Monday, March 17 2025 11:35
Marianna Mkrtchyan

International lawyer Jared Genser calls on Armenian leadership to  `see this post from President Donald Trump`s NSA Mike Waltz` 

International lawyer Jared Genser calls on Armenian leadership to  `see this post from President Donald Trump`s NSA Mike Waltz` 

ArmInfo. International human rights lawyer Jared Genser has posted the following message on his X account: 

"Dear Armenia Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Foreign Minister Ararat  Mirzoyan, please see this post from President Donald Trump's NSA Mike  Waltz. He emphasizes not only the need to finalize the peace treaty  with Azerbaijan but ALSO for the release of the Armenian Christian  prisoners. I trust you fully agree with the Trump Administration on  this key point."

On March 16, Vardanyan's family published the third and final message  from Ruben Vardanyan from the Baku dungeons. In it, Vardanyan shares  a personal story that became one of the key lessons in his life. We  present it with slight abbreviations: "

"Today I want to share with you one very personal story that played a  huge role in shaping me as a person.  And it happened to me in  Azerbaijan almost 39 years ago.

"I, like all young men who reached 18 years of age in the Soviet  Union at that time, even if they were students, was drafted into the  Soviet Army, and I, having completed my first year at Moscow State  University, at the end of June after passing my exams, found myself  at a recruiting station in Moscow.  After long adventures, at the  beginning of July, I and several hundred other people ended up in the  suburbs of Baku, in Balajari. That was the first and only time I  found myself in the Azerbaijan SSR. It was a distribution point.

Then a warrant officer came up to me and offered to send me to serve  in Armenia for 300 rubles. That was a lot of money then, and I said I  didn't have that amount. Three days later, when we were about to be  finally assigned to military units, he came up to me again and said,  okay, give me at least 50 rubles, apparently not having found anyone  else. I replied that I only had 27 rubles. He left dissatisfied,  saying that it was impossible.

I told this story to the guys I had met during our long journey from  Moscow to Baku. Just as a funny episode. Suddenly, 15 minutes later,  six or seven guys, after consulting, came up to me and gave me 23  rubles and said that they wanted me to at least serve at home, and  they would be happy about that, and they smiled.

I knew that they were giving away their last money - stashes for  cigarettes, because none of them were from well-off families, and  three or five rubles were very significant money for them. So, thanks  to guys I hardly knew - I only knew one of them briefly from Moscow  State University - of a different nationality, who owed me nothing, I  went to Armenia and served two years in Leninakan.

Many times I thought about this episode in my life and asked myself  three questions. Am I ready to give my last money or my last piece of  bread to help someone else? Not one million out of a billion, but  really my last. Secondly, will I be able to rejoice in the fact that  someone will go home to serve because of you, and you will remain in  an unfamiliar environment and will longingly remember your homeland,  your native places and loved ones, whom you may not see for two  years? And thirdly: am I ready not to expect gratitude in return (we  did not even exchange addresses) and not to feel that someone owes  you for what you did?

This story became one of my reference points, which shaped me as I am  now.

Firstly, today I would like to express enormous words of gratitude to  them, not knowing whether they are alive and how their fate turned  out. But if they hear my story, they should know that I always  remember those 23 rubles, that they did it for me absolutely  selflessly and I will never forget it. Secondly, I want you to know  that thanks to you I understood that doing good is not an investment,  but simply doing it, passing on like a baton what others have done  for you, and being happy about it. And I am happy that my wife and I  have given almost all of our wealth to charity and our children have  understood and accepted this.

I am convinced that good is eternal and immortal and it increases  many times over when you do it anonymously and do not expect anything  in return. And in my life, many people I know and do not know have  done this, and I am very grateful to them. And I have tried to do  this as much as I can.

Evil is of course mortal and therefore so aggressive, spectacular and  attracts attention. Because it increases and becomes stronger when  you respond to evil with evil. And it is easier for people to  discuss, unfortunately, and remember the bad than the good, to gossip  and write books, make films. It is more diverse and attracts more  attention even in the news. We read more bad news than good.

But remember: if there were less good, light, love than evil, the  world would have ceased to exist long ago.  Giving everything you  have, know, and can do to others, without hoarding, without becoming  a slave to the golden calf, your passions and desires - this, in my  opinion, is the meaning of life, a question that so often torments  many of us, because this is how we increase the good and light in the  world for everyone.

We come into the world naked and leave naked, taking nothing with us  to the grave. Even the pharaohs could not avoid this. Forgive as we  want to be forgiven when we do something wrong, and do not demand  punishment from others, but ask forgiveness for yourself. And do to  others as you would like to be done to you - this is the golden  rule."  

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