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Restore Sovereignty and Return Ararat
Naira Hayrumyan
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/comments27453.html
Published: 11:18:01 - 21/09/2012
Armenia celebrates the 21st anniversary of independence at a
crossroad. After 20 years of its independence, Armenia has to choose
its path again. What happened is already past, now we are on the start
and we have to choose our future, perhaps, not for the next 20 years
but longer.
Why are we at the crossroad? First, Armenia is a zone which both
Russia and the U.S. would like to control. So far we can talk about
the sovereignty of Armenia with reservations. According to an
intergovernmental agreement, the security of Armenia is guaranteed not
by our state but Russia and its military base. Russia is also on the
borders of our country, and we never know who crosses our border. Not
to mention the fact that we have handed to Russians all our
infrastructures.
After 20 years of independence Armenia expressed wish to change this
situation. There are two ways - either restore sovereignty or replace
the Russian senior with the European one. Both paths are tough:
denunciation of the provision of the agreement on the `protection of
the security of Armenia by Russia' and change of conditions of
deployment of the Russian military base in Armenia, as well as signing
a new agreement according to which Russia will stop protecting the
borders of Armenia as `external borders of the CIS'.
Apparently, Armenia is not ready for these steps which means that we
will remain a country with incomplete sovereignty.
We are standing at the crossroad trying to choose the civilization in
which we want to live in future. Armenians have always called
themselves part and even the cradle of the Western civilization but we
have been long living in the soviet and Asian civilization with its
ironical attitude to democracy, equality, freedom, its hierarchy in
the family and state, with its traditions of bribery, corruption and
nepotism. Do we want to change these rules?
There is one more thing about this crossroad - the regional issues.
The year 2015 is drawing nearer and Turkey is getting ready for it
because it will have to recognize the genocide and pay a compensation.
Armenia may get more territories but for this reason we need to be
ready to stand up for the protection of our national dignity. During
the first years of independence we defended our dignity by winning the
war in Karabakh, now we need to display diplomatic courage and state
that Armenia has the right to pretend to our territories.
The president elect in 2013 should decide where Armenia needs to go.
This president may appear in the textbooks of the history of the
Armenian people as a leader who was able to restore the sovereignty of
Armenia by directing the country along its natural civilized path and
return Mountain Ararat and Van. This is a hard mission because if the
next president turns out to be a cowardly conformist, will eventually
present Armenia's sovereignty to Russia, recognize Armenia as part of
the Asian civilization and lose Karabakh.
Naira Hayrumyan
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/comments27453.html
Published: 11:18:01 - 21/09/2012
Armenia celebrates the 21st anniversary of independence at a
crossroad. After 20 years of its independence, Armenia has to choose
its path again. What happened is already past, now we are on the start
and we have to choose our future, perhaps, not for the next 20 years
but longer.
Why are we at the crossroad? First, Armenia is a zone which both
Russia and the U.S. would like to control. So far we can talk about
the sovereignty of Armenia with reservations. According to an
intergovernmental agreement, the security of Armenia is guaranteed not
by our state but Russia and its military base. Russia is also on the
borders of our country, and we never know who crosses our border. Not
to mention the fact that we have handed to Russians all our
infrastructures.
After 20 years of independence Armenia expressed wish to change this
situation. There are two ways - either restore sovereignty or replace
the Russian senior with the European one. Both paths are tough:
denunciation of the provision of the agreement on the `protection of
the security of Armenia by Russia' and change of conditions of
deployment of the Russian military base in Armenia, as well as signing
a new agreement according to which Russia will stop protecting the
borders of Armenia as `external borders of the CIS'.
Apparently, Armenia is not ready for these steps which means that we
will remain a country with incomplete sovereignty.
We are standing at the crossroad trying to choose the civilization in
which we want to live in future. Armenians have always called
themselves part and even the cradle of the Western civilization but we
have been long living in the soviet and Asian civilization with its
ironical attitude to democracy, equality, freedom, its hierarchy in
the family and state, with its traditions of bribery, corruption and
nepotism. Do we want to change these rules?
There is one more thing about this crossroad - the regional issues.
The year 2015 is drawing nearer and Turkey is getting ready for it
because it will have to recognize the genocide and pay a compensation.
Armenia may get more territories but for this reason we need to be
ready to stand up for the protection of our national dignity. During
the first years of independence we defended our dignity by winning the
war in Karabakh, now we need to display diplomatic courage and state
that Armenia has the right to pretend to our territories.
The president elect in 2013 should decide where Armenia needs to go.
This president may appear in the textbooks of the history of the
Armenian people as a leader who was able to restore the sovereignty of
Armenia by directing the country along its natural civilized path and
return Mountain Ararat and Van. This is a hard mission because if the
next president turns out to be a cowardly conformist, will eventually
present Armenia's sovereignty to Russia, recognize Armenia as part of
the Asian civilization and lose Karabakh.