We celebrate independence

But are we really independent, when the borders of our state are secured by the foreign military, when on our independence day a flag of another state is displayed

Press secretary of the Armenian Defense Ministry Davit Karapetyan, during a conversation with Radio Liberty yesterday, reaffirmed that the soldiers of the Russian 102nd military base located in Armenia, participating in today’s military parade dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the independence of Armenia along with the Armenian military units, would enter the square under the Russian flag. Some people, for example Davit Karapetyan, explain it this way, “Perhaps, its significance is that this military base is actively involved in guaranteeing the security of Armenia and perhaps, the participation of that military unit symbolizes the deep roots of cooperation between Armenia and Russia in the field of defense. There are no grounds to speculate on this.”
But a large number of Armenian citizens, also mass media and political forces perceive this differently. Thus, head of the parliamentary faction of the Heritage Party Stepan Safaryan thinks that the authorities and political forces of the Republic of Armenia shouldn’t have thought of keeping the Russian military base in Armenia for another 49 years, because “we will not have enough independence for that very period, we will not have enough power to defend our borders by ourselves, but they should have thought to make moves on the opposite direction.” He reminded that the Heritage Party had expressed an official position on that matter, “Perhaps, we were the only political force that clearly protested against prolonging the existence of the Russian military bases in the Republic of Armenia, not because we are against military cooperation between Armenia and Russia, but we are just in support of gradually increasing the independent status of Armenia. Now we certainly cannot say we are happy that we are going to witness such a reality, but it is what it is, it is what other political forces, including the opposition forces, have tolerated. This is a post-factum situation and we can do nothing, except for witnessing it.”
Certainly not all the citizens of Armenia are goint to only witness the “post factum”. On Facebook a group of citizens initiated and intends to organize a “March against foreign military units and flags on the Independence Day of Armenia”. They think that the march of the foreign military on the Independence Day, not to mention they will march under the Russian flag, disparages, slaps our state in the face and shows Armenia’s dependence on Russia. Heritage Party representative S. Safaryan said that he respected those people’s opinion, the right to express a position and protest, encouraged their initiative and shared their concerns. “I pity that we haven’t been able, first of all on the authorities’ level, to increase the level of independence of Armenia so much as we could have guarded our borders by ourselves, and we have not been able to prevent the lack of Armenian independence for another 49 years.”
Deputy chairman of the “Free Democrats” Party Anush Sedrakyan also expressed her concerns both as a representative of the political force and as a citizen of the Republic of Armenia. “I want to eventually understand what strategic, clearly outlined aims the presence of the Russian military pursues. It is time for voicing those aims, as it is done in all countries. At the end of the day, the military of another country is located in our country. What aim do those armed forces pursue, what favorable factor can they be? Just speculating on the eternal friendship between the Armenian and Russian peoples, we have reached the point, when the whole nation, the whole state doesn’t know what those forces will do if Armenia is attacked, in the case of internal civil disturbance, if it happens what authority and obligations those units have. Furthermore, the existence of the Russian army in Armenia and its participation in the parade under the Russian flag certainly raises a question for me, if our ally goes under the flag like that, then don’t we have any other allies? Does it turn out that Russia is our only ally?” said A. Sedrakyan, adding that till these questions were not clearly answered and not made public, there could be no certain position on the presence of that military force. “At least, I can wish one thing that we understand more clearly what an independent state means. All this uncertainty and questions arise from the fact that we have not perceived the function of the independent state for the past 20 years. If the Russian military helps us to secure our borders, then we have to answer what has happened and what we have not taken sufficient care of not to be able to defend our borders.”