Vahan Hovhannesian calls for more unity and resolve
08.02.2008 19:44
Yerevan (Yerkir) – It was 20 years ago that people were this united in
this square. We were a nation that understood its common interest then.
Twenty years later we are here again but this is a different country.
We lived with illusions. We now live in two different countries. On the
surface, the country seems to be developing, in reality it is not. We
are in stagnation in reality.
There seems to be democracy with all the attributes of democracy:
parliament, political parties, non-governmental organizations, opinion
polls, etc. But in reality, we live in an environment of non-freedom
and injustice. The economic growth that is a fact has nothing to do
with the people. The democratic attributes are for the outside world.
Regular people have been deprived of freedom, competition and we live
in two worlds. In one world, the constitution develops on its own with
new amendments and laws. Somewhere else, the real life goes on, and
that life has noting in common with those laws, it is not governed by
those laws. And we have unhappy, tired, disappointed people. The gap
between those two worlds is getting deeper. We see development but that
development circumvents us.
This happened because on the dawn of our independence, we did not
realize the most important thing: the return of independence that we
were dreaming of for centuries, that our ancestors fought for, does not
bring justice automatically. We need to struggle further, we need
additional unity, additional efforts, additional resolve and most
importantly, we should not be afraid. We should now achieve freedom
after the independence. And we will achieve it because you are here.
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