Education

Recently, I found a manual in my daughter’s books that, to be honest with you, blew me away. This manual was the book entitled “The History of the Armenian Resolution”. The book was foreseen for the humanitarian group of the 9th grade. A while ago, I had read some pros and cons about the book, but never in my mind would I imagine that it would be included in the school program. Students in school take “Armenian History”. This is not a bad thing and it should include the successes and failures of our people throughout history. History is a duration which needs to be presented in its continuity. Even Russian or Soviet historians have not separated one part of history for educational purposes, despite the fact that they could have done that. Why wasn’t there a special history book for the Patriotic War in 1812? After all, that year is one of the most significant years in Russian history. Why wasn’t the history about World War II considered separate? This was also of major significance for Russians and all the other nations of the USSR. There was only one reason: people knew that history is a duration of events and tragedies.

What is the Armenian Resolution and why has it been separated from the entire history of our people? In this book, the Armenian Resolution is presented as a our struggle for liberation, meanwhile it really relates the history of the failures of Armenians in achieving freedom from slavery (they had a secret meeting, they sent a delegation to Europe to plead for help from the West, however got nothing). Or, for example, Israel Orin Pfalsi promised the kingdom of Armenia to Prince Hovhan Vilhelm if he helped Armenians, or the one about Armenians relying fully on Petros the Great. But suddenly, instead of moving towards Shakham, Petros the Great turned back. The logical conclusion follows: “The czar had made an agreement with the Turkish sultan and had no intentions of neglecting the interests of the empire because of some Armenians.” The series of failures goes on until the 19th century and finally turns into a drama. First off, the Hamidian mass destructions, then the genocide carried out by the Young Turks all become part of the tragic pages of our history. In the pages that tell the stories of the battles fought for self-defense, there are illustrations of arrogant and sharp-pointed bearded heroes and on the next page-the migrating, hungry and sick women and children. As the students read these dark pages and get informed about our history, they will start to get filled with disappointment and not understand why the rest of the world was against our nation. There seems to be no deep analysis on what happened, the errors or any kind of self-criticism. The book claims that the foreigners are always the guilty ones. It is through this book on the Armenian Resolution that is going to force the students of generations to become more and more cooped up and isolated from the values of the foreign world. It may do the opposite, which is to lead us to the denial of being Armenian. One of my French Armenian friends, who had been in Armenia during the years of the Karabagh war and lives in Armenia until now, gives the above mentioned reason for not knowing Armenian. He says that ever since his childhood and adolescent years, he had always heard his elders talk about the massacres, migration, blood and death and slowly his generation had left behind everything which characterizes an Armenian, including the language.

The 12th chapter of the book is entitled “The Armenian Genocide continues”. There is an interesting excerpt in the second part of that chapter: “….the present day Armenia is not spreading towards the lands which were once known by Western Armenians as their homeland and from where they were deported from in 1915. In other words, today Armenia does not represent the Armenian homeland as a whole.” The following statement by the author or the sponsoring organization of the project is found after the above mentioned one: “Armenia’s authorities must be able to turn the present-day Armenia into a spiritual homeland for all Armenians, stand up for the country with the intention of retrieving the native lands some day.”

This chapter of the book was enough for it to be recognized as republican and be forbidden to use in the school. Basically, the student reading all of this needs to always remember that his country is some imperfect Homeland (by the way, the word Homeland is written with lower case letters), that he and his parents need to not just live and produce, but rather be ready like soldiers in solving political issues such as claiming and gathering of lands and the people. However, there is nothing mentioned in the book about gathering the people as a whole, Instead it says: “It is only in this type of status, that the Armenian man or woman will not feel the need of living in a foreign country.” So, this means that the Diaspora will cease to exist as a site for exile and will become the environment where Armenian culture will develop thanks to the intimate relations between both the homeland and the Diaspora. Each Armenian will develop by coming to terms with national dignity and citizenship.”

There is no question about gathering the nation as a whole because that has been clearly shown after Karabagh won the war. Even though Shushi was liberated in 1992, twelve years still have not made it possible for people to reside here. The rest of the liberated regions which are a part of our historical Homeland, continue to remain deserted. The fact that our compatriots living in the U.S., Canada, Europe and the Middle East are not ready to come back and live in the liberated lands is fairly understandable by taking into consideration that the Diaspora has turned into a kind of environment where the essence of the nation and citizenship are equal. But if the Diasporan Armenians do not want to make benevolent or other types of investments especially for the seized lands has a lot to do with the fact that they just don’t believe that those lands will ever be returned.

The Armenian Resolution is the alternative of the independent Republic of Armenia with its requisition, gathering of lands and people. It is an alternative that works in the framework of speech and does not function. It is an alternative that shows our weakness to our generations as a virtue. The ideas of the continuous genocide and the everlasting struggle will show our generations the path to emigration because nobody will have the desire to live a life in everlasting deprivation.