But What Should the State in Yerevan be?

Vahe H. Apelian

 

Courtesy "Hairenik" Weekly (August 13, 2021)

I read two reports today about the current state in Armenia. I should rather say in Yerevan because the reports described the state of the populace in Yerevan. In both instances the writers are from Diaspora and in both instances they noted their shock. Having expected to find Yerevan in a much more somber and subdued mood in the aftermath of the 44-days Artsakh war;  instead of the doom and gloom mood in Yerevan, they found the cafés of Yerevan bustling with a cheerful and chattering crowd.

Vehanoush Tekian  reported in “Hairenik” Weekly (August 13, 2021) an article titled “Where are we heading – Ո՞ւ Կերթան”. In it she noted that her friend poet Haroutione Maral Berberian, a resident of Montreal, had noted the following on his Facebook page on August 11, 2011 . I quote in translation:

"I have been in Yerevan for more than ten days. The picture is shocking. It is true that life will continue but passing through the streets of the city and its surroundings and watching the cheerful and chattering crowd of cafes around, it seems that the people of the city have lost their memory (I read such a story in  Gabriel Garcia Marquez "One Hundred Years of Solitude"). "It seems that we have not had or do not have more than five thousand victims, thousands of wounded and disabled, the missing and captives. Or the danger of additional land and human losses does not hang over our heads like the sword of Damocles."

Vehanoush Tekian, dwelling on the report, elaborated on her indignation alleging that the Armenians overwhelmingly show utter callousness to the sad post war reality.

Edmond Azadian, in the current issue of The Armenian Mirror Spectator (August 13, 2021), noted similarly. He reported  the following: 

“I spent the entire month of June in Armenia. 

Before arriving there, I anticipated seeing gloom and doom all around, with some of the 5,000 losses not even buried yet, the other 10,0000 injured pinning their hopes on prostheses, and everyone listening to the news about daily incursions of Azerbaijani forces across Armenia’s borders.

However, the contrast was so bewildering that I could not come up with a rational explanation.”

Courtesy Raffi Doudaklian

But what was the mood in Yerevan during the war?

 On September 28, 2020, a week after the start of war, Raffi Doudaklian posed from Yerevan on his Facebook page about the condition prevailing in the capital city. He tilted his posting “ It's War and the Nation an Army”. I quote from my translation of his posting in my blog.

“ It is war and the nation as a whole has turned into an army.

Young people on the streets of Yerevan solicit help towards the families in Artsakh affected by the war. Some bring bed covers, others food, many bring medicines  and then others flour or money. 

Young and old have gathered in front of the military recruiting offices and stand in line to volunteer and wait patiently until they are called in.

Individuals, business owners, companies donate as much as they can or want, to All Armenia Fund or  Military Insurance Fund .

Companies are very lenient and understandable towards their young employees who have volunteered to be dispatched to the front line.

It is a state of war in Armenia with the full sense of the word. Everyone, young and old, feel to the core of their being that it is a state of war that prevails in Armenia. It is war and the Armenian citizens have no other concern for now. It is war when they opened their eyes early in the morning and it may even continue in their sleep. Simply said,  the war has become part of the citizens’ being these days.” 

Armenia signed the tri-party dictates on November 9/10, 2010 to end  the hostilities and brute attacks by the TurkaBaijan forces. The dictates were brokered by the President of Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and thus carried his signature, along with the signatures of Nikol Pachinyan, as the PM and Commander of Armenian forces, and Ilham Heydar Oğlu Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan. How did the citizens of Armenia react to the news?

I quote the translation of the notification Krikor Kradjian sent in an email to friends from Yerevan, on November 28, 2020. About two weeks after the cessation of the war.

“Of the thousands of Armenian churches around the world - Armenia, Western Armenia, Istanbul, the Middle East, Europe, the American continent ... the most sacramental, sad, and depressive these days is St. Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral in Yerevan.

Under the soft music of "Lord Have Mercy", people pray with fear, sometimes sitting for hours or kneeling, with tears in their eyes. Some with their eyes wide open continue  gazing the alter all the while praying , others, after a good cry, calm down and leave the church in back steps.

Now tell me, how can you not be moved?

There are no words to explain our situation.

The wound is so deep that I think only time can heal  ...

Courtesy Krikor Kradjian

What should the proper response of the Armenians be, I wonder, some 11 months after formal cessation of the war? Throughout those eleven months the citizens of Armenia lived through the catastrophic war, bore the brunt of the war, buried their martyrs. They also experienced the post war polarizing social unrest, elected their post war new government in a snap election.  Throughout those eleven months, they held their emotions in control, did not resort to violence, even when their leaders or political activists acted in ways that dishonored the nation. I think that Diaspora Armenians have an  inherent bias. In the comfort and security of their homes in the Diaspora, especially in the West, they conjure images of Armenia and carve images of the state of the citizens of Armenia should be, while they continue to attend to their daily routine, as they did throughout those past eleven months.

I have no answer as to what the proper response of the citizens of Armenia should be nowadays, eleven months later. I believe Edmond Azadian made the case when he wrote “Either people have become so fatalistic that nothing that happens scares them anymore, or they are so resilient that they are facing adversities with courage and hope. A third possibility is that they know something that we outsiders don’t, but it may also be any combination of the above.”

Yes, I believe the citizens of Armenia know more than we do, what they are doing and have done. Is that not natural? After all they live in Armenia and make their livelihood there.

But I am not so sure if we in the Diaspora know what we are doing. After all, the Armenian state in the Diaspora is a lot paler if not existentially challenged. Let us attend to our issues here to contribute for the continual viability of the Diaspora to continue on bringing our share for the betterment of Armenia and stop speculating on the state of the citizens of Armenia and stop being judgmental.