General Garegin Njdeh

 

 

The History of Armenia describes the psychology of the times of Nersess The Great with those words. We have to state with shameful bitterness that there are almost no differences between the psychology of Armenians in those times and today.  The psychology is still the same. The means of expression have just changed.

 

?What are the reasons to those states of mind??
?a) The psychological diseases caused by the centuries of no liberalism, that the Armenian revolution couldn?t cure. On the other hand, the latter, alas, didn?t grow into a revolution that could change our inner psychology. Because of this the majority of our nation remained inactive and often against our political parties since it wasn?t renovated or regenerated.

 

b) The influence of the foreign yoke has considerably alienated Armenians from their human nature and weekend their national characteristics.

 

c) Massacre and persecution have always accompanied our lack of freedom: since the Dynasty of King Artashir Sasanyan until the last Genocide of Armenians. All our enemies reigning in our homeland, even of different nationalities, religions and eras, they have all tried to endanger our physical future and make their reign everlasting. From time to time they have destroyed our selected works and our most vital and leading elements. It is well known that because of its absence nations become more vulnerable after each similar defeat. This is Armenians? attitude today and it explains their present position. They are overwhelmed by political and psychological pessimism.

 

d) As a result of massacres and persecutions, periodic deportations took place, depriving Armenians of their natural home surroundings, forcing them to adjust to alien surroundings. Biology has long shown that every adjustment is to the detriment of the adjusted. 

 

Today?s Armenian is nationally insipid/colorless.

 

e) There aren?t flawless nations. Neither are Armenians. Some features of our character should be partially related to the country?s location, which in the historical past made it psychologically impossible for the Armenian baronial families to be united, in other words to become a separate national.  This is the reason why during our whole history, Armenians could never resist their external enemies united.

 

f) Like all other peoples, Armenians also yield to the harmful influence of contemporary civilization more or less. Today?s Armenian is biologically feeble, and his vitality has weakened.

 

In short, these are the main drawbacks that will help us understand the contemporary Armenian?s emotional state after studying it under the light of current rules and principles of social science.

 

?What is our national question, i.e., all problems related to our nation?s destiny and their solutions, which are called to serve as a national creed rating for Armenians??
?Defense- a) our nation?s physical existence, b) our national image, c) our national honor. These are the main problems, by positive solutions of which we can detain our place, image and morality in the family of mankind.?

 

?Which measures may help us solve the problems of our existence??
?Regeneration- and only regeneration. It means we should once again become what we used to be in the past and have stopped being today. It means to be independent, to be your own master, master of your nation?s existence. Regeneration does not add anything really new to a nation?s essence; it rebuilds what is deeply rooted in the population as its vital heritage. What is more essential for regeneration is the universal existence among all Armenians, the connector ? pan-national ? and not anything that separates the nation from its individuals. The spirit-fallen are controlled by their passions and personal problems. A non-renovated nation has population, which is a captive of its own mundane trifles and weaknesses. Today?s Armenian speech is deprived of the breath and publicity of regeneration, which is why it is destructive and shattering.?

?Vicious are the ones who speak about friendship and are themselves against the regeneration movement. If you are against this movement you are against life, therefore you are a tool for death. Armenians have not yet understood that only broadminded and kindhearted people are capable of friendship. And we can acquire those features only by regeneration. Armenians in Diaspora have provided lifesavers to different countries- for Russia- Loriss Melikov, for Egypt- Noubar Pasha, for Persia- Ephrem, but unfortunately they didn?t renovate themselves. There was a time when Armenian parties supported the Young Turks? regeneration, which pre-conditioned the Kemalist victory, rescuing Turkey and the Turks from inevitable death. Today there are currents, which oppose Armenian regeneration with their measly accountings, a black current that only deepens our shameful tragedy.

 

The following truth is fundamental for us; only the regenerated individual can help his/her relative, nation and country effectively and unselfishly.

 

?What can make this regeneration possible??
?It is possible only by our people, their values, and by a deep feeling of national affiliation, in other words by patriotism. Patriotism means faithfulness to, first of all, our national content, and then to past generations and to our blood and values inherited from them. Armenians haven?t yet realized that the ones who act against the nation act not only against their nation but also against life?s consecration, generally. What is important for the nation is not the well organized and modernized surface, but words, where you can find the pan-Armenian. It is the pan-Armenian that one shows to another, as brothers and relatives by blood and destiny.

