The most eloquent emptiness 25 years after the independence of Armenia
It has been a few days since the “Sasna Tsrer” group organizing an armed attack seized the Patrol Service regiment in Yerevan resulting in one victim and hostages. As to how to name the perpetrators of the armed attack, it is already a secondary question. One explains that since the civilians are not taken a hostage, it is not a terrorist attack, the other one says, calling them a terrorist is a violation of the presumption of innocence, there is no court decision and so on. All have the right to express a position. But let us not be ashamed to record, and do not notice the evident facts and do not make us remain silent to avoid offending others. Let’s call a spade a spade. A dire crime has happened irrespective of the reasons and objectives that members of the group had and have. A state structure is seized, a man is killed, hostages are taken.
Members of the “Founding Parliament” over several years failed to obtain at least the minimum support of the public until recently 100 people of even less were gathered in their rallies in Liberty Square and some of whom were the journalists. The members of this group aiming to give publicity to their activities were ready for more radical steps, it was obvious a long time ago. The negative attitude of the public to the authorities to lead to a mass uprising, they had methods but not a public support. By arresting Zhirayr Sefilyan, for example, the authorities already contributed to the birth of social rebellion. Now, after the armed attack by “Sasna Tsrer” group, there is a public uprising, apropos due to the totally inadequate behavior of the authorities and meaningless moves of the law enforcements. One gets the impression that the authorities are more interested in inciting a massive revolt in Armenia. It works out quite successfully. The fact of the last few days of detentions and violence are the proof of it, day by day people are getting more interested in the event in Khorenatsi Street. As to why so many people are gathered in Khorenatsi Street, again it is up to them to decide. Everyone has its own agenda. One does not want to allow bloodshed, the other believes that under the created situation, more radical problems must be solved. It is normal, the civic activity for the country in this quite heavy and difficult situation. But by and large, both the government and the opposition, with the exception of individual parliamentarians, have abandoned the society.
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In Armenia, change of power through free elections, as it is accepted to say, has happened only once, in 1991. Afterward, the political field was consistently deserted step by step. The authorities have seized the power by rigged elections. During the 25 years, we have slowly and steadily lost our statehood, the political institutions, the government, the opposition and everything are discredited. It issue of the authorities, more precisely Serzh Sargsyan’s keeping silent has been repeatedly raised. This is truly inexplicable and incomprehensible. The seizure of the state structure in any country would have changed the whole agenda of the authorities. The government not only is obliged to express a clear position on this and find solutions to come out of the situation without losses but is also obligated to act publicly as possible by providing transparency and delivering necessary information to prove the truthfulness of implementation of his own actions.
The government’s indifference in this respect is simply absurd. We have lost our statehood in the sense that the representatives of the opposition group in the country, irrespective of whether they are adventurous or romantic, nation’s savior or a hero, have come out with the culture of violence and weapon. Let us be honest to admit and state that the grounds of this culture was laid on July 17. Over the 25 years of Armenia’s independence, this is the first case and it is extremely dangerous and if you wish, the last move destructing Armenia’s statehood. Until now, the government has shown that no question is solved by the use of force, persecution and illegalities, but the opposition has always remained within the law, and for this reason, no chaos was created in Armenia and for this very reason, Armenia’s statehood has been somewhat preserved.
Today, half a step is left for Armenia to appear in the chaos. Can other politicians having political programs and yet not being fulfilled take advantage of this situation? Certainly, they can. The rejoice of some pro-Kocharyan websites and the experts dedicating dithyrambs to Kocharyan from time to time are unbearable these days but not unexpected. Who will be responsible for the possible bloodshed? Unfortunately, this time, not only the government. The government by and large is responsible for causing the public to this situation and the citizens do not see any other way to overthrow the government that by the force of arms. This is the most powerful slap for any government, and the analysis of the reasons for this is another topic. If the authorities intend to stay true at least to their conscience to raise questions and search answers, nothing will prevent them to admit their mistakes, moreover, in the public.
In Armenia’s political life, introducing the culture of overthrowing the government by the use of violence and force as a tool of fight truly can cost too high for already devastated Armenia. The precedent, unfortunately, is already there. Any group without enjoying the public support may reserve the right to begin exploding buildings in the cities of Armenia, kidnap people and hold hostages for “save the nation”, having both the sympathy of the conscious segment of the society, which obviously is dissatisfied with the current government and manifests civil activism in solving various problems and the lumpen support. As a result of the mass uprising, the discredited regimes, certainly, are overthrown in today’s several civilized countries. In 1991, it seemed to us that if we are walking on the solid grounds of the legitimacy of building a statehood, Armenia will flourish.
The Karabakh war, of course, weakened the country’s development but after winning the war imposed on us, nothing prevented us to affix the statehood. However, we took the path of degradation, the slowed down but killing path of destroying the statehood. The countries where both the political field and the society have the consciousness to understand and evaluate the statehood can achieve a long-term result and development by armed attacks and rebellions. Unfortunately, today, it is obvious that neither our government nor the opposition nor a segment of our society has this consciousness. This is the most eloquent emptiness 25 years after the independence of Armenia. On July 17, we were already punished for causing a loss to the statehood. And in these days, the calls by some people saying, “ooh! It’s good” and pushing the public to bloodshed by “courageously” and “heroically” “giving credit” in the Facebook is just a vivid example of psychosis.
EMMA GABRIELYAN
“Aravot”
22.07.2016
