrains, free of the capitalist
    poison of accruing more wealth, free of the game of politics.

    Along the way, young Armenians are using their Internet connections
    and their keyboards to not only report about what their generation is
    doing toward their community's collective goal of cultural
    preservation, but they are also using all these platforms of media and
    communication to ask the questions that needs to be asked. They are
    asking each other, expressing their opinions, spreading unique stories
    about the Armenian-American experience and challenging each other for
    new dreams, new ideas, and calls to action.

    What should we believe in? What should we stand for? What should be
    our plans? How do we protect our community and our rights? These are
    the messages that are floating back-and-forth on the Information
    Superhighway. Instead of banal messages on Facebook about what people
    are having for dessert, how about asking what is a good insurance
    carrier or where there are new job openings? Instead of feeding the
    livestock on Farmville or repeating a joke from a morally bankrupt
    cartoon on cable, why not promote a group fighting to stop capitalist
    endeavors destroying the Earth?

    iFedayees
    The iFedayees want a say in what their community stands for, what the
    collective should focus on, not merely accept the ways of their
    parents' world. They want to decide whether this community needs
    multi-million dollar cathedrals, lavish banquet halls, and obscene
    weddings and parties - all which are depleting resources that could
    otherwise go towards timeless endeavors.

    iFedayees must roll up their sleeves and know more than just their
    people's history. They must also learn about the climate of the world,
    the Chinese economy, the worlds of the Islam and the South Americas,
    and how all these factors shape their modern Armenian-American
    experience.

    iFedayees must learn, they must take a stand, and they must be
    involved in every aspect of their lives and hence their future. This
    is what revolutionaries do; and this is what young Armenians must do
    to ensure the survival of their six-thousand year-old-culture and
    nation - be it in the Homeland or in its vast and ever-relocating
    Diaspora.

    iDo and iWill
    In today's Armenian media, instead of stories about the legendary
    heroes of the people who took up arms to protect their fellow
    Armenians, there are stories of the mafiosos stealing from the
    government, the masses, and each other. Instead of notions of equal
    rights and freedoms, instead of stories of revolutionaries in the
    turn-of-the-century Anatolia who inspired a nation and defied the odds
    to found an independent republic amid the ashes of Genocide, community
    broadcasters are promoting Armenian criminals as the heroes of the
    day.

    Instead of preaching and promoting service to community and to others,
    Armenian media is selling laser hair removal, lap bands, and
    glamorizing those who take from the innocent, those who kill for
    financial gain, and those who have no morality and humanity. These are
    not the role models today's young people are seeking., and these
    broadcasters needed to know that the viewer always has the last word.

    Armenian youth take part in the AYF's Little Armenia Beautification Project

    The solution is for every Armenian to become a media practitioner,
    participate in creating and using alternative media and ignore the
    obnoxious mainstream media outlets. Ignore the info-tainment on your
    cells, computers, and television channels and hear what alternative
    media sources are saying. What do Link TV reports say about the
    European headlines? What are the Arabic channels reporting about the
    Middle East? What are blogs saying about the Homeland? And what is the
    individual Armenian saying?

    After you learn and listen, become a media content creator by picking
    up your audio recorder, your notepad, your video camera, and record
    your voice, broadcast it to your friends. Even if you don't have the
    answers, ask the questions, put your concerns on paper or on videotape
    and send them off into Cyberspace.

    Every single Armenian should take it upon him or herself to write a
    few paragraphs or videotape 30 to 60 second news reports to let others
    in our community know what everyone else is doing as members of the
    `Armenians.'

    We saw a glimpse of how powerful and active our community became when
    hundreds of thousands of you followed the Asbarez and Horizon TV
    during the committee vote on the Genocide Resolution, the Protocol
    protests, the hunger strike, and the Armenian President's visit around
    the Diaspora. Thousands watched ANC YouTube videos; Asbarez and
    Horizon pages had thousands of hits; and AYF members reported the news
    by videotaping interviews from the front lines and posting it for
    Armenians and non-Armenians around the world to watch.

    The momentum that we glimpsed and that we collectively created around
    the Stop the Protocols campaign was unprecedented. Our story and our
    collective engagement with the creation of media was viral. Not only
    did we engage the story, but we engaged our peers and made them
    active. On top of that success, our viral messages reached mainstream
    media, the LA Times, and all the television networks. Our Tweets and
    iPhone videos reached the `Tipping Point' and put our people at the
    forefront, at least for two weeks, during the Information Age.

    But why stop now? Why not continue this grassroots Armenian revolution
    of the 21st century and continue and build upon the creation of media
    messages as we did during the Protocols Campaign. And why stop at
    Facebook and Twitter? Why not report about all of our individual and
    community successes to our own media network. And why stop with our
    media? Why not write letters to editors, engage your lawmakers, create
    YouTube videos, submit stories to Current TV, Reddit, CNN iReports,
    and other media outlets?

    This reawakening, this iZartonk, is based on your participation, you
    sharing your small and big steps, ideas, concerns, and news items in
    this whirlpool of information. The revolution, the change, can
    continue if you and your friends, colleagues, the Armenian
    community-at-large, and the world knows what we are all talking about.

    Share your news, share what's new and different, promote your
    successes, highlight and advertise whatever makes you proud by
    writing, videotaping, blogging, Tweet-ing and Facebook-ing. If you
    have a keyboard, you're a journalist. If you have a video camera,
    you're a reporter.

    Take creating media one step further and find the candidates who are
    concerned about your concerns and vote them into office. If those
    candidates aren't there, then you run for office, be it for your
    university board of regents, your town parish, church council, city
    council, or state or federal offices. A democracy serves the masses
    only when the masses serve the democracy, when they vote, when they
    express their concerns, and when they go door-to-door talking to
    people.

    Why should your government, your democracy, your representatives on
    Capitol Hill NOT vote for Genocide recognition. That question should
    be enough to make you ponder whether they really care about justice
    and have your best interest in their hearts. Or are they merely
    banking on empty promises so that they can sustain their cushy jobs
    and their affluent lifestyles and donors?

    If your representatives in government aren't providing what you need
    them to provide, if they aren't worried about your future, your
    career, your education, if they are able to convince you that your
    government needs to wage war overseas instead of fixing roads,
    developing new industries and renewable energy sources, then their
    tenure as public servants is over.

    Now it's your turn. Participate in the reawakening of the Armenian
    spirit, create media, voice your concerns, vote, and talk to people.

    Remember, in the Information Age, we are on an equal playing field
    with anything that mainstream news organizations are producing. Your
    thoughts, your concerns, your opinions are as valid as those of the
    pundits who are using the mainstream channels that are in the business
    of making money by gathering the most eyeballs at any given time.

    Don't patronize mass media to appease their shareholders with bigger
    profits. Instead, create your own media and change the game. Whether
    you attended a protest rally on April 24, attended a book signing,
    wrote a play, or heard a new artist, everything is relevant to your
    community.

    So speak up, speak loud and participate in the reawakening of the
    Armenian Soul through iZartonk.

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