I received a letter from a village in Armenia yesterday. Letters sent in an old-fashioned way, on paper, are usually related to some social problem or an argument with a neighbor. However, this citizen writes 10 pages by hand about the events of 1916-17, which are connected with the Armenian Question this way or another. The writer of the letter also
asks whether he understood those events correctly or not. Probably, the writer thinks the world of me. However, I thought about something else; we, Armenians, are very concerned about our history, and it is not a bad thing in itself. However, for some reason, we are more interested in the pages of history concerning our losses, sufferings, and miseries. For example, no one would write me a letter about the liberation of Shushi, but there are as many letters as you please about the fact that we had so much territory, could have so much, if the roguish Bolsheviks and Turks didn’t prevent us. Perhaps the comparison is inappropriate, but when our soccer team loses, we necessarily blame the referee for “selling out.” In such cases, a question arises where we, Armenians, were among those cunning and guileful Turks, Russians, Byzantines, Arabs, and Persians. Did we just heroically struggle, were we a bit naïve, and did the others always deceive us? And when we really struggled heroically won, it is not attached too much importance to either, it is subordinated to other problems; for example, that heroic period is presented as “the years of cold and darkness.” While judging about historic and contemporary events, we seem to be overwhelmed by emotions. The conversation of the President of the Republic of Armenia with us, journalists, made me think of all this. I don’t agree with many ideas expressed by Serzh Sargsyan, but – certainly, realizing that the commenters will lash out at me – let me talk about one idea, with which I agree. I am talking about the recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh, from which neither Armenia, nor the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic will gain any political, economic, or moral benefits at this moment, but it will just poison our relations with the Minsk Group co-chair countries, i.e. the most important countries for us. “Perhaps, there will be an Armenian in Toronto who will be proud that Armenia has recognized the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,” Serzh Sargsyan said yesterday. But we don’t live in Toronto, do we?
What I want to say is that we should not always remember about our losses, but rather, demonstrating certain pragmatism, maintain what we have. So that it doesn’t also become the historical fatherland, which, as we know, is easier to love than the real one.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
