This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of Armenia’s independence. Two years later, Armenians will celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Karabagh movement. The anniversary celebrations and festivals will coincide with the presidential elections. One of the Karabagh movement torch-bearers will hand over the torch to the next leader. The handing over and acceptation will be without any postponing or formality.
During those days, the large book entitled “Victories without the supreme commander-in-chief’s knowing it” will be published. After his evaluation of the book, its strategic role and significance in cosmopolitan issues, editor and author of the book’s forward Vazgen Manukyan will write that he doesn’t quite agree with the authors on the title. In his opinion, it would be better to call the book “Victories against the wish of the supreme commander-in-chief” or simply “Victories against the wish”. This last one would last a longer time-victories against the wish of the first president of Armenia, victories against the wish of the Azerbaijani, victories against the wish of the Turks, victories against the wish of the international community, etc.
After the attentive reader finishes the book, it will surely be clear that either the editor/author of the forward hasn’t read the book in its entirety, or hasn’t paid much attention. Otherwise, he would have realized that the authors-a group of people working at the new history faculty at the Artsakh state university-had mentioned the names of the editor and the author of the forward at the end as references.
We wouldn’t have to make these kinds of predictions if things were not so gloomy around us. Things wouldn’t be so bad if, before loving ourselves, each one of us could at least respect the person who has the mental ability of compiling, comparing and analyzing. Things wouldn’t be this bad if we could take out the contraposition inside us, the contraposition which is the basis and condition for whatever we do.
Remembering the upcoming anniversaries is not by chance because they will give us Armenians a good opportunity to see and understand the situation at hand, take into account the achievements and failures, and finally understand what we have today.
Before reading the article entitled “Let’s strengthen our roots and build our future”, which is taken from the ARF “Yerkir” official newspaper web page, one may get the impression that the article is about projects implemented in Karabagh, the liberated lands or Armenia’s villages on the border.
“You could hear our national “Yarkhushta” and two “igit” (brave) Armenians were dancing arrogantly. They were telling the Armenians and the world that nothing can stop the Armenians from marching and that the march must be constant, more enduring and aimed towards one goal.” Judging from this sentence, we can predict that May 21 must have been the big tenth anniversary since the residents of, let’s say, the Zangelan region settled down. The igits (brave) are not in quotes, they are actually Armenian youth from America, Lebanon, Australia, Canada and other Armenian-populated corners of the world who have come to settle down in the liberated region.
The precept of one of the members of the Armenian National Committee “Let’s give to strengthen our home” could have referred to yet another construction planned for the “Kelbajar-Vardenis” highway tying Karabagh to Armenia or the project aimed towards providing funding for the children of the deceased or handicapped soldiers, who are currently in school.
But this is just a dream, a fantasy. In reality, the message reading “Let’s strengthen our roots and build our future” is simply an annunciation for the ANCA telethon’s success, during which 2.7 million dollars was donated for the ANCA to have a new office in Washington.
The important thing is not to have a new building or not. The important thing is the significance of the telethon and I can’t comment on that better than director of the Washington branch of the ANCA Raffi Hambaryan. Thus, my reference:
“…we will have our own building in Washington with each of your donations; we will prepare our future politicians to make the world listen to us and finally, we will help the Homeland and Artsakh with what little we have in order to have the mortar’s base as the free, independent, prosperous nation.”
I would really like to meet Raffi Hambaryan in person and ask him what he means by “help with what little” and how that little is going to serve as the “mortar’s base for a free, independent and prosperous nation”. I would also like to ask the honorable mister whether or not he knows how much help is needed in order for the people of Karabagh to live, work and create normal, social conditions.
I would like to ask him if the ANCA Washington or San Francisco branch workers know what year it is and what month it is. “What an absurd question, I didn’t understand anything,” this is what head of the ANCA branch would say because whereas the time difference between Armenia and the U.S. is half a day, it turns out that the time difference between the Homeland and the Armenian National Committee of America is ten years. The committee members still don’t understand that the ANCA doesn’t mean getting on the good side of senators and congressmen, but rather strengthening Armenia and especially Artsakh. They could get on their good side back when Armenia didn’t have the opportunity to speak out and voice its opinion. Now Armenians’ voices must be heard from Armenia and that voice shouldn’t be against the wish [of Turkey, Azerbaijan], but rather for the sake of the Republic of Armenia and self-determining Artaskh.
In this case, our neighbors will not be scared of us or be disgusted; rather, they will perhaps respect us with fear, just like they respect each person with dignity.
*See the interview with Vazgen Manukyan entitled “The victory in Karabagh freed the Armenian people from complications” at www.hetq.am (05.22.06).