Picture: Hate Graffiti in Armenia

Click to enlarge.

You may know by now that I am not one to shy away from controversial issues, whether it be exposing unpleasant events in the past or exploring current issues which are a lot less impactful. So you can imagine my reaction when I came across the picture above: it shows a graffiti in Armenia that reads "no arabs" adorned with a swastika.

As victims of nationalism and xenophobia in Russia, Turkey, and other regions, we should know better than to perpetuate the same sort of hate, whether against Turks, Arabs, Azeris, or others. What will such an expression accomplish other than agreement amongst like-minded people and even greater anger against our neighbors? And what of the swastika? Have we forgotten that our own people were massacred in a bloody genocide from which Hitler was compelled to carry out his own? Is this graffiti then saying that we should also hate Arabs or other groups and eliminate them in a similar manner?

I doubt the person who took ten seconds out of his life to write that message ever considered what he or she was doing and what deeper meaning it may have. Perhaps it is the work of a kid with too much time on his hands and a determination to practice defacing one wall of our small country in his quest to get his skewed views across. Or maybe it is something much more sinister lurking beneath the surface of our society.

Source: Amhoov on Flickr