Editorial

11 MAY 2018

The
"velvet" revolution, or, perhaps, simply a change of power, is
compared with the national movement of 1988. Both were accompanied by mass
demonstrations, both aroused a wave of nationwide awakening. On this, the
similarities end. The essence of both movements is different, and they have
different cultures and world views.

Citizens of
Soviet Armenia were brought up by the poetry of Shiraz and Paruyr Sevak. They
were patriots who dreamed of the return of Ararat and the lost homeland. Soviet
generations, raised on the genocide syndrome, dreamed of revenge, and this
accumulated energy broke out in 1988. Many Armenians perceived local Armenian
massacres in Azerbaijan as a continuation of the 1915 genocide.

In 1988, there
was a single consolidating goal: "Karabakh is ours". The slogans
"Unification" and "Fight, fight to the end" did not contain
any worldview and state-forming problems. It was exclusively an application for
historical revenge. For the sake of Artsakh people were ready to suffer hunger,
corruption and illegal actions and, finally, to die. There was not even a
demand for independence, and if it was discussed, then only in the context of
the unification of Armenia and Artsakh as a possible scenario for achieving
this goal. There was one super-goal, and everything else was secondary.

Forces that
came to power as a result of the movement, speculated this issue until 2018. It
is no accident that the Republican Party of Armenia and Serzh Sargsyan constantly
declared that they will remain in power until the problem of Artsakh is
resolved, and during the social uprisings they threatened with tension on the
border. The Artsakh issue kept the society as hostage. The opposition, in the
person of the ANC and Levon Ter-Petrosyan, also speculated with this problem
that supposedly problems in the issues of security and economy can be solved
only by concessions to Azerbaijan.

Despite the
only "social demand" of the society in 1988, the Armenian leadership,
secretly from society, recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan in 1991 (in the
CIS, and then at the time of its accession to the OSCE), and even in this
matter the national demand wasn't met, however, speculation continued. The
society was deceived, it was not informed that the Armenian authorities, while
holding Artsakh under their control, transferred the rights to it to
Azerbaijan.

However, since
1988 society has delegated one requirement to the government: to unite Artsakh
with Armenia. No other "social demand" or "public contract"
existed.

The movement of
2018 has yet to be comprehended. The slogan "Reject Serzh" — in
addition to the decisive principle that one must be punished for the deception
of society — has other content that still should be formulated. Rejection of
Serzh means rejection of the system and relations that have been formed over
the past 25 years. The deep meaning of these relations has yet to be defined
and formulated. These are not only the rules of relations that have turned Armenia
into a swamp, but also those institutions that are based on these relations,
which must have a RESTART. One thing is clear: we need a new social contract,
and the issue of Artsakh can be solved only on the basis of new realities. It
will no longer be possible to plunge society into psychological traps.

1988 was based
on old myths and perceptions, 2018 destroys the old to build new relationships.

https://acnis.am/en/editorial/17-2018-en