By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
In contrast to the obscene and threatening e-mail Rauf
Zeynalov (an Azeri university student) had sent on April 30th to
Garen Vrtanesyan, the web master of an Armenian web-site, he
sent in response to our last week's column an e-mail full of
regrets and apologies.
In his e-mail addressed to the "readers of The California
Courier," Zeynalov repeatedly expressed his regrets for
offending Armenians. In fact, in his letter, the word "apology"
appears 12 times and the word "sorry" 4 times. Here is his
lengthy and rambling letter:
"I am writing in order to ask for apology for a recent
incident happened with an e-mail I send (sic) to Ms. Karen [Mr.
Garen] Vrtanesyan. First of all, I would like to ask for sincere
apologies to everyone who has been affected and hurt from my
letter. I understand that a lot of people are hurt because of my
words, and I am ready to apologize to everyone, and I hope one
day I will have your forgiveness. With this letter, I ask for
apology of all readers of The California Courier, and for
apology of everyone that has been harmed from my words.
"Second, I would like to explain the situation and why this
incident happened. At the time of writing the letter to
Vrtanesyan, I lost myself due to my emotions and I forgot that
the language I was using should never be used. As everyone knows
the Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia has
resulted in death of lots of innocent people from both sides.
And during these conflicts, as a resident of Karabakh, we lost
our relatives, house, and assets and became a refugee in Baku,
Azerbaijan. We have been settled in a hostel in the capital of
Azerbaijan, with four family members. All of these problems made
me very emotional and when I read an article in
www.armenianhouse.org about an Azerbaijani soldier, I became
victim of my emotions when I was writing to Vrtanesyan. All of
these reasons that I have mentioned above made me quite
emotional and made me forget what kind of language I was using
in my letter to Vrtanesyan.
"But after analyzing the case deeply, I understood that
whatever the reasons are, I should not use that type of language
with anyone. So I would like to ask my sincere apologies. I am
not such type of person who is using that kind of language and I
would like to say that the language type which was used by me
was only and only result of my emotions for that time. In order
to prove myself and to show that I am not that kind of person,
and I am really sorry for being victim of my emotions, I would
like to apologize to Vrtanesyan and to all readers of The
California Courier. The incident that happened with Vrtanesyan
was due to losing myself in my emotions for very short time. I
regretted writing that letter immediately after I send (sic) it,
but it was too late, because a lot of people were hurt from my
action. I want to ask sorry (sic) to everyone, and I hope that
everyone accepts my apologies.
"I am really aware of my action, I am really aware of the
damage my actions caused, and I would like to ask once more
apologies of everyone, for using slang type of language in my
letter to Vrtanesyan. I am extremely sorry for my action and I
would like to say that I am also ready to ask for apologies to
every individual.
"I understand that my letter has affected many people.
Therefore, I am open to ask sorry (sic) to every person and
every community that has been affected from my letter, which, I
emphasize, was written in a moment when I was victim of my
emotions.
"Again I want to ask my deep apology to everyone for the
incident, and I can assure everyone, that not only this kind but
also any kind of incident will never happen again. I hope you
will accept my apologies very sincerely and will take them into
consideration."
It is not very often that we get a letter of apology from a
Turk or an Azeri for sending an offensive or threatening e-mail
message. While we commend Zeynalov for apologizing and
recognizing his mistake, we are dismayed that he uses the
Karabagh conflict as an excuse for his inexcusable action. We
cannot overlook the fact that his apology may be an attempt to
have his suspension from the American University in Bulgaria
reversed and is trying to save his full scholarship from Soros
Foundation's Open Society Institute. His contention that he
"regretted writing the offensive e-mail immediately after
sending it" does not hold water. He sent an apology six weeks
later, only after realizing that it was in his best interest to
do so.
Finally, a psychoanalyst should evaluate and treat Zeynalov
to ensure that he is totally rid of his demons, before he is
readmitted to the University, and before Armenians can forgive
his hate crime.