It is evident that the four-day or the second Karabakh war would be followed by an active political and diplomatic process that would bring freshness to the unchanged multi-years negotiations. Europe that experiences hard time is unable to tolerate the uncontrolled processes in its southeastern suburbs, no matter it is yet under Russian imperial domination.
But on the other hand, conflicts in the Middle East, including the Syrian, Iraqi, Kurdish, and Turkish problem have made the Europe face the imperative for the need to make dramatic decisions. This means a collective will, resources, non-standard decisions, in other words, all that currently is very difficult to anticipate from Europe, given the crisis of its union structures, the so-called “pragmatism” of the elite of some states which is used to conceal the plain and traditional national egoism which Armenians witnessed almost over the last two hundred years. It was not only we, Armenians, to witness it.
Ask the Poles, Bulgarians, Serbs, Greeks, Ukrainians and others… They will tell you what “good” the Russian or Ottoman powers have brought, and what Europe was doing at that time. These nations did not spare efforts to get rid of this humiliating yoke and what a high price they paid for the freedom, including on the way of getting rid of own illusions that very soon, pretty soon… “our people” are coming …
But “our people” did not come and were not going to come not because they were “bad” but because the policy of the accomplished fact was operating, the alphabet of which were memorized by two empires originated from the Mongolian Horde: the Russian and Ottoman, by inheriting the most repressive and backward, xenophobic and profane essence from them.
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Certainly, this is in the past, a history and it can be left to the historians if not one reality. Today’s Russia and Turkey, unfortunately, are talking about the mores of those “blissful” times with the greatest reverence uttered from the lips of their elite. In Moscow, where they want to bring the fascist idea of Russian world” to life, they have “forgotten” what tragedy and genocide they have brought to the Caucasus, what humiliating serfdom they had established and what disaster they were for the Jewish communities, they have “forgotten” that the word “pogrom” is transferred from Russian into other languages without translation. And in Turkey where they want to bring the same fascist “Turkic world” to life, they continue to praise the Ottoman past, the unprecedented “parade” of barbarity and stupidity: Janissaries, devshirme and harems with their inner guards. And here is, Mrs. Erdoğan considers harem as the “best school of life for women.”
Indeed, the longevity of these empires was conditioned by the constant threat of using bearish force to protect their anti-civilization power as well as by their subject peoples’ “small number traitors and big number fools,” as W. Churchill used to say once on an entirely different occasion. What we can do, this is our environment, our security, our geographic environment…
…And so, the next active phase of negotiations has kicked off, which it is not clear where it will lead to. And it is not clear because we still have not shaped our vision and idea of what we want and how we visualize our future state. We, being a small state in southeastern Europe, without an access to the sea, having an “ally” who is not an ally but a monster once again supplying the enemy with arms, whom we are an ally too but just a hostage of the created situation that has also been created due to Churchill’s mentioned “small number traitors and big number fools,” we, eventually, what do we want from the world and ourselves. It seems that the answer is simple: life, security, future, freedom, development, and dignity, in other words, what any community wanted and wants irrespective of the continent, as this is what the human and global being requires. But … try to ask the Armenians people and you will hear many variations: mutually exclusive, resentful, angry, however, explicable.
Anyway, this time, we did not allow the neighbor that has inherited the “best” Russian and Turkish traditions, that has declared the Chekist who has no sacredness a “national leader”, that has given a life-long power to its arrogant son at the same time granted 97 percent trust, that has declared Safarovs and other scoundrels who are walking in the village streets with the beheaded head of an Armenian soldier a hero, to change the situation, while our Russian “ally” will once again “save” us by compelling to “turn” the process of negotiations into its field. Europe remains the main platform. The American idealism is allied to European “pragmatism” directed to the whole Europe but with limited realism. The realism assumes not a foreign political “charity” but a partnership based on common interests and values and mutual trust. This is the only factor that can refract the situation in the negotiation process to peace and accordingly, to our advantage. And no deceit, no “we” or “you.” In the international relations, Europe can feel pity for the weak and fools rather than consider them one of them. We definitely are not weak, the second is still a question…
… For three hundred years, the Balkans are suffering from the conflicts in the maelstrom. Peace was established when the empires were banished from there: the Ottoman Austro-Hungarian, Russian and imperial ambitions were neutralized, the local troublemakers were punished, and the conflicts were given the third “measurement,” i.e. in security, freedom, democracy and development ensuring NATO and in the EU. And this led to pattern changes in the perceptions of interests, especially when the “bulldozer” diplomacy was put into action.
Sooner or later, the future of the Caucasus will be decided within the same period and the same logic as this is the outlined patterns of the developments in the region, and it is contradicted to Armenians to be in the ranks of those “small number traitors” or “big number fools” who would try to hang from the hems of the empires in the region. Because the future as the Balkans experience shows is determined at the expense of the interests of those who are “hanging”. And let various Bul-Bul Oglis, war instigators and then Hasanovs begging for a ceasefire from Russia or various mazut barrel irresponsible responsible saying thank you to Moscow take the responsibility for it. Not to speak about the ignorant “semi-sultans” keeping the border of Armenia and NATO closed. It is already up to them. Our task is not to be mistaken in the assessments of our environment, our future and the processes predetermined in our region. The western wind can both destroy our mast and give a speed to our ship, depending on to what extent our sails are in one line. This is also the issue of the captain’s responsibility.
Ruben MEHRABYAN,
“Aravot” daily
