In 1659, a year after the death of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland Oliver Cromwell, his body was taken out of the tomb, hanged, and then quartered. This was the traditional way of executing national traitors in England. Before that, Britain was headed by the King Charles I, whom, however, Cromwell’s supporters sentenced in 1649, finding that he is a traitor, an enemy of the homeland, and beheaded. It is true, then they sewed the head to his body (which was banned by law) to bury humanly. English people were not so friendly with Cromwell’s corpse, and in accordance with the letter of the law, they buried the body without the head, and the head is demonstrated as an example of treason. Only in 1960, they buried his head.
Today, English people respect and honor both Charles the First and Cromwell as historical figures. Several centuries required from them to understand that there is no need to rush and evaluate the actions of this or that figure, historical event from the perspective of current political situation and personal plight. There is no need to hurry, it is much more prudent to wait until the entire sludge of personal relationships and struggle for taking over the seat settles down, and then only the chain of bare facts will remain (at least, it is desirable that it remains). The English are a nation for centuries, and this makes their job easier. We had a state after a great break, only in the 20th century, thus, we need to take into account both the Europeans and our modest experience.
When I hear have someone calling to catch, punish, behead and quarter, I remember that period of Europeans. Moreover, they are trying to degrade the historical role of first figures of our country without substantial facts (whatever those figures are), I do not think it is reasonable either. For example, when people say that our successes during the Artsakh war occurred in spite of Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Now, I read somewhere that Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan did not participate in that war. Of course, all three of them made a lot of mistakes, but to extend these mistakes onto the history, means to rewrite the history now and create a mythology instead. The war in 1992-94, and our achievements in this field are historical facts. As to who has what mite in these achievements, it can be assessed only with “cool head”, no sooner than 30-40 years later.
… “History is a horror, from which I’m trying to wake up,” – said one of the heroes of James Joyce. Another representative of oppressed nation.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
