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INDEPENDENCE GENERATION IS COMING
Siranuysh Papyan
Lragir.am News
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/interview23426.html
13:53:41 - 20/09/2011
Interview with Aghasi Tadevosyan, ethnographer
What are the achievements of independence?
The issue is whether we managed to build our state. We became
independent from the Soviet Union in 1991 that ruled for 70 years
and from the 200-year Russian domination. We were a dependent nation,
we had no state. Now the situation has changed radically.
Post-Soviet Armenia could not be considered independent yet. In
cultural terms, post-Soviet Armenia was an attempt to reform the
national with Soviet system rules. People engaged in the creation
of independent Armenia were Soviet people. They were brought up and
educated in the anti-Western spirit and were deprived of the ability
to perceive capitalism culturally, politically, economically. So,
they just managed to create a Post-Soviet-Armenia. This is what
we have today. The task of the new generation is to get rid of the
old generation, and this passage is almost over, but the passage to
independence still has to be continued.
The pro-Russian sentiment in Armenia in 75% of the population is,
though slowly, decreasing.
This decrease is due to the emergence of a class of people in the
country who are RoA citizens. These young people are not many but they
already have big influence and serious competitive qualities. This
class is very active. These young people, such as those of "We are
the masters of this city" initiative, are able to fight the oligarchs
and achieve results. In terms of quality, they radically differ from
those who they compete with. They are not the Soviet generation,
they are the independence generation. Further confrontations will
take place between the Soviet generation that monopolized government
and the economy and the one of the independent Armenia. When does
the influence of one social class or another increase? When the
competitor's ideas differ. Why are the rest of people unable to protect
their rights? Because they don't have a stance, their position does
not differ from the one of the oligarchs who are accused of robbing
the country.
Do you explain declining Russophilia by individual approaches only?
I think Russophilia does not suppose deep love towards Russia and the
Russian people but the inability to see and evaluate your own power.
This arises in the result of group thinking when people do not believe
they are able to achieve something with their own force, without
being members of this or another clan. There is no oligarch that is
individually independent. They are all members of groups. Most of
them will lose their "almightiness" as soon as they are deprived of
the protection of tax and customs services and forced to compete in
equal conditions. This is the reason why people think they are unable
to ensure their security without their sponsor - the elder brother
- Russia. The elder brother traditionally takes care of the other
brothers, takes decisions for them, and leads the clan. So, I think,
Russophilia in Armenia has a subservient nature rather than friendly
and it will be possible to overcome it if the bearers of individual
values become more in our society. This is the only way in the modern
world to establish independence at the national level. As a state we
do not have our position. The point is our development. We failed the
passage because we did not know what we wanted, some Western theorists
and political figures decided that Armenia should pass the standard
transition processes including the sock therapy, privatization etc.
But these theorists came out to be wrong. We suffered losses because
our decisions were taken by others.
So, we haven't "tasted" independence?
There should be a shift of generations, new characteristics should
arise because if we rely on the value and worldview of the Soviet
generation, we will fail. Those, who have Soviet ideas and values and
continue the Soviet thinking, will never change. We must replace these
people with others. We just need to not lose time. Our shortcoming
in the past 20 years of independence has been our failure to shape a
generation that would consolidate and develop the independence. This
generation, I have spoken about such individuals, has formed
accidentally, and the state or the public efforts have nothing to
do with this. Many of them living in the Western environment became
carriers of interpretation abilities of that sphere, then they acted
as mediators for the Armenian society, because their cultural capital
was not formed in Armenia but in the West. They brought that capital
and invested in Armenia, creating a new quality of civil society. In
essence, the processes happening in the civil area are deeply political
because politics is an activity aimed at fulfillment of ideas.
Siranuysh Papyan
Lragir.am News
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/interview23426.html
13:53:41 - 20/09/2011
Interview with Aghasi Tadevosyan, ethnographer
What are the achievements of independence?
The issue is whether we managed to build our state. We became
independent from the Soviet Union in 1991 that ruled for 70 years
and from the 200-year Russian domination. We were a dependent nation,
we had no state. Now the situation has changed radically.
Post-Soviet Armenia could not be considered independent yet. In
cultural terms, post-Soviet Armenia was an attempt to reform the
national with Soviet system rules. People engaged in the creation
of independent Armenia were Soviet people. They were brought up and
educated in the anti-Western spirit and were deprived of the ability
to perceive capitalism culturally, politically, economically. So,
they just managed to create a Post-Soviet-Armenia. This is what
we have today. The task of the new generation is to get rid of the
old generation, and this passage is almost over, but the passage to
independence still has to be continued.
The pro-Russian sentiment in Armenia in 75% of the population is,
though slowly, decreasing.
This decrease is due to the emergence of a class of people in the
country who are RoA citizens. These young people are not many but they
already have big influence and serious competitive qualities. This
class is very active. These young people, such as those of "We are
the masters of this city" initiative, are able to fight the oligarchs
and achieve results. In terms of quality, they radically differ from
those who they compete with. They are not the Soviet generation,
they are the independence generation. Further confrontations will
take place between the Soviet generation that monopolized government
and the economy and the one of the independent Armenia. When does
the influence of one social class or another increase? When the
competitor's ideas differ. Why are the rest of people unable to protect
their rights? Because they don't have a stance, their position does
not differ from the one of the oligarchs who are accused of robbing
the country.
Do you explain declining Russophilia by individual approaches only?
I think Russophilia does not suppose deep love towards Russia and the
Russian people but the inability to see and evaluate your own power.
This arises in the result of group thinking when people do not believe
they are able to achieve something with their own force, without
being members of this or another clan. There is no oligarch that is
individually independent. They are all members of groups. Most of
them will lose their "almightiness" as soon as they are deprived of
the protection of tax and customs services and forced to compete in
equal conditions. This is the reason why people think they are unable
to ensure their security without their sponsor - the elder brother
- Russia. The elder brother traditionally takes care of the other
brothers, takes decisions for them, and leads the clan. So, I think,
Russophilia in Armenia has a subservient nature rather than friendly
and it will be possible to overcome it if the bearers of individual
values become more in our society. This is the only way in the modern
world to establish independence at the national level. As a state we
do not have our position. The point is our development. We failed the
passage because we did not know what we wanted, some Western theorists
and political figures decided that Armenia should pass the standard
transition processes including the sock therapy, privatization etc.
But these theorists came out to be wrong. We suffered losses because
our decisions were taken by others.
So, we haven't "tasted" independence?
There should be a shift of generations, new characteristics should
arise because if we rely on the value and worldview of the Soviet
generation, we will fail. Those, who have Soviet ideas and values and
continue the Soviet thinking, will never change. We must replace these
people with others. We just need to not lose time. Our shortcoming
in the past 20 years of independence has been our failure to shape a
generation that would consolidate and develop the independence. This
generation, I have spoken about such individuals, has formed
accidentally, and the state or the public efforts have nothing to
do with this. Many of them living in the Western environment became
carriers of interpretation abilities of that sphere, then they acted
as mediators for the Armenian society, because their cultural capital
was not formed in Armenia but in the West. They brought that capital
and invested in Armenia, creating a new quality of civil society. In
essence, the processes happening in the civil area are deeply political
because politics is an activity aimed at fulfillment of ideas.