… or how I went to Erzurum by bus

In the bus I woke up in the middle of the night. I could see the landscape just next to the road. In the moonlight with stones lying around it looked like on some different planet. I thought once again that it was a very good idea to go by bus and slept further. Next time I woke up the sun was shining in my eyes. Cold early morning, first sunrays. In the big bus there were 8 men. I wasa the only woman. No houses around, stones, no trees, river valley. Then passing an abandoned village full of concrete bungalows of the same model. I thought, but the soviets, who liked the concrete architecture were not here? No, not soviets. These were Turkish buildings.

I wondered, who live in these places. Many kurdish. People that would not be the first that would cry out TURKIYE GUZEL, meaning Turkey is megacoolbeautiful, that so many people from small to old would tell me in the same manner and doing the same gesture of the Italian cook. Kurdistan.

Before 1912 here lived also many Armenians. And many others before them though the thousands and thousands of centuries.

Erzurum. Concrete blockhouses. Erzurum was seen by ancient Armenians as paradise. In earlier days it must have been a place in a very fruitful valley, and comparing to the harsh mountains it would make sense to see it as paradise. But it definitely changed from that time.

The 2 mln years old skull found in Dmanisi in Georgia lead the archeologists to the conclusion, that first people came from Africa to Caucasus and further spread to Europe and Asia, when the land did not provide enough food. Some time around 12 thousands years ago (10.000 B.C) this region (or rather more south from here, in the valleys of Tigris and Eurphratus) was overpopulated. The Sumer city of Uruk or later Babylon (in Irak) had more around 80.000 inhabitants in 6 square kilometers and was the first megapolis of these days. The climate changed slowly also because the wooden areas were cut and the land was used to an extreme extent. Most probably it applied also for these places. Since now Erzurum does not look like paradise at all. Very cold winters and very hot summers make this place not the easiest to live in.

There are also no Armenians left here to think it as of paradise. Except maybe Hemsinli. Muslims of Armenian origin were not killed during the Armenian genocide. And few must have survived. Since Armenian women left their babies on the streets before they were killed. And raised in Kurdish families. Many Kurdish participated in the killings, but many also raised Armenian children.

So, I was wondering once again, who is going to tell who is bad and who is good? Armenian, Turkish, Kurdish, Jews or Germans?

Nationalism can be used so easily to make people kill each other, just as it happens in so many places of the world. A perfect example of `split and rule’ is the Abhasian conflict in Georgia, or actually any other conflict here in Caucasus.

Some people in power are smart in a nasty manner. Make people believe in their national superiority, give them weapons, destabilize the region and rule! Some politicians in Russia seem to know these principle too well. This is how it goes, since people in Caucasus are proud people, very proud of their nationality.

The sad thing is that most of the people don’t realize that indirectly they are feeding these wars – by cultivating their national identity. Caucasus seems to forget, that through the ages all the kingdoms and states that might have existed here were always multicultural, and here to en extreme extent. There are more than 30 languages in Caucasus. Which is more important of them? Georgian, Svanetian, Mingrelian, or Ubykh, spoken maybe be a handful of people in a small village? Anyway, the result of the cultivated extreme national feeling could lead to a first desired state of monoculture.

In Armenia almost 98% of population is Armenian. Don’t want to make any negative predictions, but at least for biology this rule applies – monocultures have less possibilities to survive, than multicultures.

What a crazy century. Greece, Turkey, Serbia, Armenia, the places that used to be multicultural through the centuries turned or strive to turn to monocultures. The saddest thing is that most people don’t realize that all these wars are actually not national.

Wars nowadays are economical. But its very easy to cover their real nature with national flags. While singing national hymns hardly anyone pays attention to the silent omni presence of Coca Cola.

or things like this: http://candycactus.net/qdig/?Qwd=./6.%20Georgia&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=M