VICTORY BELONGS TO ALL
Editorial

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on May 09, 2008
Armenia

And it is impossible to divide it

The day of victory and the anniversary of the liberation of Shoushi is
the cherished day of our calendar when we perceive ourselves as an
entire unity` as triumphed people, a dignified nation and state that
has earned the right to voice its opinion on the global level.

Of course, all kinds of disputes and struggles around political
beliefs, economic interests and other permanent and temporary values
are possible inside such unity, but when the conversation goes around
the May victories uniting us and the common responsibility deriving
thereof, there automatically arises the following question: what do we
have to divide in this particular sphere?

The liberation of Shoushi ` an inseparable part of our generation’s
biography, is the `common capital’ which cannot be divided into parts,
no matter how much we may try. Neither is it possible to insist that it
belongs to the former or present-day authorities, this or that
political force and even some exclusive individual who is the author of
the most heroic feat.

The logic `whether the victory belongs to me or to you’ transfers the
continuing internal political disputes to an extremely dangerous plane.
If the victory of Shoushi can be viewed by such logic too, what’s the
idea of a motherland, common memory and everything else that is
impossible to divide?

To view our common victory through the prism of an internal political
struggle is a harmful bacillus that has already produced its impact on
some participants of the Karabakh War and the heroic battle of Shoushi;
it has even influenced some ordinary citizens.

Discords are always possible while `measuring’ each person’s investment
in the common victory following each war and the political processes
resulting thereof, but as regards the defeat, it always remains in the
status of an orphan. And only after the change of a whole generation
does there arrive the moment of making an accurate and impartial
assessment on the people’s common victory. We are sure that the same
will happen while assessing the Karabakh War in future.

So is there any need to beat to the punch today, on the regular
anniversary of the liberation of Shoushi, and view the history of the
unfinished foreign policy confrontation through the prism of the
`black-and-white’ logic?

If lose the `last stronghold’ of our unity towards the external
challenges, we may also be deprived of the outcomes of the common
victory. Thereafter, we will certainly try to attribute the
responsibility of the common defeat to one another – a situation that
has happened many times in the course of our history.

Smart and far-sighted peoples never try to divide the victories they
gained in the past; they think about new ones. While the short-sighted
peoples, on the contrary, hold such long disputes over the
participation of this or that individual in the process of achieving
the victories that the enemy perceives the moment of launching an
attack and seizing back the victory. Today, the temporary splitting in
the Armenian society has made our enemy happy, but it is not yet sure
whether the Armenians will become united again should Karabakh or
Shoushi become an issue of discussion.

On May 2, Ter-Petrosyan made the following statement, `In case there is
a military threat, I myself will call on the people and the activists
of the pan-national movement to temporarily cease the struggle and
settle down to the protection of their motherland.’ But if the
protection of his motherland is really his cherished desire, what gives
him the right to approve the unrestrained propaganda which now tends to
divide the outcomes of the victory gained at the cost of the lives of
thousands of martyrs.

All that is gained through bloodsheds is a sacred value, and a sacred
value is never divided into parts; it should be worshiped devotedly,
without any bias. Our common victory – the liberation of Shoushi and
the entire territory of Karabakh, is the value which has only one
owner, and that owner is the Armenian nation. All the rest ` from
soldier to general, have been and continue to remain the descendents of
the Armenian people, regardless the form and the extent of their
investment. Otherwise, the people will cease their existence as whole
unity resisting the external challenges, and the state will turn into a
tool for satisfying some temporary ambitions existing inside it.

Realizing that the united responsibility is the last and the most
powerful stronghold for the existence of the Armenian people, today, on
May 9, we congratulate all the participants of the unprecedented heroic
battle of Karabakh, regardless their political affiliation and views.