Public attention was drawn to an incident at the Anushavan Ter-Ghevondyan Music School, where the acting principal removed a painting by a 10-year-old student from Artsakh from a student exhibition wall, claiming that its content was “anti-state.” The child had simply depicted the We Are Our Mountains monument in Stepanakert—the iconic “Grandma and Grandpa.”
What would have happened if this episode had not been brought to light by the civil society organizations that publicized it? There would have been no public outcry and, most likely, no subsequent attempts to justify the decision by claiming that the painting had been removed not because of its allegedly “anti-state” content, but because of a disciplinary violation. That explanation is absurd in itself. Yet what is happening is not merely absurd—it is frightening. It is difficult to find a milder description for what amounts to the persecution of a child’s memory, the persecution of a child’s longing for home.
Was this done under direct instructions from state authorities, or did the acting principal simply hope to earn the goodwill and approval of those higher up through such a gesture? It hardly matters. In either case, what has happened is the direct consequence of the conduct and policies of senior officials themselves—officials who have publicly renounced Artsakh and portrayed it as a project allegedly designed to undermine Armenia’s independence. The very same Artsakh in whose name they swore their oaths when they came to power in 2018.
Today, the audience for those “oaths” is no longer the Armenian public, but Azerbaijan—and their content has become the exact opposite. This policy is being pursued so openly that those further down the chain no longer need explicit instructions. What is essential is that society fully recognize and appreciate the gravity of what is taking place.
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That gravity extends all the way to the text of the so-called Armenian-Azerbaijani Peace Agreement. Taken together with its explicit provisions and implicit meanings, the document contains precisely those legal and political formulations that will serve as the contractual basis for revising those “oaths” in Azerbaijan’s favor.
Hakob BADALYAN
