LESSONS OF HISTORY

Yerkir.am
May 19, 2006

You can often hear that Armenia and the Armenians are facing a
difficult situation today since the interests of super-powers clash in
our region and these clashes threaten our national and state security.

This is a valid observation. However, it should be added that this
situation is not new for Armenia. It has faced the same situation
for at least 25 centuries. Judging from the existing geopolitical
tendencies and the logic of their possible development there are very
slight chances that this situation will change.

This does not mean that we should blame our ‘Armenian luck’ and
complain that our country is located at the locus of clashing
geopolitical interests.

This does not mean that we should fall into despair and yield ourselves
to the benevolence of the fate or of some super-power. We must assess
our own history.

Our history of the past 25 centuries shows that whenever we failed
to mitigate the clash of interests in our region we had to suffer
the loss of independence and statehood. And on the contrary, whenever
we succeeded in mitigating such clashes harmonizing the interests of
super-powers in our region we benefited from it. Today we are facing
the same situation. We are facing the same challenges and have the
same approach. Our political leaders must realize this or at least
think about it.