song for theme #37A: Proud Nationalism

“Proud to be Anatolian…Armenian…Athenian” by Stephen P. Cook

to be sung to the tune of Proud to be An American by Lee Greenwood

It means so much to me:

The heritage where I belong

But it’s complicated

My forebears didn’t much get along

I’d say celebrating it requires three songs

And even those could not begin

To right all the wro—oongs

First I’m proud to be Anatolian¹,

Living in modern Turkey

Homeland of Indo-European

Language diversity²

It began at Catalhoyuk³

And was fought for at Galipoli⁴

And by our father Ataturk⁵

Turkey’s nationality

And I’m proud to be an Armenian⁶

And hear you call me Hye⁷

In Yerevan⁸ with Mount Ararat⁹

Or here seeking to glorify

Our past as the first nation

To adopt Christianity¹⁰

And after genocide¹¹ and occupation¹²

Today being free

And I’m proud to be an Athenian¹³

My mother used to say

Logos’¹⁴ triumph over chaos

Gave us the Greek way

Men like Socrates and Plato

Inspired democracy

And building a world on reason

The key to being free

SONG—NOTES / COMMENTS

1—From Anatolia, the westernmost protrusion of Asia sometimes called Asia Minor.

2—The oldest written versions of this language family, spoken by three billion people today, are from here.

3—One of the first proto-cities, this Neolithic site is 9500 years old. It was once home to ~10,000 people.

4—This World War I battle site—where huge numbers of young men died in a protracted invasion battle—is not only important to

      Turkey’s heritage, but also to Australians’ and New Zealanders’.

5—Mustafa Kemal Ataturk  (1881-1938) was modern Turkey’s founder. Roughly speaking, what George Washington did for the

     United States, Ataturk did for Turkey (and perhaps then some!)

6—From Armenia, a small mountainous country east of Turkey.

7—In Armenian, this word describes one as an Armenian (just as USA citizens call themselves Americans.)

8—The capital of modern Armenia.

9—In the Bible’s Old Testament, this is where Noah’s ark came to rest. It lies on the border between Turkey and Armenia.

10—This happened in 301 AD, twenty or so years before Christianity became the Roman Empire’s religion.

11—Over one million Armenians were killed in the 1915-1917 genocide: deliberate, systematic mass slaughter of an ethnic,

        political or cultural group.  Turkey denies responsibility and claims the deaths were part of a civil war in the region (which

       was already engulfed in World War I).

12—Briefly independent from 1918 to 1920, Armenia was incorporated into the Soviet Union until 1991.

13—From Athens, the capital of modern Greece, and the birthplace of democracy in the fifth century BC.

14—To Aristotle (384-322 BC) logos meant “reasoned discourse”èthe idea of an orderly universe

 Comment: this theme has value as emotional armor: 1) joining others offers strength protecting against feeling alone fears, 2) feeling part of a heritage offers continuity and protection from feeling isolated, alone. But behind this theme’s “feel good” joining, as was discussed in Part Id,  may be (oxytocin fueled) prejudice, outgroup derogation, ethnocentrism, etc. potentially leading to conflict and violence.