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OUR CHOICE: SINGING THE LAMENT OF THE LOST FATHERLAND
Edik Baghdasaryan
http://hetq.am/en/society/election-17/
[ 2010/10/04 | 17:00 ]
No one is any longer amazed to read stories about Armenian officials
abusing their government posts.
You can no longer shock anyone by writing that this or that person has
spent $500,000 to buy a seat in the National Assembly. It comes as no
surprise to anyone if you prove that the real owner of a commercial
enterprise is actually a government official. It~Rs become the ~Snorm~T
and has entered the Armenian genetic code. Many can argue that this
is the way it has always been, or that the same situation reigns
throughout the world. And there~Rs not much in the way of response
you can tell such people. Such effort is pointless. Armenians aren~Rt
capable of creating their world. Here, naturally, we are not referring
to the ~SArmenian world~T as posited by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.
What~Rs actually going on with Armenians today? The myth of the
Armenian no longer holds water; it has long since turned to dust.
Armenians are destroying their own country, its natural environment.
They destroy and then flee the country.
Sometimes, it seems that all this is part of a conspiracy drafted
in some unknown place. Such thoughts are fleeting, since there is no
conspiracy at work. There is no need for one.
Armenia is being emptied. Armenians are fleeing from their country.
And this doesn~Rt seem to be of any concern to the authorities in
charge. They are only concerned with one thing ~V holding on to power
and accumulating more wealth. Their souls are money-driven.
Like curses uttered, depopulated villages are blocked up in the
country~Rs throat and no government can digest such a reality.
Neglected old folk drag their frail bodies through the dusty streets
of ghost towns. They cry out for their departed children in parental
longing and curse this country for their present plight.
It~Rs a simple fact. This continuing chain of injustice and lawlessness
has a price ~V an Armenia being emptied of its people. In the midst
of this crippling widespread poverty, the price paid for the parties
and nightly fireworks, the expensive jeeps, the huge mansions built
with monies ripped off from the taxpayer and a billionaire Robert
Kocharyan, has been an Armenia being emptied of Armenians. There~Rs
a ghostly specter haunting Armenia; the ghost of a dispossessed people.
People still have faith in one another when it comes to daily matters
of life. But broach the subject of this or that government agency and
that faith turns to unbelief. How did we get here, how did we push
the country to such an abyss? We have even screwed up the army to the
point of collapse and have made life a living hell for that eighteen
year-old facing the enemy on the frontline. Every Armenian once held
the national army as an institution to be revered and above reproach.
Now look at it.
All the apparatuses of the state and the political parties have a
hand in the process of emptying Armenia. Not one of them ever says
~V Hold on a minute, we can~Rt go on living like this.
Our type of Armenian is not capable of building a country. Armenians
like us only sing one song- the song of a lost fatherland. It~Rs a sad
song that demands no work in return. It was written a long time ago.
We, it seems, have made our choice and have broken down, singing the
song of the lost fatherland.
Over the years we have wasted it all, every square inch of independence
we won. Step by step, minute by minute we caved in without resisting
and swallowed one injustice after another.
This giant wheel is now rolling over us all; crushing each of us
under its weight.
It should come as no surprise that we are now standing on the
precipice. Who can honestly say that we don~Rt deserve to be where
we are today?
Photo ~V Ara Oshagan (The frontline at Askeran, Karabakh, 2002;
from the book ~SHayreni Hogh~T)
From: A. Papazian
Edik Baghdasaryan
http://hetq.am/en/society/election-17/
[ 2010/10/04 | 17:00 ]
No one is any longer amazed to read stories about Armenian officials
abusing their government posts.
You can no longer shock anyone by writing that this or that person has
spent $500,000 to buy a seat in the National Assembly. It comes as no
surprise to anyone if you prove that the real owner of a commercial
enterprise is actually a government official. It~Rs become the ~Snorm~T
and has entered the Armenian genetic code. Many can argue that this
is the way it has always been, or that the same situation reigns
throughout the world. And there~Rs not much in the way of response
you can tell such people. Such effort is pointless. Armenians aren~Rt
capable of creating their world. Here, naturally, we are not referring
to the ~SArmenian world~T as posited by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.
What~Rs actually going on with Armenians today? The myth of the
Armenian no longer holds water; it has long since turned to dust.
Armenians are destroying their own country, its natural environment.
They destroy and then flee the country.
Sometimes, it seems that all this is part of a conspiracy drafted
in some unknown place. Such thoughts are fleeting, since there is no
conspiracy at work. There is no need for one.
Armenia is being emptied. Armenians are fleeing from their country.
And this doesn~Rt seem to be of any concern to the authorities in
charge. They are only concerned with one thing ~V holding on to power
and accumulating more wealth. Their souls are money-driven.
Like curses uttered, depopulated villages are blocked up in the
country~Rs throat and no government can digest such a reality.
Neglected old folk drag their frail bodies through the dusty streets
of ghost towns. They cry out for their departed children in parental
longing and curse this country for their present plight.
It~Rs a simple fact. This continuing chain of injustice and lawlessness
has a price ~V an Armenia being emptied of its people. In the midst
of this crippling widespread poverty, the price paid for the parties
and nightly fireworks, the expensive jeeps, the huge mansions built
with monies ripped off from the taxpayer and a billionaire Robert
Kocharyan, has been an Armenia being emptied of Armenians. There~Rs
a ghostly specter haunting Armenia; the ghost of a dispossessed people.
People still have faith in one another when it comes to daily matters
of life. But broach the subject of this or that government agency and
that faith turns to unbelief. How did we get here, how did we push
the country to such an abyss? We have even screwed up the army to the
point of collapse and have made life a living hell for that eighteen
year-old facing the enemy on the frontline. Every Armenian once held
the national army as an institution to be revered and above reproach.
Now look at it.
All the apparatuses of the state and the political parties have a
hand in the process of emptying Armenia. Not one of them ever says
~V Hold on a minute, we can~Rt go on living like this.
Our type of Armenian is not capable of building a country. Armenians
like us only sing one song- the song of a lost fatherland. It~Rs a sad
song that demands no work in return. It was written a long time ago.
We, it seems, have made our choice and have broken down, singing the
song of the lost fatherland.
Over the years we have wasted it all, every square inch of independence
we won. Step by step, minute by minute we caved in without resisting
and swallowed one injustice after another.
This giant wheel is now rolling over us all; crushing each of us
under its weight.
It should come as no surprise that we are now standing on the
precipice. Who can honestly say that we don~Rt deserve to be where
we are today?
Photo ~V Ara Oshagan (The frontline at Askeran, Karabakh, 2002;
from the book ~SHayreni Hogh~T)
From: A. Papazian