“We are cowards, we are not kind”

According to doctor-freedom fighter Norayr Shahbazyan, the atmosphere around the army “smells like a show”

“Problems like this have always existed in the army, if anyone thinks that this is a new thing, he is quite wrong and it is good that today these problems have gained public resonance, i.e. the attitude has changed. However, it smells like a show. If this is done by someone to rub his hands, to have fun and to gain some dividends, it is very bad”, said Norayr Shahbazyan, doctor of the special battalion of Shushi commanded by Zhirayr Sefilyan in 1992-1998, during a conversation with “Aravot” referring to the deaths, atrocities and violence in the Armenian Army under conditions of peace. Now, under conditions of peace, my interlocutor likes to introduce himself differently, an ordinary citizen of the Republic of Armenia. In response to my inquiry whether the public resonance is related to the interest of some political forces, my interlocutor did not absolutize, but drew parallels with the March 1 events, notifying that there had also been people who rubbed their hands at that time, people who watched the response and viewpoints of North and South, and Moscow. Recalling a discussion of those days, where one of the present “with clamorous voice” shouted, “10 is nothing, they should have killed thousands, three thousand”, Norayr Shahbazyan observes, “It is the same immoral principle; the death of one man is a tragedy, the death of thousands is statistics.” Norayr Shahbazyan says that there were more terrible deaths in our army, but no one spoke of that, nothing was said, “Today at least there is publicity. But it smells like a show. I do not perceive this, do not understand it. I was a soldier, a father, a friend of a solder, many-many terrible things happened in those times. What paper wrote, who spoke? No one. No one cared. Look, compare the statistics how many deaths there have been in the army after the war.” My interlocutor certainly does not like all this, but he does not like the whole image, “The loftiest spiritual value is kindness. The absence of kindness is person’s degradation, today we are going for it; we are going for the demolition of the Armenian civilization. The biggest human sin is cowardice. Today we are cowards, we are not kind.” I inquired, “If the people who were responsible for the situation in the army were not held responsible for objective reasons in the post-war period, why is it so today?” Norayr Shahbazyan does not agree, “In Hadrut a death took place in the unit that I can truly call one of the most battleworthy units, thanks to the division commander Tiran Khachatryan. If there were a few intellectuals-soldiers, Seyran Ohanyan, Tiran Khachatryan and others are those. That incident was laid on Tigran Khachatryan. What did the division commander who was responsible for certain things have to do with that death? If you fire him, then fire on every level, minister, the headquarters, the top military commander. We are not the punishing country; we are not a police system. There is no system of values. We don’t need false values and false tons. Russia had two great misfortunes: fools and bad roads. What is the Armenian misfortune; the authorities are ready to keep the authority by all means, the so-called opposition is ready to get the authority by all means. In our country formulas, laws are created to keep the authority. The main goal of civilization is the prosperity of the people, but in our country even a social institute is created by someone’s order, for someone and not for the sake of the statehood and the nation. We do not form into a society. I don’t understand why. We prefer avoiding the problems. We don’t have a statehood, today one may even speak of not having a nation. I think these words belong to Schliemann that the world made a wrong choice, preferring the Roman model of democratic progress; it should have chosen the Armenian one. Is this the Armenian one, where human life is nothing?”

My interlocutor, however, is against the principle of seeking for who is to blame. “That will bring us to Stalinism. Of course, we are all to blame. I don’t think I am to blame, when two soldiers beat up one, but I am to blame, when the school doesn’t work, I am to blame, when the family is not proper, I am to blame, when we have become angry. When you get on a fixed-run taxi, it is already offensive, dirty, broken, and unpleasant. It is an attitude toward an individual, a man. There are no small things in establishing statehood and gaining independence. One must begin with the human relationship. The explanation that the fish begins to stink at the head belongs to the tail. The revolution in our mentality, in everybody’s heart, in the attitude toward the state is needed. Well, but Alik Sargsyan said that he would not allow any revolution”, finished my interlocutor with humor.