Another new guy? Oh I have a story too...

Surprise! Another new blogger for cilicia... my name is Levon btw, you might have read my ultra famous (or not so famous) blog http://eastwestarmos.blogspot.com/

Ok so chances are you haven't read it (hence the shameless plug). Well onto bigger and better things I suppose, I will try my hand at cilicia blogs, a brief bio then an interesting story...

Name: Levon
Location: Los Angeles (Pasadena)
Organizations involved with: Alpha Epsilon Omega; An Armenian fraternity.. yes you heard me, there's an Armenian fraternity! Shameless plug #2: http://www.alphaepsilonomega.org/

Other info can be found on my other blog, now to the story

So my university has a National Model UN team where every year we go to New York for a week and compete at the national conference. I was in it last year and this year, my final year. Our team is made up of people from around the world: a handful of indians, a brazilian, latinos, whites, and of course the token Armenian guy (me). But last year there was a Turkish fellow on our team. Now, relations weren't the greatest between us, I mean, they were polite and cordial but we kept it at that. Although it may seem like a pain to be on the same team as a Turk, it was a learning experience because not only did I have to tolerate it, but I had to be on the same team as him! I'm sure the feelings were mutual, however I realized halfway through it that as much as it bugged me that there was a Turk on the team, it bugged him just as much that there was an Armenian on the team. I later learned, through talking to others about the genocide, that it really irked him when I talked about it. I never talked to him openly about it, mainly because I knew he was a denier, but others noticed the tension and would approach us individually about the issue. Well, eventually he graduated last year and I had the fortune to redo the experience this year without him. But the other day I learned through a friend an interesting tale about this Turkish fellow that put things into perspective...

Apparently the guy was walking in the Glendale Galleria and was appraoch by a group of Armenians, 4 to be exact, who noticed that his keychain brandished the Turkish flag (not a smart thing to do in Glendale) and the group of Armenians later assaulted him. Apparently when he was telling this story to a friend of mine he was visibly upset at the experience. Yet although he openly admitted contempt for those extreme Armenians, the ones that jumped him, I don't suppose he has a universal animosity towards us.

It really puts things into perspective, when I hear about stories like this. Just imagine if I walked into Ankara brandishing an Armenian flag and suddently get assaulted, just like my ancestors did. Now, obviously that's wrong, so I can't help but sympathize for the guy who got assaulted just because.... of who he was. A terrible thought, although I understand where the Armenians are coming from, it still leaves a mark on this fragile thing called Armenian-Turkish relations...