Interpreting Khrimian Hayrig's Iron Ladle Speech

Vaհe H Apelian.

“139 years have passed but the Armenian ladle still is not of iron”, I heard Hayk Konjoryan say, when I came across him for the first time nine years ago when he was a candidate as a deputy to Armenia’s National Assembly on behalf of the “They Way Out-Yelk” party. My records indicate that it was on January 1, 2017 when he presented his candidacy to an audience of around 600 people in a town hall filled to capacity. He had chosen Khrimian Hayrig’s famous “Iron Ladle” speech as the theme of his election campaign. Hayk Konjoryan, with a metal saddle in his hand, was claiming that “139 years have passed but the Armenian ladle still is not of iron”. 

In his speech Hayk Konjoryan went on arguing that the answer for an iron ladle,  is not a strong army alone, because a strong army without a strong a government is self-defeating.  Nor, he argued the answer is a strong government. Because, he said, a strong government with a weak army is ineffective.  Neither the answer, he further stated, can be a strong army and a strong government. Because these two institutions, strong army and a strong government, cannot long endure if the state’s economy is weak. He went on noting to his audience that, 2000 of such capacity filled halls, totaling 1.2 million citizens have left the country arguing that they did not want to leave their homeland but they turned their backs to their unjust and corrupt government, weakening the state. 

As I look at that speech, he appears to be younger than his 30 years old age. What struck me was his interpretation of the ladle (paper?) speech.  He came across to me wiser for his young age. The common message that has been carried from Khrimian Hayrig is to resort to gun as the most assured way for the Armenians to have their rightful national grievances heard and their rightful goals achieved. But this young man’s interpretation of the Khrimian Hayrig’s message was far more in depth than what I was accustomed and expected to hear. That is why I opted to archive the speech in my Facebook account (see the link below)..

At the present, Hayk Konjoryan is a mature, experienced, seasoned member of the National Assembly of Armenia and he is a forceful proponent of the ruling Civil Contract party that has proven to be an ideologically cohesive group thus far.  No Armenian leader and political party in the very recent history have been so tested as Nikol Pashinyan and his Civil Contract party and remained cohesive with a vision.

In fact, I liken the inexperienced young men they were - Nikol Pashinyan, Hayk Konjoyan, Ararat Mirzoyan, Araik Haroutiunyan, Vahagn Alexanyan and others - to the young revolutionaries that became statesmen as the founders of the First Republic of Armenia. I draw a parallel between the two in their political and foreign policy pragmatism to assure the longevity of the Republic of Armenia. I trust them and I wish them well.