PHL.2040 Armenian Thought Through the Ages
Armenians are a bridge people. They are both Western - as can be seen in the thought of Anania Shirakasti, Davit Anhakht, and so forth - and non-Western - as can for example be seen in the strong influence of Persian thought on their own. In the court of their most famous King, Dikran Medz, there were Greeks and there were Jews. During the reign of his son, Armenia was squashed between two Empires: the Parthian and the Roman. Both vied for control of Armenia. One was Western, the other was not. The cultural advantages of being a bridge people are extraordinary: they make for a unique blend of differences. The political disadvantages are enormous. Bridges are the first things to be destroyed in human conflict: bridge peoples the first ones to be conquered and turned into minorities in larger empires. The Thought of Armenians Throughout the Ages is thus a lesson that is especially timely in today's world: it is a key example of how a people can at once be open - by necessity - to multiculturalism and unique.
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