Private, judicial and state independence are strongly interrelated
The highest manifestation of independence, in my opinion, is the state independence. Independent state is the combination of established institutions and established people. As to why it is successful in one case, and not in the other case, there are different answers. One of the answers is given by renowned Polish film director Krzysztof Zanussi. Referring to today’s fight for independence in Ukraine, he mentioned that in his country they were having a long way to independence.
For decades, people were thinking and arguing over what kind of state they want to build. For instance, they were discussing on how to conduct privatization so that there would be no oligarchs. The intellectuals in Armenia were also thinking about independence, starting from about the mid 60’s. But the main concern, as I understand, was not the type of the state, but how the future independent state will be defending from the Turks. This, perhaps, logical thinking was inherently transferred to the “Karabakh” committee, and then, to Armenia’s state officials. Pertaining to protecting ourselves from Turks, we were (are) more or less prepared, while with regard to building a state, not. It should be noted that unlike the Poles, we have not even begun thinking about the very first issue. But I do not lose my hope, it is never too late to start thinking.
In the same interview, Zanussi is saying that going successfully by the way of independence requires reconsideration of your non-independent past. It is not about “lustration,” punishment or revenge, but a common assessment adopted by consensus, which will be acceptable for the majority of the society. We lack in such concordance, and the fear, probably, associated with the previous problem. “If you say something bad about the Soviet Union, the Russians might be offended.” They citizens regardless of state officials are the basis of independent state, no matter it sounds contradictory. If the teachers and employees of state institutions and large mines queue up to kiss the hand of the criminal governor, then it makes no sense to talk about modern state and parliamentarism.
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And on the contrary, if the youth like “Dem.am”, i.e. employees of private and non-dependent from official companies, form a certain decisive mass, the chances of becoming a state will sharply increase. One of the most important manifestation of independence is the independence of judicial system. In modern world, the relationship could not be but a market one, even in Cuba or North Korea they are market relations, simply in extraordinary cases, “marketing” as a whole is 100 percent shadowed.
Under the market economy, as it is known, self-regulatory mechanisms shall operate, and in such cases, the subjective factor is great, and the arrangements, and the temptation to violate the laws is great, particularly the “strong”, having additional state leverage, oppresses the “weak”. The latter should have the chance to be defended by the court manner. The court in Armenia, however, is intertwined with the other branches of the government and is reluctant to defend the “weak” from the “strong”. It is, in fact, the main obstacle to foreign investments. Russia’s economy is in crisis not because of Western sanctions (the country’s minister of economic development, Alexei Ukyukayev, raised an alarm at least one year before the “Ukrainian events”), but because there are no market economy mechanisms here, the most important of which is the independent judicial system. The same is true for Armenia. Simply, “hurray – patriotic” speeches are not accepted in our country. Whereas in Russia, they are still accepted.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