My people, my inherited nature, and my inner-spirit- these are the only keys leading to universal understanding.

 

Only people are capable of exposing themselves to foreign values, doctrines and religions.

 

In contrast, people who are unable to digest borrowed foreign elements, become self-alienated. People are the sum of all living individuals; the nation is the past and present generations. It is the universality of fate. The nation is the universality of blood that is in everlasting struggle against foreign influences. The people are the sculptor of our body and soul. The people are the sacred potter that created our body from Armenian soil, and our soul from Armenian history.

 

The punishment for anti-patriotism is the degeneration that accelerates the fall of a nation. If you are against the people, then you are for your nation?s anti-patriotism and, therefore, for its death. The people are the nation?s only factor for organic unity.

 

To accept the people?s super-power over the nation means to accept the super-power of immortality against everyday life, and the spiritual against the material. And only in this way we can integrate our nation psychologically, bring together all ?fragmented? Armenians, and make a nation out of the sum. It is the immortality that gives meaning to the passing, everyday life and renovates it. Let?s not forget about it.?

 

?In your opinion, what makes it difficult and what can make Armenian regeneration easier?? 
?You try to find some vain principles and science in our life, you can hear only opinions and nothing else. I want to say, that our nation still lives without a world outlook. It is obvious that an integrative idea about the world and its existence would have made the permanent regeneration easier, which already means self-defense. By clarifying our attitude towards our inner world we clarify our attitude towards people like us, our people and our Creator, in the long run. Only a person with a scientifically well-grounded world outlook is capable of doing this. For one thing, nations are creative as long they have a united and sublime world outlook. It gives meaning, it harmonizes and leads us in an appropriate direction to the nation?s actions.?

 

Creating a love for wisdom and building a world outlook with its help- this is an on-going movement. The lack of world outlook makes Armenians continue to be the victim of evil coincidences and it constantly runs into disasters because of it. A world outlook will make us re-examine and give a new meaning to a series of concepts, and quicken Armenians? regeneration.?

 

?Which are those concepts? ?
Religion: Religious deficit means a lack of God, and the absence of the feeling of holiness. This causes religious confusion in today?s humanity.

 

Notwithstanding the existing civilization, a human is still more like clay than spirit. That is why he is often apt to revolt against all those restricting values, such as the truth and holy things that are called to keep the animal and brutality subdued in him. A morally weak man has always tried to find some theory, belief or science to justify his fall. Today?s anti-religious inclinations can be explained by the spiritual imperfection of the human being. A lack of religiosity is not a sound state of health. At first, a human may become estranged from others, than, he denies the God. The person who walks away from his religion is self-sacrificing his spiritual pulse. If you act against your Creator you will not be ashamed to act against people like you. In a scientific context, religion is not only the relationship between a human and God, but also the relationship of one human being to another, an individual and society, an individual and truth. The Universe is not a resu!

 

lt of mere contingency, and I am not alone in the boundlessness of the Universe; this heartening belief comes to us through religion. Generally, anyone having an idealistic understanding of life is religious. The person, who admits God?s existence, will also admit his responsibility towards the supreme reality, such as nation, motherland, and state. If you want to know someone more deeply, talk to him and make him talk about God and he will betray his religious stage through his faith and individuality. If you don?t believe in God, you are deprived of sacred dedication, of a sense of responsibility and you are bound to betray others sooner or later.  Armenian political parties, captive to false European ideas, made our nation indifferent to religion. Every ?scientist? who parrots, ?Science has neither religion nor homeland.? has become an enemy to humanity. Human weakness and inferiority are the only things that have neither homeland, nor nation, nor God.

 

Science and religion are not enemies; they are allies, one of which works with the mind, the other through the heart. Every non-religious person radiates wickedness. The human being is social only if s/he is religious.  Humanity has become religiously weak and it doesn?t have a shelter any more, the world of his dreams has collapsed and death is acting against him.

 

Culture: The saint looking at the sky, the triumphant soldier coming back from war, the minstrel singing his nation?s sorrows and joys in his songs, the artist worshiping beauty, the philosopher, the state official, the benefactor, the scholar, all these people contribute to their nation?s culture with their creative endeavours. Scientific, artistic, and moral values – these are the things that make up culture. To be more exact, culture is a hierarchical, organized entity of values.

