I ended the previous article by stating that the Afghan army lost to the Taliban not because it was poorly armed or small. The deeper reason is that, in my opinion, there is no common “Afghan identity,” that clan, kinship, and ethnic ties are more important in that country than being an Afghan or an Afghan citizen.
Now you will say, why are you comparing Armenians to them? Our national identity was formed 5,000 years ago, we converted to Christianity 1720 years ago, we now write in letters created around the same time. Yes that is it. But national identity, in my deep conviction, is not something that is formed once and lasts forever. It is a continuous process of creation, disintegration, re-creation.
Let me argue that at this point our identity is corrupted. The proof is before my eyes every second. Two Armenians who have opposite views on an issue (say, their attitude towards the government) do not see a compatriot who thinks differently from him. Each of them sees in their opponent a Turk or, at best, a Turkish agent. Every day, about 20 times a day, Garegin Nzhdeh’s words about the “inner Turk” are quoted to different people, on different platforms, but with the same conviction. With that paranoia, we deny each other’s Armenianness, we deny that we are representatives of the same identity.
Of course, this phenomenon is not new. I remember very well how during the rally of the Karabakh Committee in 1988, when one of the speakers mentioned the chairman of the Supreme Council Hrant Voskanyan in a negative context, one of the people present shouted, “Don’t say Voskanyan, say Voskan-oglu.” But it must be admitted that in recent decades, not seeing Armenians among each other has become much more widespread and, I would even say, systematic.
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Therefore, the main precondition for developing the state, strengthening the army, buying weapons, and the rest is to restore public solidarity. The first step should be to create platforms where people exclude calling each other “Turks,” “traitors,” and “criminals.” Today’s government speaks of peace, meaning peaceful coexistence with its neighbors. But for at least three years these same people have been doing everything possible to prevent internal peace inside Armenia.
…You can come to power on the basis of rejection, hatred, and insults. You can also stay in power for a while. But based on these feelings, it is impossible to build a state, and it is impossible to win.
Aram Abrahamyan
