“We did not realize well what is independence. It seemed to us that it is the Declaration of Independence, raising Armenia’s flag at the United Nations, and having the embassies of different countries to Armenia. Independence is the greatest responsibility to independently rule your own fate, and here, there was a big drawback,” – says intellectual Ruben Babayan in an interview with Aravot, referring to the 25-year independence of Armenia. This day, 25 years ago, the Republic of Armenia was proclaimed an independent state. The RA Basic Law – the Constitution – reads, the Republic of Armenia is a sovereign, democratic, social state governed by the rule of law. In the Republic of Armenia, the power belongs to the people. How did we treat our independence during these 25 years” What kind of state did we build? Does the power belong to the people? In response to these questions, artistic director of Tumanyan Puppet Theater says, “25 years is not a small age, the year of one generation, the age of maturity is decided in 25 years. The achievements could be much more.” To independently rule your own destiny, well, here as the intellectual notes, we had a big gap, and Babayan does not want to attribute these gaps and drawbacks to specific individuals or political parties, to some class of people, he says, “Let us confess that the mistake is universal, and until now, we still bear the fruits of this mistake and wrong thinking.
We are waiting for saviors, we are waiting for sponsors, our eyes are directed to the past on many matters. We are trying to correct the past, we are trying to find the guarantees in the past which as of would ensure our tomorrow’s day. I think that the changing mentality is to be the master of your country. This sounds a little demagogic but when you are talking about being the master of your personal destiny, here, it is much more simple and much more complicated. Because, you see, even those who have achieved success, let’s say, in the business sector or elsewhere, they are, in fact, not so independent. Their personal successes are covered again with the old mindset: to create special conditions by looking for a sponsor.”
The intellectual says that we are not so ready to freely swimming in the ocean, and therefore, we must learn how to swim, “25 years was enough to understand that the only right way is this. During the last 2-3 years, we had much more progress in terms of the mindset than during 20 years. We began to learn very bitter lessons, everybody learns lessons, but more importantly how you use the lessons: by cursing the fate or getting the benefit. This is important to be able to learn lessons from each mistake and to understand why we reached this situation.”
On the way to the establishment of the 3rd republic of Armenia, we had tragic pages: October 27, March 1, “Sasna Tsrer.” What changes did these events bring to our lives? It seems that no conclusions were made, in response to our observation, the intellectual responded as follows: “Tragic events happen in the history of every state: the assassination of the president, shootings in the parliament, the occupation of a state structure and so on. I think it is important to know how we respond it: whether we are ready to take this off from us, to resist it, to understand that you are sowing seeds of evil, you should understand that they will eventually sprout if you do not punish the perpetrator just for the fact that he is one of you, numerous criminals are born because they think that there are ways to conceal the crime and you only need to find them. The lack of legitimacy is our biggest drawback. We failed to establish such a justice system so that people would happily apply to the court, report to the police so that this Soviet Union punitive machine is perceived by us as a protecting machine. We continue to perceive this in the same way because actually the functions are not changed, there have been some cosmetic changes, but in the true sense, it is the punitive action, and the punitive action is justified when you restore justice rather than covering it up.”
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Ruben Babayan wants to see the society in independent Armenia free, he says, a society, which is free, accountable and of the 21st century, “Which will understand that the world is small, and we are all connected to each other, there is no someone else’s misfortune, we are interlinked with the whole world. What we attribute only to us, actually it is not so, we should pass the way that other nations have passed, maybe we have not passed, may by we need to jump over. We do not understand that the hatred that exists in the society will never give a positive result.”
Our society, according to the intellectual, is not free. This, as observed by Ruben Babayan, depends on of education. At schools, the form of addressing teachers so far is “comrade”. “The intellectual plays a big role in the statehood-building, he should not be afraid of the opposition, the society and the government. He must be ready to be stoned by everybody. Our role is even in being not understood,” – says Ruben Babayan. September 21, according to Babayan, is the most important holiday, it is more important than New Year and other national holidays, September 21 is a holiday of establishing a state, and it unites all of us.
Nelly BABAYAN
