GUYS HAVE STARTED DECLASSIFYING MODERN HISTORY
Hakob Badalyan
Lragir, Armenia
Nov 28 2007
If it goes on the way it has started, no doubt within more or less
100 days to go before the presidential election our modern history
will open up to the Armenian society with all its glamour and misery.
For instance, Samvel Babayan promised to release part of it, with
facts, names, events, what who did, why, and through whom. His move
was allegedly a response to Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s statement that
Serge Sargsyan had been expulsed from Karabakh for whatever reason
and since Samvel Babayan is also mentioned in this story, he decided
to defend his name. Only it is amazing that Samvel Babayan did not
say he had nothing to do with it but decided to tell more about the
former government of Armenia which created obstacles to the victories
in the war in Karabakh. No doubt there will be more revelations.
Paruir Hairikyan, for instance, has already revealed something.
Particularly in 1992-1994 hundreds of men left Karabakh for Armenia
with papers signed by Serge Sargsyan. It is not known how many of
them returned to Karabakh during or after the war. It should not be
ruled out that we will get the answer to these questions, as well as
other questions before the presidential election.
There may be something positive about this in the sense that in order
to prove their "innocence" or others’ "guilt" and to settle scores with
one another they will reveal unread pages of history, and the society
will stand a chance to evaluate this history, give a more unbiased
evaluation of heroes and antiheroes. In other words, most false values
and ideas will be crashed. It is highly important to free the future
generation from superiority or inferiority complexes, not allowing
anyone to manipulate the war and thereby become established in the
political sphere. Over the past 10-13 years our political and economic
elites were shaped through manipulation of the factor of war. However,
the problem is that now is the right moment to reveal the history.
It is beyond doubt that the history of the Armenian people needs
declassification. Our history built on heroes and betrayers has
nothing to do with the ordinary phenomena of life which have guided
all the nations, including the Armenian nation through history.
However, in the case of the Armenian nation history was made extreme
and divided into black and white, thereby putting the same seal on
our present. Moreover, the black and white history that has reached
us was not discolored when it had already become history but was
discolored when it was still present. Perhaps at that time the
Armenian kings behaved similarly, getting established in the public
and political sphere, ascribing to themselves the salvation of the
nation in some battle, and since there was no television and radio
them, the ascription was carried out through historiographers.
Therefore, most Armenian historiographers in reality were busy with
ascription rather than historiography; perhaps it depended on who
gave more.
However, the modern Armenian kings apparently have not chosen the
best time for declassifying the history. The problem is not that
our enemies will learn about things which they may later manipulate
against Armenia and Karabakh in international organizations. As
a rule, and this rule has apparently been proven by history, our
enemies know us better because the Armenians have always aimed to
cheat one another rather than their rival or foe. The problem is that
the wrongdoing and doubtful and ambiguous phenomena that took place
during the war can be revealed in an unbiased and complex way only
by those people who are not directly or indirectly participating in
the public and political processes underway in Armenia and Karabakh,
who do not pursue any political or economic interests. Otherwise,
we are going to deal with another stage of ascription which will not
color life and will merely change the places of black and white.