Give me your poor and huddled masses....

Vahe H. Apelian

First and foremost, I command Hoory Minoyan for taking her time and writing an article in this week’s Armenian weekly (December 6, 2023). The title of the article is “National Assembly Committee votes against “Hayakve project in Armenia.” This is the first article I read penned by her.

In the article she wrote that “The suggested modifications to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia proposed the addition of two new articles. Article 1 proposed the incorporation of Articles 420.1 and 420.2 into the existing Criminal Code of Armenia. Article 420.1 states that “recognizing Artsakh as part of any other state on behalf of the Republic of Armenia is punishable by imprisonment for ten to fifteen years.” Article 420.2 pertains to penalties, including imprisonment for 10-15 years for refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide or public denial, justification or belittling of the Armenian Genocide on behalf of the Republic of Armenia. Article 2 stated that this law would come into effect 10 days after its official publication.” 

I followed the “Hayakve” initiative. Not one signatory I know of was reported to have signed the proposals presented above. I challenge anyone, foremost Hoory, to produce documented evidence that signatories of the “Hayakve” initiative - 58,000 -  signed for the proposals she outlined, I may have missed. All those who signed for the “Hayakve” initiative signed “A statement of Confirmation” (Havasdakir), to the following: "Today you take control of the constitution and the laws of your state, the fate of your generations”. In Armenian, the statement reads as follow: Հավաստագիր` «Այսօր դուն տէր կանգնիր քո պետութեան սահմանադրութեան ու օրէնքներին, քու սերունդների ճակատագրին».

The picture posted accompanying the article, depicts a girl holding a poster that reads. “The RofA Constitution forbids recognizing Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan”. I presume she holds that poster because the “Hayakve” initiative called for taking “Control of the Constituion……”, (see above).  Anyone with a cursory interest in the Constitution of Armenia knows that it came about in 1995 and was amended twice in 2005 and in 2015. Artsakh is not mentioned in the Constitution of Armenia. There again I challenge anyone to cite the article of the Constitution of Armenia that cites Artsakh, or Armenia's commitment to Artsakh, I may have missed.  let alone to the fact that the term Artskah for Nagorno-Karabagh did not exist then.  

Statement of Confirmation - Hasdadakir - of the Hayakve Initiative

It is not a matter whether the committee was justified or not justified in rejecting what was presented to them. It is what the public at large was invited to sign and what apparently was presented to the committee. What concern me is this deliberate muddying of water when clarity, transparency is due for the sake of Armenia. 

It is understood that an opposition campaigns in poetry while a government or an administration governs in prose, the opposition will do when in power. My concern lays in the extent to which this culture of emotionally charging the Armenians over unsubstantiated claims appears to go. It appears to be an emerging endemic trait in the budding Armenian political culture for self-governance. It needs to be eradicated. After all, what goes around, comes around. Next time it will be the opposition who will face this sort of “music” when they assume power. 

I do not know why was I reminded of “Emma Lazarus-ian”’s famous words: “Give me your (Armenian) poor, your (Armenian) huddled masses yearning for a sovereign state, and I will give them  pundits in abundance. “