The academic side of the issue

Earlier this week an excellent article appeared on Inside Higher Ed. It focuses on the area where the Turkish side would like to see the debate about whether there actually was an Armenian genocide move to, namely that of historians and academic scholars, not that of parliaments and politicians. The "problem" is, that among scholars there is no longer really a discussion about whether it actually was a genocide:

So many experts in the field say that the debate over genocide is settled, and that credible arguments against the idea of a genocide just don't much exist. The problem, many say, is that the evidence the Turks say doesn't exist does exist, so people have moved on.[...]What's happening now [Andras Riedlmayer, a librarian of Ottoman history at Harvard University] said, outside of those trying to deny what took place, "isn't that the discussion has diminished, but that the discussion is more mature." He said that there is more research going on about how and why the killings took place, and the historical context of the time. He also said that he thought there would be more research in the works on one of "the great undiscussed issues of why successive Turkish governments over recent decades have found it worthwhile to invest so much political capital and energy into promoting that historical narrative," in which it had been "fudging" what really happened."

The full article can be found here.

Sign of life

I know I have gone MIA since I last posted here (well, uh, that was also my first post here). The reason is that I have had too much on my plate in the past month or six weeks, among them moving to my very own apartment and a good friend ending up in hospital as a result of a car-accident (in Armenia lying in hospital means that your relatives are supposed to stay with you and take care of you. I was part of the care-taking brigade so I spent about three days in hospital). And those are only a few of the things I have been dealing with.

I am trying to juggle a lot of balls and that just does not include writing blog posts at the moment. I think that ball dropped to the floor already a while ago, together with following the news and looking for blog-worthy topics. I will be back, hopefully soon, as things are slowly, slowly falling into their places again and I will be able to find my energy and time back. This is not meant as an excuse, just as an explanation why I seem to have disappeared from the face of the earth.

Editor's note, Hans:
Friends of Myrthe were involved in a traffic accident: one died, two badly injured, and one escaped... This can happen to us; where we live, doesn't matter. Drive safely!

Who is she?

Some of you may know about me from my comments on this blog or may have even been reading my blog The Armenian Odar. For those who don't I'll just tell you a bit about me.

Like Hans, I am originally from Holland, and like him, I left my native country and ended up living on the other side of Europe, in Armenia in my case. I moved to Yerevan almost three years ago, after traveling back and forth between Holland and Armenia for over four years.

I guess there's something I like about the country and the people, otherwise I wouldn't have stayed and made my home there. ;-) This doesn't mean that I am not critical about Armenia, its people, its leaders and its Diaspora. There is lots of room for change without the country losing its character and culture. But that's for later posts.

When Hans asked me about my profession to put in the sidebar, I send a text message back: That's a good question: What IS my profession? I work part time at an international IT-company, this is the job that pays the bills and that I would trade in any time for something more interesting and less brain-killing. I work part time at an NGO in Yerevan that works on women's (rights) issues as a program manager, website-administrator and general IT-savvy person around. This is the job that I do because I love it, the people are nice, the work is interesting and I learn things and new skills. Finally, I teach Dutch to private students, which is something I rolled into by accident, but I ended up enjoying teaching. I guess Hans picked the right one (even though I am not a practicing lawyer), as that is the job I like best and that is in the direction of what I really want to do for a living.

When Hans asked me to join him, Vasilli and Yasemin as co-blogger, it wasn't hard to say yes. But at the same time part of me was thinking: "What am I getting myself into?" What with all the problems and the history between Turkey and Armenia. I am sure sensitive subjects or discussions will sooner or later come up, but I am not here to impose my opinions on anyone, let alone spread hatred. I just want to share with you pieces of life in Armenia, the way I see things here and issues that are 'in the news' here. Things like that.

So, I hope you'll enjoy my posts here.