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Armenian Studies as `Critical Infrastructure'

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  • Armenian Studies as `Critical Infrastructure'

    ARMENIAN STUDIES AS `CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE'

    http://www.noravank.am/eng/
    26.12.2013


    Based on the address made at the Second Conference on Armenian Studies
    and the Contemporary Challenges of (October 17-19, 2013, Yerevan)

    Gagik Harutyunyan
    Executive Director, Noravank Scientific Educational Foundation, Yerevan

    Armenian studies are certainly not a purely academic/fundamental
    science. Branches of Armenian studies ` history, literature,
    architecture, etc., are manifestations of our civilizational identity,
    which in turn had brought new content to our identity and system of
    values (and continue doing so). The modern thinking suggests that
    these concepts are the basis of the national security system. Thus,
    Armenian studies are essentially a nation-forming and state-building
    discipline.

    Admittedly, such interpration of Armenian studies is not adequately
    perceived by our society and the discipline's concepts and results of
    applied nature are rarely used in practical/political affairs1. There
    are many reasons for this, among which is the circumstance that
    Armenian studies are a part of our scientific/educational system that
    currently is not in its best shape. It is obvious that such situation
    inevitably impacts on development of the national political thought.
    This cause-and-effect relationship explains the fact that to date
    there are only few interdisciplinary researches juxtaposing and
    combining the fields of Armenian studies (or for that matter, any
    other scientific disciplines) and politics. Yet this would have
    allowed not only uncovering the commonalities between the fields, but
    also developing their complementation mechanisms and application
    formats.

    Given the challenges that our society has to face (both of our states
    are in no war, no peace situation; our communities in the Middle East
    are at the verge of extinction due to geopolitical developments; there
    are many problems in diaspora, because the tactics of identity
    preservation based solely on Genocide recognition by the international
    community is no longer effective and does not guarantee national
    development), such statement of problem appears quite critical. With
    the mentioned realities in mind some observations of the said problems
    are presented here below, with a prior brief deliberation on some of
    the modern and significantly expanded views on national security.

    In the area of security the highest priority is currently assigned to
    the safety, effective setup and development of the society's
    spiritual/intellectual resources. In this context the traditional
    approaches to and definitions of warfare have changed: presently the
    politics and strategies are carried out mainly through the so-called
    `soft power' and `information warfare' which is part of the former. It
    has to be noted in this regard that spiritual/cultural issues are
    encompassed in the information security, which in turn is a component
    of the national security. In our society the information security is
    often interpreted somewhat simplistically and sometimes is presented
    as political/historical disputes in Armenian and Turkish/Azeri mass
    media and social media, or reciprocal hacker attacks. Undoubtedly,
    these activities are elements of the information warfare and are also
    necessary, but they have limited tactical significance and impacts.

    Meanwhile, it is known that the theory of information warfare and
    methods employed in it have qualitatively evolved in the recent
    period. The so-called `second generation' network information warfare
    is worth mentioning, which pursues the following main objectives.

    to disintegrate the adversary's social/moral bases and the system of values,
    to impose own cultural code in the consciousness of the adversary's
    (or sometimes even the ally's) society through manipulative
    technologies.

    Armenia and the Armeniancy are involved in such warfare for some
    well-known reasons, and in these terms are in the risk zone. In such
    conditions our intellectual and political elite must develop a
    strategy adequate to the existing challenges, which should take into
    account the following circumstances.

    Security doctrines usually assign key importance to the protection of
    so-called `critical infrastructures,' construed as the most essential
    military/political, socio-economic and information structures,
    incapacitation of which leads to a failure of the whole security
    system. We contend that the status of `critical infrastructure' must
    be assigned to the systems and structures that safeguard
    spiritual/intellectual development, as their failure may lead to
    demoralization of the society. Such approach is currently gaining
    ground in the world, and for instance, in a relatively recently
    published military doctrine of Israel, within the critical security
    infrastructure top priorities were given to structures deemed as
    national symbols, such as Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, religious
    temples, etc.2 It appears, similar approach must be used in Armenia as
    well, but without limiting it to physical structures. An attempt will
    be made here to examine several problems from this perspective, in
    particular those related to our system of values3 and public
    interpretations of the modern history.

    The system of values in the society is not a static category, since it
    changes depending on the historical, military/political developments,
    as well as evolutionary or revolutionary ones. Today the system of
    values is substantially influenced by printed and electronic mass
    media through widely spread, targeted and/or supposedly chaotic
    information flows, which to a considerable extent form the global
    community's way of thinking, mindset and hence, also the system of
    values.