 

Let?s correct the greatest misunderstanding, according to which there is only one, international and universal culture. Civilization is both international and non-religious, and this is the reason why it strangles culture. Such a religion is falsification and an illusion. True religion always carries the given nation?s seal of individuality. Every nation, as any unique individual, has its own ways of development: its self-development and self-discovery. The adoption of foreign cultural values, and its external positive and negative sides, in particular, weakens the adopter?s national spirit. There is no culture without religious feeling. Its creative resources dry up as soon as it becomes materialistic. Armenians should profess the priority of spirit more than materialistic priorities and try to behave so that Armenian culture is celebrated not once a year, but lives every day as a whole unity of spiritual values. Each nation tries to express its desire for perfection throug!
 
Anything you present spiritually is what you can create for your culture.

 

Another mistake. Can we say that each nation is culturally developed, because it has an official language and literature? Certainly, not. To be considered truly and culturally developed, books and writing, scholars and science are not enough. The culture, the creator of which has had more thorns than flowers of kindness in its spiritual life, is mistrustful. It is squabbling. Culture implies warmth of heart, humanity, conscience, a sense of duty, honesty of thought and relationships, sublime goals- these are values, the absence of which turns the life of today?s Armenians into a hell.

 

Until both our saints, Sahak and Messrop, didn?t join in thought, feelings, and work honesty, I couldn?t call us (without shame and anguish) a cultural nation.

 

Education: The differences in national characters and destiny imply differences in teleology. There isn?t and can?t be one universal ideal for education. Every nation has its own educational ideal, which springs from its spirit and needs. Education doesn?t admit dead uniformity. Nations prepare their future generations in accordance with their psychology and needs. So-called humanitarian education cannot be national. The person with strong patriotism is going to be the ideal of the Armenian school without a motherland. Enlightenment without great national dedication makes the person pessimistic, egotistical and vain for her or his race. The Armenian school doesn?t take the most important thing into consideration – the precondition for cultivating a land and a person?s soul is to know both of them profoundly. Question: Are our present teachers knowledgeable of our people? I am not talking about exceptions.

 

Humanity: Try to set the national soul free from the content that history has accumulated in it and the nation becomes a faceless mass.

 

A human being and humanity become meaningful only through their national spirit. National giftedness makes the universal meaningful. True culture can?t blossom on the basis of other nations. A human being and mankind are not justified beyond the boundaries of a given nation.

 

The harmony between the human with the national is beneficial for both of them. And vice versa, the sacrifice of the national for the universal can be harmful for both. I don?t mean the individual, who generally is an unessential thing, but the person with a national image and thinks through his nation; the person who comprises the nature and history of his home country. Today?s Armenian is liable to lose her or his real spiritual image and national nature under the influence of alien civic doctrines. We need a fundamental revolution, return from abstract bloodless humanity to an organic being, to a person of people, a real human, who has attaches herself or himself to both land and nation, with all bonds of nature.

 

?European Mankind? (18th and 19th centuries), ?Universal Mankind? (20th century) – I don?t believe in any of them. If European mankind had existed, then the unprecedented massacres shouldn?t have taken place against the nation that was at war, with dark Asian forces, for European ideas.

 

The individual: By preaching love towards foreign peoples, socialism put the individual and collectivism in opposition, in an era when the majority of their kinsmen were deteriorating in misery. Socialism violated the nation?s spiritual unity as a result.

 

Individuals, you are free to build your own happiness even on others? misfortunes. This was what we had in the past and partially still have today. In this unnatural and immoral state of things, the human moral mind adopted the universal in opposition to the liberation of the personality cult.

 

Individuals, unite your powers with your kinsmen?s power, for the sake of everyone?s happiness- this is the social imperative for today and tomorrow. In other words, any individual should look for his or her well being in society?s well being. Someone who opposes the individual towards the society is trespassing against both. The individual is nothing beyond the content of a nation?s life.

 

Universality is the bridge between different individuals? natures. Only by joining with others, does an individual become a spiritual personality and a value-creating power. By discerning the nation, class doctrines are turning it into an impersonal mass. This mass kills the notion of people, without which the feeling of kinship and relationship dies as well. This is the reason why we deny those who think and act liberally and profess the nation as a valuable entity.

