INDEPENDENCE -AN ABSOLUTE VALUE

Hayoc Ashkharh
21 Sept 2007

Begun with the Karabakh movement, the newest history of our nation is
first of all outstanding in that it marked the beginning of an era of
developing the state mentality of the Armenian people who were
deprived of their statehood and had led a semi-independent life for at
least the last millennium of their chronology. And today, we can
proudly state that as a nation, we have the highest level of our
organization.
It is already an accomplished fact that Armenia, as an independent
state, is capable of ensuring the prospects of our nation’s survival
on their native land in case of all kinds of possible geopolitical
developments, and even in the worst and most hazardous situations. And
that means the danger that threatens the Armenians scattered all over
the world is no longer a complete and comprehensive mechanism.
Nothing can force an Armenian to waive his independence, his past
and his origins. In this respect, statehood is something more than a
principal tool and goal for the nation’s survival. It has become an
absolute value – the pledge of eternity.
The present-day world has its clear-cut logic: if you cannot live
independently, you cannot live at all as a nation, as a collectivity.
Therefore, the organism of your nation will sooner or later become
absorbed and dissipated into strange atmospheres, and everything
preserved on your own land will change into a museum and grave.
As shown by the recent years’ experience, the new form of existence
of our nation involves both positive and negative signals equally.
Indepndence is both a political status and a relevant economic basis,
as well as a new system of moral-psychological perceptions in addition
to the perception of one’s own place and role in the world and the
integrity of the security means and guarantees deriving thereof.
We have voted in favor of independence as a whole nation; therefore
we all bear a nationwide responsibility for it. And if we are unable
to master our fortune independently, we will be deprived of our
prospects and our future as a nation and statehood.
At last, fortune smiled on us and gave as the chance to recover the
capacity of responding to all-Armenian issues and directing all our
efforts at strengthening what we have received by a stroke of good
fortune.
On the regular anniversaries of independence we should state that
it is the Armenian statehood that has consolidated its nationals for
realizing the same goals and objectives with the purpose of mastering
our fortune, i.e. the independence. In psychological terms, we are now
facing the most decisive moment: as a scattered and massacred nation,
we must realize that the hopeless and desperate dreams born on strange
lands as well as the times of living on one’s native land without
having a motherland have long ago fallen to the bosoms of history.
There is a wide gap between dreaming about independence and taking
pride in the responsibility for independence. And we must bridge that
gap as quickly as possible, since independence is our destiny, and we
cannot have the Armenian statehood march on the same spot.
Even though the difficulties faced by our country throughout these
years have not been completely overcome, we must be proud to mention
that we have never lost faith in the idea of freedom and independence.