Integrating national values and character

Vaհe H Apelian

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Vahan Zanoyan needs no introduction. He is a very accomplished person in his own right and surely not an indifferent Armenian.  I read in Mirror-Spectator, his latest personal article about Ruben Vardanyan and the syndrome of indifference, I imagine his article will likely be reproduced by other Armenian newsletters. While the article is very personal and has to do with the syndrome of indifference, but it sure is part and parcel of a greater whole which is our national values and character. Vahan remains concerned of their erosion under prime minister Nikol Pashinyan.

He wrote: “An Armenia stripped of its national character and values is already defeated, even if in peace with its neighbors, because it would be a sterilized Armenia, a skeleton, just a map without a soul—indifferent to its history, culture, rights, identity and, most of all, to its national dignity. I know there are many who will mock these thoughts, and they will base their mockery on “what did we achieve with 34 years of senseless struggle,” but our history is much longer than 34 years. Our struggle is longer than three thousand years. 34 years is nothing but a blink in the history of nations. Nations prevail because they keep the will to struggle.”

Personalizing it on my end, I will note that Vahan and I are of the same generation, although he is younger than I. Both of us attended the same Armenian school in Beirut. I do not think that there is an Armenian, who will comment contrary to the statement he made. But the issue should not be presented with such a statement.

Armenian Evangelical College High School Science Club

What are our national values and character?  

Our national values and character are matters that cannot be summed up in a paragraph or two. But, for the sake of simplification, I will sum it up in a sentence or two. Our national values and character are hinged on our standing by and upholding the three Rs: Recognition of the genocide and the historical wrong that was done to us; Restitution of what is historically ours but has been usurped from us; Reparation of what cannot be restituted but compensated to help the Armenian nation recover from the mortal wound. 

To further simplify, it is fair and right to note that the crux of our national values and character has two distinct aspects – what we can integrate into state policy, and what we should uphold and retain as individuals. Both are highly demanding commitments. The state has a responsibility for keeping the Republic of Armenia safe and secure in a tumultuous region. The Armenian as an individual has a responsibility to uphold and retain what has been passed to the person through, no less tumultuous long Armenian history.

Regarding the Armenian state, nothing of substance has changed since May 28, 1918 to the present, to this very day. To be more precise, from June 4, 1918, seven days after May 28, when Armenia signed the Treaty of Batumi and not long after went to Istanbul and thanked no other than the butcher himself, Talaat Pasha for making the republic of Armenia possible. These are happenings and not interpretations. 

But what has changed is the public outspokenness of the prime minister Nikol Pashinyan for baring to public the stark reality of the Armenia’s policies to secure Armenia and also his outspoken quest for Armenia’s “prosperity”. I do not need to elaborate on the prime minister Nikol Pashinyan blunt outspokenness. Consider it to be blunt pragmatism. The state of Armenia is continuing to do its job from get-go to this very day by not integrating onto the Armenia’s state policies the 3 Rs – the Recognition, the Restitution, and the Reparation.

As to Armenia’s quest for property, it should not be viewed within the context of Western prosperity. Armenia is an impoverished country. Poverty is endemic in Armenia. Armenia needs to provide bread, in the biblical sense - “give us this day our daily bread” - for sustenance, so that Armenians will be able to make a living and get by to stay put in Armenia and not join Vahan and I in far distant lands.

But regrettably, the individual Armenians and the ad hoc groups of Armenian individuals as cultural, athletic, academic and what not organizations, are failing. 

The individual failing is not only with Armenians. The trend of seeking solutions by the state and from the state, is pandemic, if you will allow me use that term.

If we are to retain our republic, we have to know the difference between, what the state of Armenia can integrate in its state policy from what we term as “national values and character”; and what the Armenian individual should retain from the same -  “national values and character” - onto itself. Knowledge is at the fingertips of any one of us. 

The wisdom of knowing the difference of integrating national values and characters by Armenia and integrating by Armenians, may help Armenia and Armenians from self-destructive politics.