 

Social issues: Not the socialist but the social man, liberalism, the poisonous product of the French Revolution, polluted all human spiritual conceptions. It helped to legalize poverty and disguise social immorality. The act of throwing some ?crumbs? to your kinsmen was announced as charity. The individual?s rights are your rights and your responsibility is mine too.

 

My natural right to live and reach perfection freely is conditioned by my own responsibility ? to respect the same right in others. Individuals and social groups who claim that, ?I am everything,? or ?I am nothing,? are equally anti-social. In the life of a nation only the great entity is ?everything?, and nobody has the right to be ?nothing;? neither the socialist, nor the social individual. There is a new morality that resolves the social issues of nations.
Mentality

 

?The person from our country first thinks and then speaks.? This Armenian proverb is enough to prove the courage of our nation and of our mentality. In a nationally sound Armenian, respect towards mentality was profoundly deep. Thought was organized and moral at its roots. It starts from the roots of existence and therein is the secret of its endless richness and variety of expression.

 

Unfortunately, different influences have put their seal on our mentality, particularly on Armenians residing outside Armenia. Our liberation from foreign mentality was late, too late.

 

In fact, the Armenian mindset is not poor but over the past decades, Armenians didn?t give birth to wise men, like ?Khrimians? The Armenian mindset is spiritually lifeless, which makes it difficult to penetrate into the depth of things and substances. The process of coming to conclusions is led by the narrow-mindedness of political parties. Very often you can encounter falsification in our lives within the ?cloak of truth?. Political parties have mostly developed that imposture of the mind.

Today, Armenians are closer to imagination and passion than cognition, and such people are unable to perceive the truth. Thus, they are easily cut from reality and build sand castles.

 

There is only one single way for nations to improve their destiny – the etiological truth. Today?s Armenian lacks this mentality and it conditions our misfortune. This kind of thinking is scientific. Individuals and social groups throw their influence or development of events and keep themselves free from the effects of random luck.  

An exhausted man has a negative mind-set. Today?s Armenians? mind is very much like that. It is unpardonable for one who speaks with and in front of his nation to have an evil mind. ?Learn to think well- this is the basis of morality.? Learn to think like an Armenian – this is the basis of national morality.

 

History: Any nation?s self-conscious is possible only through its history.

 

Nationalities are considered nations depending on how well their self-conscious is crystallized and strengthened. There isn?t a crime more serious than betraying, or being unaware of your history. Such a person is deprived of a historical nation and memory and cannot be called a national. Our history is like a wise, personal counsellor that nurtures our spirit and leads our national conscience.

 

One who is competent in history is extremely well aware of two things ? s/he knows what s/he can and should do to immortalize Armenians and Armenia.

 

One who is nationally ignorant needs both of them, which, in other words means to be able to take lessons from destiny and be useful to his/her homeland.

Unless our people are historically wise they won?t be able to benefit from it. Any person who studies history properly will be of vital service to Armenians.

 

Party politics: For about a half-century, Armenians have been wasting their efforts on the political struggle between parties, on their internal front: these serve their enemies. The last half of the (19th) century proved that Armenians generally are not capable of being political party members without doing evil for their people. This fact has psychological reasons and explanations. Certainly we can?t say that any Armenian who is a political party member is a monster, but in the political struggle between parties he easily becomes so. By yielding to false Europeanism, Armenian political parties tried to find their enemies and rivals in the bosom of their nation. By violating their nation?s spiritual unity, they weakened the bonds of destiny among their kinsmen. The struggle between parties cultivated moral discrimination among dependants. The former made regular slandering, intrigues, and even killings a usual thing. By yielding to their political party membership feelings, parties weakened the awareness of national conceptions in their followers. The Armenian became feeble at the expense of class feelings and turned into a closed public in society, erecting a dividing wall between the national powers and themselves.

When a compassionate Armenian becomes a political party member s/he becomes unyielding since he loses the freedom of mind and conscious and starts to think, feel and act in accordance with the constitution.

 

Today?s parties are all hatred. Jeremiads of Armenian political parties preaching about solidarity and friendship arouse laughter and pity. Being ignorant, they cannot understand that any hatred makes knowledge and mutual understanding impossible. The Armenian party-member is as yet unaware of this truth discovered by Bergson.

