Beirut: Farewell to the Arabs
441
coat and flirt with the Soviets, as they did from 1944 to 1947.
That is something our State Department, reputedly flirting
with this group, ought to keep in mind. For our State Department to do so would alienate the vast majority of democratic Armenians in the world—particularly those in the Middle East—who throughout World War II sided with the
Allied cause.5
HASHEESH!
I FOUND that some Beirut Dashnags were gun-runners.
Others became wealthy by growing hasheesh. Close to the
Syrian frontier, in a wild, picturesque village called Anjar, I
visited Garabed Keoscian, a tail, rugged man wearing a large
kalpak of black wool. By mentioning the name of Dashnags
I'd met in Beirut, I was cordially received. His wife, he said,
was away. "She's Catholic, I'm not," he volunteered. "The
priest at Antioch where I lived wanted to convert me. I said
no. I am Dashnag. No man can force me against my will. The
priest refused to let me enter the church with my wife. One
day he blocked my way, so I pulled out my gun and pointed
it at his head. The priest ran away. I had no more trouble
after that."
"That taught him a lesson," I said.
"This village is now all Dashnag," he went on. "The others
went to Armenia."
I spent the entire day with him, taking numerous photographs of hasheesh—from a fistful of seeds he held in his hand
to acre after acre of plants he was cultivating.
5
For a more detailed history of Dashnag activities, see the author's
article: "The Armenian Displaced Persons" in the Winter 1949-50 issue of
Armenian Affairs, published by the Armenian National Council, New York;
also The Propaganda Battlefront for May 31, 1944, published by the Friends
of Democracy, New York, and later reprinted in the Congressional Record
on May 4, 1945. Other informative literature on the Dashnags has been
issued by both organizations.