Dispute Settlement Counsel

Archive for April, 2009

We took a break from our weekly blog entry in April to celebrate the Easter & Passover holidays. Personally, I took an extra week’s pause because my parents were visiting us from Wisconsin. And today, as I sat down to write this week’s blog, I recognize, as every Armenian undoubtedly does, that this day is Armenian Martyrs’ Day.

April 24 is a day of commemoration and remembrance, on which Armenians all over the world take pause to remember the tragic loss of 1.5 million Armenians killed senselessly in an act of failed Genocide by the Ottoman government early in the 20^th century. It is a historical fact that touches every Armenian family, each with our own oral and written history of how the massacres impacted our families. Each family resettled in places all around the world and began what is now known as the Armenian “Diaspora”, a network that powerfully connects me with every countryman of mine, wherever he or she may live.

Today, we recommit ourselves to joining forces of conscience with others who have suffered as victims of genocide, holocaust or ethnic cleansing. In some small way, each of us works to make sure that this kind of atrocity and human tragedy never happens again. Each of us is ingrained with the values of accountability for one’s actions, reconciliation, and perhaps the hardest but valuable acts of acceptance and forgiveness. 

On this day, we also honor the spirit and will of those who survived the Genocide, who settled in new lands and started over, carrying the torch of Armenian ethnic and religious tradition in their hearts and minds. We honor their accomplishment of replanting the essence of what it is to be Armenian in every corner of the world. Even in an unspeakable tragedy, there have been remarkably positive by-products. Today, my people are an international community, exchanging our culture, heritage, tradition and religion with other ethnic groups and nations, creating new Armenian communities wherever we settled. As the Armenian writer William Saroyan wrote:

Go ahead, destroy Armenia.  See if you can do it.  Send them into the dessert without bread or water.  Burn their homes and churches.  Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again.  For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a new Armenia.   Read the rest of this entry »

Business owners, managers and entrepreneurs have confirmed some core beliefs of the Zeytoonian Center for Dispute Resolution. They are telling us that the most important element in resolving disputes is preserving important business relationships! They are also telling us that the notion of “winning at all costs” is among the least important considerations in dispute resolution. That is encouraging news and helps to confirm our beliefs about what is critical in dispute resolution and that non-adversarial processes are more responsive and better suited to meet the needs of those involved in disputes. Read the rest of this entry »