    Naturally, these realities are characteristic to the Armenian society.
    Obviously, the Armenian system of values with its civilizational
    traits is one of the cornerstones that ensured our national/historical
    continuity. At the same time, it has to be noted that study of the
    problems in this area requires consideration of certain peculiarities
    of our history of the last hundred years.

    The Genocide and loss of the Western Armenia have deeply impacted the
    psychology and worldview of our society, especially the diaspora. The
    diaspora part of the Armeniancy is also characterized by the fact that
    they undergo not only intra-ethnic or global influences, but also
    national/civilizational ones specific to their countries of residence.
    Armenia's society has its peculiarities, too. As a result of
    geopolitical and revolutionary processes of the last two centuries `
    the Persian rule, Russian Empire, the First, Second and finally the
    Third republic to mention a few ` this part of the Armeniancy has
    changed the socio-ideological environment of its social being several
    times. This has led to considerable, sometimes controversial,
    substantive transformations in the society's system of values.

    In particular, after the Bolshevik `terror' in 1920-30s, the communist
    concepts imposed on the society of the Second republic gradually
    transformed over time and became as much coherent as it was possible
    to the ideas of the national system of values. Yet currently, a
    significant part of the society is at odds with the liberal ideology
    concepts that were imposed this time through socio-economic terror
    during the period, which can be called `an era of vulgar liberalism',
    still continuing today to a greater or lesser degree. This last period
    left extremely negative effects on the national ideological worldviews
    that were formed during the 1965 events related to the Armenian
    Genocide commemoration and ensuing Karabakh movement. The combination
    of these processes has introduced significant uncertainties in the
    ideas that the society has about its values.

    Interestingly, the study of the public's system of values is currently
    viewed as a crucial matter, and for example, World Values Survey
    (WVS)4, an international organization, conducts extensive studies
    around the world. The research outcomes are used in making both
    economic and political decisions and particularly, the so-called
    `color revolution' technologies are anchored on knowledge of
    socio-psychological characteristics of a given society. The research
    conducted by the mentioned organization suggests that the population
    of Armenia is in the cultural domain of the South Asian and
    ex-Communist countries, where traditional and survival values prevail.

    Currently studies of values system in Armenia are conducted by the
    Chair of Psychology at the Yerevan State University (led by Narine
    Khachatryan). Also, impacts of the information environment on the
    system of values are studied at the Noravank Foundation5. However, it
    is evident that the activities implemented in this area are not
    sufficient and furthermore, are far from gaining applied significance.
    It can be safely stated that any perceptions about the system of
    values prevailing in Armenia, let alone in Armenian diaspora, are
    general and emotional, and are far from being scientifically
    substantiated. It is even more difficult, if not impossible to answer
    the question what value direction the Armenian society has taken and
    what transformations could be expected in future. Such situation often
    causes controversial comments in the political-information arena,
    which in no way contributes to the establishment of an effective
    national security system and implementation of relevant political
    strategies6.

    It must be especially emphasized that a closer relationship between
    Armenian studies and the policies, as well as their practical use seem
    impossible without an appropriate information policy, and this is
    applicable also to other problems unrelated to the system of values.

    In particular, if the information coverage of our history's Soviet
    period were to be examined, it would become clear that there are
    serious problems directly related to one of the fundamental laws of
    the information security ` preservation of an unbroken history and
    national memory. Societies that lose their historical base are most
    prone to information/psychological influences, and in this regard it
    is pertinent to quote a Chinese proverb: `Forgetting history means
    betrayal.'

    The views on the Second republic voiced in the information space bear
    mainly `tragic' or `sarcastic' overtones and remind the Bolshevik
    style, when anything related to the First republic had to be
    condemned. Perhaps Carl Schmitt was right, contending that
    `philosophical paradigms of Marxism and liberal ideological/economic
    demonism are the same.'

    As far as assessment of the Second republic is concerned, the
    mentioned approaches constitute distortion of the objective history,
    because in addition to its negative and tragic aspects, Soviet Armenia
    created a powerful scientific, technological and industrial system,
    experienced demographic growth, formed a creative society with high
    educational and moral levels. For instance, in late 1980s there were
    30,000 scientific personnel in Armenia, whereas now their number is
    about 6000. In 1984 total 200 inventions were introduced for
    application in economy7.

    It has to be clearly realized that history of any country is not just
    that of its political regime, but also the history of its society and
    people. In this context it must be admitted that the Armenian society
    took its share of political, military and revolutionary calamities
    with high dignity. Boris Kagarlitsky, a prominent intellectual and
    political scientist, who, incidentally, is a former prisoner of
    Mordovian labor camps, has noticed felicitously that disparaging the
    Soviet history is first of all a betrayal of the memory of the Soviet
    regime's victims.

