PRESS RELEASE
The National Citizens’ Initiative
75 Yerznkian Street
Yerevan 375033, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 – 1) 27.16.00, 27.00.03
Fax: (+374 – 1) 52.48.46
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
September 24, 2004
National Citizens’ Initiative Examines 13 Years of Armenian Independence
Yerevan–The National Citizens’ Initiative (NCI) today convened a
specialized policy roundtable on “The 13 Years of Armenia’s Independence:
Have We Really Learned to be Independent?” On the occasion of the thirteenth
anniversary of the Republic’s independence, the meeting brought together
policy makers, public figures, academic circles, and representatives of the
mass media and NGO communities to highlight Armenia’s sovereign track record
and the challenges of transitional democracy, to reassess the bitter and
sweet of the independence era, and to analyze whether the nation has drawn
relevant lessons from the past on the road to true independence.
Hovsep Khurshudian, diaspora and economic affairs analyst of the Armenian
Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS), greeted the audience
with opening remarks. “Independence is the greatest value, without which it
is impossible to view a country’s future. However, the country should be run
so that independence really serves the people’s well-being, is fully grasped
and valued by the mainstream, and becomes a source of their pride,”
Khurshudian said.
“From Whom Must the Fatherland be Saved?” was the topical focus of Artsrun
Pepanian, a leading analyst for AR television, and based on his book of the
same title. Against the background of Armenia’s historical experience he
presented an analytical model to explain the current situation in Armenia.
According to it, “the factors of the national and the transitional phase”
are two circumstances that have had a negative impact on societal processes.
The adverse manifestations of the Armenian people’s demeanor as
circumscribed by its very history, on the one hand, and the complications
and vices brought about by the change of regime, on the other, continue to
impede Armenia’s state-building efforts and the regulation of its public
life. “The English tragedy was repeated in Armenia: a minority endowed with
authority over society came to possess the domain of public property,
whereas the traditionally obedient majority was unable to withstand those
wild elements,” he maintained, claiming that widespread public
disappointment, if allowed to continue, might arouse mass frustration. In
this case, Pepanian concluded, the strata of society will gradually stop
bearing new ideas.
Law professor Hrair Tovmasian of the Heritage Party detailed “The Legal
Heritage of Contemporary Armenia and the Challenge of Nation Building.”
Owing to a near-permanent absence of statehood, the Armenian people never
found itself at the source of legal values, and thus could not become the
real carrier of such values. “The legal basis for the country’s governance
was always imposed on us from outside, because we have always lacked the
potential for creating legal thought, both centuries ago and currently,” he
said. In the legal instruments imported from foreign sources, as a rule all
individual rights and liberties except for religious freedoms were brought
to a bare minimum. As a result, Tovmasian asserted, the Armenian individual
has had to bypass the law, which in the course of centuries has led
behaviorally to legal nihilism.
The remainder of the session was devoted to exchanges of views and policy
recommendations among the public figures and policy specialists in
attendance. Noteworthy were interventions by MP Grigor Haroutiunian of the
People’s Party of Armenia; Vigen Khachatrian of the Liberal Democratic
Party; Vardan Khachatrian, theology professor at Yerevan State University;
former minister of state Hrach Hakobian; Alexander Butaev and Albert
Baghdasarian of the National Democratic Union; Aramazd Zakarian of the
Republic Party; Edward Antinian of the Liberal Progressive Party; Petros
Makeyan of the Democratic Fatherland Party; Shant Haroutiunian of Armenia’s
Tseghakron Party; Tamar Gevorgian of the United Labor Party; and many
others.
The participants attached particular importance to the formation of a
dignified and law-based civil society, the creation of favorable conditions
for the harmonious development of the “independence generation,” the
overcoming of consequences of the clan system and Soviet remains, and by all
means the consolidation of national-state foundations and enhancement of the
people’s welfare.
The National Citizens’ Initiative is a public non-profit association founded
in 2001 by former minister of foreign affairs Raffi K. Hovannisian, his
colleagues, and fellow citizens with the purpose of realizing the rule of
law and overall improvements in the state of the state, society, and public
institutions. The National Citizens’ Initiative is guided by a Coordinating
Council, which includes individual citizens and representatives of various
public, scientific, and educational establishments. Five commissions on Law
and State Administration, Socioeconomic Issues, Foreign Policy, Spiritual
and Cultural Challenges, and the Youth constitute the vehicles for the
Initiative’s work and outreach.
For further information, please call (3741) 27-16-00 or 27-00-03; fax (3741)
52-48-46; e-mail [email protected]; or visit