 

The Homeland: The homeland is the beginning and the end of our thoughts, existence and actions. When our lips whisper about the nation our right hand points to Armenia. We believe in Armenia – it means Armenia is the most sacred thing for us in life. We breathe, live with Armenia and are always ready to suffer, act, and die for her. This is the most valuable of all values for us. This is our most sacred pain, yearning, anguish, joy, the meaning and claim to our existence – and our immortality as well.

 

What is liberty? ? When are you free to act in accord with your homeland and are capable of improving yourself.

 

What are rights? ? Only in your home country where we are given fair rights because of the irreproachable deeds of our responsibility towards others.

 

What is happiness? ? For those living outside Armenia all happiness is illusive. Happiness comes at the expense of the blood shed for the improvement of our nation?s future, at the expense of our happiness consecrated by work.  There is no greater happiness in the world than service for your nation and homeland  ? this should be our belief for renovation, the realization of which is going to be as late as our nation?s regeneration.

 

The younger generation: Every new generation is vital. Today?s younger generation is even more vital. The destiny of our people is in their hands. The future of this country depends on them. Whether this population will feel well about itself or wander, depends on its members. Only the generation with such a consciousness can serve for his race forever. An irreligious generation is shameful and miserable. For such people, the universe is just a spiritless substance and movement. Equally unfortunate and wretched is the generation that is content with foreign bread. The younger generation should acquire belief in the Armenian regeneration ? God, people, homeland, so that its nation?s past, present and future jointly and creatively may live. S/he should throw himself to the centre with all his or her might to support Armenian regeneration, if s/he doesn?t want to live, suffer and die without the homeland.

 

The birth of the spirit: this is what keeps the human soul alive. It is the bearer of sacredness, heroism, and the spiritual beauty of emotions. The growth of religion, arts and knowledge is due to them. It is the bond between the eternal and everyday life. A true leader, without which the government and governors are nothing, has this spirit. The most sacred of titles belong to him, the greatest responsibility. Nations have only one true aristocracy – that is the elite. 

 

Nations rise and fall with them. A lot of people in society can sin against law, morals, public interests, but public morals are not violated because any of the above-mentioned sins: society doesn?t become immoral because of them. Rather, it is enough for any member of the elite to sin against his or her calling and it will be considered a breach of esteem and ethics. The elite governs people with real examples of its own life.

 

If the clergy are religiously indifferent, people are anti-religious.

 

If the teacher is spiritually simple, there is no greater misfortune to befall a nation. If the writer is devoid of the breath of eternity, s/he will inevitably become the preacher of meanness and baseness.

 

If the soldier can be easily defeated, he is already far from the sacred task – his homeland. Tomorrow his disowning will bring him to betrayal.

 

If the public official is mercenary, you can find less patriotism and devotion in the saver of the nation.

 

This is how the elite acts – by setting examples from its own life.

 

Clergymen, teachers, writers, scholars, and military men – these people comprise the elite. Their calling imperatively demands a holistic and strong life.

 

The elite is anti-political organically, which is why it should not join any party. If it deviates from its calling then the nation?s fall is inevitable.

 

National morality and ethics: This is a necessary base for any national institution and represents the true strength of a nation. Where there is morality there is a strong nation. Its absence lessens the importance of such natural factors as people, the homeland, and some other factors of secondary importance, which create the nation. We should look for the roots of national morality in our attitude towards the biological creator ? the people. The people are the supreme code in the sphere of morality. National morality implies rules of law and publicly mandated directions, any deviation of which is considered a spiritual encroachment upon the nation. According to an ancient philosopher, the direction plays the same role for the world as the river crossing does for a river. Can we say that the morality of Diasporan Armenians is not deviated?  In order to answer this question we need to clarify to what extent are the mind, feelings, and will present in a contemporary Armenian.  To be more exact, we need to clarify what kind of feelings prevails in his soul. With this regard, the moral and social analysis will sadly overwhelm us. What were Armenians in the past? Let Armenians of the past speak for themselves. ?We lived in different places but had the same luck.? Armenians used moral people. ?United we stand.? They used to be socially sound. ?Our daily bread is given by God. First come, first served.? They used to be socially just. ? One who believes in God is never poor.? They used to be idealists. ?Starve but never beg anything from a dishonest person.? They used to be nationally proud. ? Unless an Armenian is tired, he will never sit down.? They used to be morally sensitive. ?One who waters his neighbours tree instead of his own will see neither Resurrection nor Remission.? They used to be nationally prudent. ?I won?t let a cat smother a lion.? Armenians used to be HUMANS ? in capital letters.
This is what we used to be – a nation of quality.