    No attempt is made here to idealize our not so distant past, as it
    makes no sense to idealize or demonize any historical period. At the
    same time it has to be understood that the First republic was the
    basis of the Second one, which in its turn paved the way to the Third
    republic, and this must be interpreted and dealt with accordingly. Any
    other approaches only obstruct the system of national security,
    inappropriately discredit our state/political institutions and make
    them appear younger than they actually are. For example, some time ago
    billboards appeared that read: `Armenian Army is 20 years old', while
    in fact our army has a history of many thousands of years.

    The presented and numerous other issues, perhaps, require
    establishment of joint political/governmental and academic/expert
    commissions that would discuss and find solutions for these types of
    problems.

    1 ÕÕ¡ÖÕ¸Ö?Õ©ÕµÕ¸Ö?Õ¶ÕµÕ¡Õ¶ Ô³., ÕÕ¡ÕµÕ¡Õ£Õ«Õ¿Õ¸Ö?Õ©ÕµÕ¡Õ¶ Õ¡Õ¦Õ£Õ¡ÕµÕ«Õ¶ Õ¼Õ¡Õ¦Õ´Õ¡Õ¾Õ¡ÖÕ¸Ö?Õ©ÕµÕ¡Õ¶ Õ¸ÖÕ¸Õ·
    Õ¤ÖÕ¸Ö?ÕµÕ©Õ¶Õ¥Ö, «Ô³Õ¬Õ¸¬Õ¢Õ¸Ö?Õ½», #1(9), Õ§Õ» 3, 2007Ö?

    2 Ð`ÑинÑ?ев С., Ð? взглÑ?де на пÑоблемÑ? безопаÑ?ноÑ?Ñ?и кÑиÑ?иÑ?еÑ?кой
    инÑ?ÑаÑ?Ñ?ÑÑ?кÑ?Ñ?ÑÑ? в гоÑ?Ñ?даÑÑ?Ñ?ве
    Ð`зÑаилÑ?,http://www.csef.ru/index.php/ru/component/csef/project/-/-/-?id=3229.

    3 Recently this problem is much speculated about in the context of
    Armenia's integration preferences

    4See http://worldvaluessurvey.org

    5 See, for example, Ô»Õ¤Õ¥Õ¸Õ¬Õ¸Õ£Õ¥Õ´Õ¶Õ¥ÖÕ¨ ÕÕ Õ¿Õ¥Õ²Õ¥Õ¯Õ¡Õ¿Õ¾Õ¡Õ¯Õ¡Õ¶ Õ¿Õ¡ÖÕ¡Õ®Ö?Õ¸Ö?Õ´, ÔµÖÖ?Õ¡Õ¶,
    «Õ?Õ¸ÖÕ¡Õ¾Õ¡Õ¶Ö?» Ô³Ô¿Õ, 2013Õ©.Ö?

    6 ÕÕ¡ÖÕ¸Ö?Õ©ÕµÕ¸Ö?Õ¶ÕµÕ¡Õ¶ Ô³., Ô»Õ¶Õ¿Õ¥Õ£ÖÕ¡Ö?Õ«Õ¡ÕµÕ« Õ¸ÖÕ¸Õ· Õ°Õ«Õ´Õ¶Õ¡Õ - Õ¶Õ¤Õ«ÖÕ¶Õ¥ÖÕ« Õ´Õ¡Õ½Õ«Õ¶ Õ¡ÖÕªÕ¥Ö?Õ¡ÕµÕ«Õ¶
    Õ°Õ¡¬Õ´Õ¡¬Õ¯Õ¡Ö¬Õ£Õ« Õ°Õ¡Õ´Õ¡Õ¿Õ¥Ö?Õ½Õ¿Õ¸Ö?Õ´, Ô³Õ¬Õ¸Õ¢Õ¸Ö?Õ½, #4(37), Õ§Õ» 20, 2013Ö?

    7 Ð?ÑÑ?Ñ?Ñ?нÑ?н Ð`., «ÐаÑ?пад Ñ?иÑ?Ñ?емÑ? и Ñ?оÑмиÑование бÑ?дÑ?Ñ?его», Ð'Ð?Ф
    «Ð'оÑаванк», Ð-Ñеван, 2011.

    October 2013

    «21-ÖÕ¤ Ô´Ô±Õ?» No. 6, 2013

    Return
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    From: Baghdasarian
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