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ALIVE MEMORIES OF 1988
http://artsakhtert.com/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id-0:alive-memories-of-1988&catid=5:politics&Itemid=17
Monday, 04 March 2013 10:06
Roundtable dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Karabakh Movement
On February 23, the NKR NA ARFD (Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Dashnaktsutyun) faction organized a roundtable dedicated to the 25th
anniversary of the Artsakh Movement, with the participation of the
Party members, the Movement pioneers, representatives of the youth
organizations operating in the Republic and the mass media.
Opening the event, the faction leader, Armen Sargsyan, noted that it
had become a tradition for the faction to organize roundtable
discussions around all the important issues existing in the public and
political life, and as for the anniversary of the Movement, it became
merely a necessity to express own views and to listen to others'
opinions, to analyze, and to make corresponding conclusions.
The event comprised those people who played a major role in the
formation of the national movement before 1988 and after it, but had
almost never come out in the mass media. The recollections and stories
were endless, and judging from the speeches, the Movement ideas and
calls are still urgent for all the invitees. The pioneers' stories
mainly related to the years preceding 1988 - who, when and under what
conditions joined the National Movement. Chief Department on National
Minorities and Religious Affairs under the NKR Government Ashot
Sargsyan spoke about the activity of the Artsakhakan Union created in
Artsakh in 1986, characterizing it as a structure, which united all
the local nationalist groups and organizations operating in the region
and prepared for the national-liberation movement, but in 1987, it was
disbanded, due to internal disagreements. Referring to the
demonstrations of February 1988, Mr. Sargsyan reminded that their
first rows comprised representatives of common people, including
Araksya Hayrapetyan, Ishkhan Avetisyan, the roundtable member, Serge
Grigorian and others, and not of separate groups or individuals.
Talking about the mistakes and shortcomings taken place during the
Movement, the speaker stated confidently that it was wrong to abandon
the people's major idea of unification on the half-way of the
national-liberation struggle. `Independence is a fallacy. As we know,
on December 1, 1989, a joint session of the Supreme Soviet of Armenia
and the National Council of Artsakh took place, at which a resolution
was adopted on the reunification of Nagorno Karabakh with the Armenian
Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR). That resolution has not been
considered invalid by anyone yet, and almost all the countries of the
world recognized the RA independence, being aware of the resolution',
said Mr. Sargsyan. He cited the Bible, `Divided into parts within
itself, each power is collapsed and each house is destroyed'.
For Nerses Ohanjanyan, the Movement was the immediate reaction to
Gorbachev's perestroika: after graduating from the YerevanUniversity,
he created in the Martakert region a 7-member secret group, which was
involved in the dissemination of the then prohibited literature and
organizing secret meetings with the groups, which had come from
Armenia. The latter believes that the Movement has yet to reach its
main goal - reunification with Armenia, and the independence is a
temporary way of self-improvement and self-purification. The speaker
recognized that in 1988, he believed that it was early to start the
Movement in the region. `We were glad that such an opportunity had
occurred, but there was also fear that the top leadership would again
attempt to suppress it. I believed that many people's national
self-consciousness had not reached the proper level yet', he said. The
speaker also noted his duty before his deceased friends - to demand
establishment of social justice in the country. According to N.
Ohanjanyan, talks about it were available still in 1988, but they
stopped them, because the time had other requirements.
Other participants of the Movement also shared their memories of the
1988 events and told about their own activities in those years.
All the participants of the discussions expressed the idea that for
the accurate representation of the whole process of the Movement and
suspension of the triumph of today's numerous false heroes and
`leaders' of the Movement, it is necessary to record the memories of
the real pioneers of the Movement and to write documentary books about
the true nature and process of the national-liberation struggle in
order that the further generations can correct the mistake and know
the nation's true history of the modern period.
Nuneh HAIRAPETIAN
http://artsakhtert.com/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id-0:alive-memories-of-1988&catid=5:politics&Itemid=17
Monday, 04 March 2013 10:06
Roundtable dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Karabakh Movement
On February 23, the NKR NA ARFD (Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Dashnaktsutyun) faction organized a roundtable dedicated to the 25th
anniversary of the Artsakh Movement, with the participation of the
Party members, the Movement pioneers, representatives of the youth
organizations operating in the Republic and the mass media.
Opening the event, the faction leader, Armen Sargsyan, noted that it
had become a tradition for the faction to organize roundtable
discussions around all the important issues existing in the public and
political life, and as for the anniversary of the Movement, it became
merely a necessity to express own views and to listen to others'
opinions, to analyze, and to make corresponding conclusions.
The event comprised those people who played a major role in the
formation of the national movement before 1988 and after it, but had
almost never come out in the mass media. The recollections and stories
were endless, and judging from the speeches, the Movement ideas and
calls are still urgent for all the invitees. The pioneers' stories
mainly related to the years preceding 1988 - who, when and under what
conditions joined the National Movement. Chief Department on National
Minorities and Religious Affairs under the NKR Government Ashot
Sargsyan spoke about the activity of the Artsakhakan Union created in
Artsakh in 1986, characterizing it as a structure, which united all
the local nationalist groups and organizations operating in the region
and prepared for the national-liberation movement, but in 1987, it was
disbanded, due to internal disagreements. Referring to the
demonstrations of February 1988, Mr. Sargsyan reminded that their
first rows comprised representatives of common people, including
Araksya Hayrapetyan, Ishkhan Avetisyan, the roundtable member, Serge
Grigorian and others, and not of separate groups or individuals.
Talking about the mistakes and shortcomings taken place during the
Movement, the speaker stated confidently that it was wrong to abandon
the people's major idea of unification on the half-way of the
national-liberation struggle. `Independence is a fallacy. As we know,
on December 1, 1989, a joint session of the Supreme Soviet of Armenia
and the National Council of Artsakh took place, at which a resolution
was adopted on the reunification of Nagorno Karabakh with the Armenian
Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR). That resolution has not been
considered invalid by anyone yet, and almost all the countries of the
world recognized the RA independence, being aware of the resolution',
said Mr. Sargsyan. He cited the Bible, `Divided into parts within
itself, each power is collapsed and each house is destroyed'.
For Nerses Ohanjanyan, the Movement was the immediate reaction to
Gorbachev's perestroika: after graduating from the YerevanUniversity,
he created in the Martakert region a 7-member secret group, which was
involved in the dissemination of the then prohibited literature and
organizing secret meetings with the groups, which had come from
Armenia. The latter believes that the Movement has yet to reach its
main goal - reunification with Armenia, and the independence is a
temporary way of self-improvement and self-purification. The speaker
recognized that in 1988, he believed that it was early to start the
Movement in the region. `We were glad that such an opportunity had
occurred, but there was also fear that the top leadership would again
attempt to suppress it. I believed that many people's national
self-consciousness had not reached the proper level yet', he said. The
speaker also noted his duty before his deceased friends - to demand
establishment of social justice in the country. According to N.
Ohanjanyan, talks about it were available still in 1988, but they
stopped them, because the time had other requirements.
Other participants of the Movement also shared their memories of the
1988 events and told about their own activities in those years.
All the participants of the discussions expressed the idea that for
the accurate representation of the whole process of the Movement and
suspension of the triumph of today's numerous false heroes and
`leaders' of the Movement, it is necessary to record the memories of
the real pioneers of the Movement and to write documentary books about
the true nature and process of the national-liberation struggle in
order that the further generations can correct the mistake and know
the nation's true history of the modern period.
Nuneh HAIRAPETIAN