 

I quoted this small selection of Armenian proverbs, in which you can see the national and moral philosophy introduced by our people through the ages, to prove that even being deprived of liberality and under a foreign yoke, we have always been a morally powerful nation. Isn?t this the secret of our survival through ages and our existence today? Consider that there are many nations about which only memory is left carved on stones. This means that if our generations had thought, lived and acted like contemporary Armenians, we wouldn?t have had anything now but a short epitaph under the sun. We have seen what we used to be in the past, we feel what we are in the present, and know what we will be in the future in order not to perish as a nation.

 

From the point of view of morality, Gulbenkyan was no more than any Armenian peasant or a general or a school principal or even a modest craftsman. What is essential here is the eternal Armenian nationality, which the nation has dedicated to every member of the society.

 

National morality is first of all conditioned by a nation?s creative solidarity. No matter who they are: foreigners or natives, wise or illiterate, neutral or party member – all of them are Armenians and indifference to them equals ?Cainism?. In intra-national relationships, not only swords and venom kill people; so does indifference. Moreover, you should see yourself in every Armenian. This should be an unbreakable law of national morality. Those who sin against that law destroy the nation?s basis and are considered its enemies. We used to be a nation of quality in the past. If we don?t want become extinct as a nation, we must become the same again. All world nations are in the process of endless qualification and becoming true ?nations? once again. As a nation of the spirit it is easier for us to get this qualification. Let?s try to become ?a precious stone? so as to ?to weigh heavier and cost more.? This is what national morality requires from us and from our inner world in particular.

 

Propaganda: Be careful, careful, and careful, since you have a lot of enemies and you are in constant conspiracy. This is the imperative of the present political moment. Our nation has a larger number of enemies today than half a century ago. There are no reasons to doubt that tomorrow our enemies will stop being hostile towards us. I am not talking about the genocide organizers, but about foreign political, public, and scholarly figures, who by defaming us as a nation put a sword and an axe in our slaughterers? hands. Their number has increased these days and their venom is even more powerful than it used to be at the threshold of the past war. Today Armenians defame us again. Why do foreigners see such features in us that we don?t possess at all?

 

 

Things that Armenians display outside the country do not give us the right to blame only foreigners for every anti-Armenian base act. Today, when we have to go through more than one abyss, we experience the infamy of some of our people.

 

Propaganda is self-discovery and self-exposure. Propaganda reveals the inner world of the propagandist. Contemporary Armenians, for whom there are no publicly mandated truths, values, and authorities, are not capable of constructive and nation-loving propaganda with the existing emotional state. With out humble Armenian hospitality to foreigners and inability to know ourselves better, we can?t preach virtuous values. First of all, propaganda demands a deep feeling of self-esteem, creation of our own values and awareness of self-dignity; an emotional state that only regeneration can cause in Armenians. We should also be aware of the fact that those who don?t know and understand us thoroughly, can?t get to know us at all. 

 

One more general truth – the precondition for foreigners to know us is to recognize ourselves as a nation having national people with power.?

 

?The struggle we lead for racial immortality is the hardest and the most sacred at the same time. Armenian regenerators are leading it in the right way. Both popularly and humanly sound nations concentrate on their struggle against the greatest evil, which threatens their national existence and nature. It means that we are going along the line of greatest opposition. Only regenerators act in this way for Armenian lives, because their chosen direction is moral in terms of their nationality and humanity, in general. 

Regeneration is a responsibility and its laws are imperative. Either regenerate or die. I want every Armenian to feel the elevation of regeneration and the tragedy of people who don?t realize it.

 

The history of humanity hasn?t seen and a nobler and more sacred deed than a nation?s regeneration.

 

For the person who is not regenerated, it is difficult to understand a regenerated one. This is the source of all our tragedies.

 

Only the ones who have started to feel the contemporary world and the nightmare of the spiritual futility of Armenian life in particular are capable of regeneration.?

 

?Let us think, live, and do good for Armenia together.?
                                            
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