Raffi Hovhannisyan has many positive traits. His open and honest style of communicating with people, his readiness not to run his opponents down and not to curse them makes me and I am sure many other people respect and like him. I would very much like to have a friend or a brother like Raffi. However, policy is a different thing. Certainly, it must not be cruel and cynical. However, it is necessary for policy to formulate some realistic and tangible goals. When those goals are formulated by Raffi Hovhannisyan’s esteemed grandfather, I object to it, certainly, understanding quite well that my Diaspora Armenian brothers will have a different opinion. Certainly, I also want our small Armenia to be larger up to “from sea to sea.” However, I also understand that formulating such emotional outpourings on the political agenda is pointless, even dangerous.
The speech of Raffi Hovhannisyan’s son, Karin, was brilliant, hearty, and passionate for a literary evening or a school performance. It is also understandable; when a child in the Diaspora starts to consider himself an individual, he asks his father: “Who are we?” And the father answers: “We are Armenians.” The child’s next question is the following: “And why don’t we live in Armenia?” The answer: “The Turks drove us out of our fatherland.” “Damn those…!” These are absolutely comprehensible feelings; it would have been surprising, unforgivable, if there was no such conversation between the father and the son. However, it seems to me that in the Armenian state, such emotions should not rise to the level of political discourse.
There is another element unacceptable to me in such a mentality. That attitude suggests some imperative demands; if you are an Armenian, you must do this thing or that thing. I personally don’t accept any social duty that does not accord with the provisions of law. The rest are wishes, opinions, and rights. If you demand Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation, good for you, it is your right. If you demand our historical fatherland of Turkey, Iran, and Georgia, it’s fine too. If you think that all the Turks should be blown up in retaliation for the Genocide, that opinion also has a right to exist. However, do not demand that all Armenians around the world think so too! I have read recently that the Armenian “doesn’t have a right” to express an opinion that differs from the position of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). Those who think so should demand that their Bureau issue 10 million circulars every day that we are all “on that path.”
It is interesting that in the modern history, Armenia became “larger” during the tenure of a leader who talked about that less than the others. Perhaps, that is a regularity too.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
