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Virtual State Run by Oligarchy
Dr. Berge A. Minassian, Member of Armenian Renaissance, Toronto, 28 August 2014
In a democracy, the government is a team elected by the people
andcivil servants hired by that government to pass and administer laws
that optimize the well-being and prospects of the people. In the wake
of the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia was naturally
unready to set up such a system. As a result power fell into the hands
of persons who soon realized that money is power.
Where was this money to come from? Naturally from the sources intended
for the people. Soon, a coalition of clans formed and the oligarchic
system of governance was established. Within this syndicate, struggles
for leadership led protagonists to forever try to enhance their
strengths, i.e. grab more and more of the people's resources. The
oligarchy then became increasingly more sophisticated. Thus the
members of the major opposition party in parliament are also members
of the syndicate.
Now a system of rotating chairmanship of the hierarchy is in place
masquerading as political discourse. It's not known to what extent the
individuals in power have national 'feelings' or aspirations, but
assuming they do, they find themselves stuck in an all-or-nothing rut,
the price of extrication from which too high for them and their
families. So the self-serving oligarchic government perpetuates
itself, with the consequence that Armenia does not have a government.
In other words, citizens do not have a collectively selected team to
realize their collective goals.
The collectivity (the nation) is headless, rudderless, glue-less. As
such, it is temporarily no longer a collectivity (a nation). Worse,
the 'head', to maintain itself, has to steal from the 'body' (how else
to satisfy its source of power?). The sum total of this situation is
that Armenian parents lie sleepless in bed late at night and worrying
about their children's future, do not see themselves as part of a
group that together can build a good place for all the children of the
group. The longer the current situation persists, the more entrenched
in the minds of individuals the notion that nation is a myth.
Here is an example from my area of work, health care and medical
education. All of society is similarly organized. There is no
accreditation of hospitals and no proper licensing of doctors. This
year, Armenia will graduate half as many medical students (over 500)
as the Canadian province of Ontario (less than 1,000), even though
Armenia's population is at best one-seventh that of Ontario. Armenia
has as many medical schools as Ontario. One, is (was) a reasonably
good medical school (Heratsi State Medical School). The others have
sprouted as private properties of this or that oligarch. Their quality
is dismal, their 'graduates' are youths with money who join the
residency programs next to those with a semblance of proper education
from Heratsi.
In any normal country, medical residents are paid a salary during
their residency. In Armenia, the residents pay the hospitals to do
their residency. Graduation from a residency program is tied to the
number of years spent in the program, and pretty much only that. For
example, one can spend three years in a surgical specialty, and during
these years can operate on zero patients, but then can graduate
anyway.
Some years ago, when the Soviet era dean of the main medical school
(Heratsi) retired, a fantastic new dean was appointed. Her husband was
a minor oligarch. She, however, seemed to have something special in
her heart. She established a superb vice-dean of medical education
office to revamp the whole system. This naturally did not go well with
the oligarchy. The incredible efforts and inroads towards revamping
curricula, introducing accreditation and licensing, etc. led by this
office were abruptly stopped. The dean was replaced, and since then
Heratsi and its teaching hospital are in severe decline.
Incidentally, the Church also owns a hospital. Very recently, the
position of medical director opened at this hospital, and a seemingly
normal competitive process was initiated. People sent resumes,
interviews were held, and excellent candidates were short-listed... and
at the last moment, the Catholicos intervened and said, no, there is
this other guy I know.... he will become the director, and so he was.
I know many people in Armenia, but I do not know anyone who does not
know the above. How do they react to these realities? Most,
understandably, leave. Few are substrata of the oligarchy, and are
able to lead some kind of existence. Few others are the true
embodiments of our nation. They somehow manage to rise above their
fears. They channel the thousands of years of our culture and refuse
to accept defeat. Against all odds they hope and they stay. They join
civic society movements, such as the Pre-Parliament movement, and they
do what they can, alone, or in their small groups, with no power or
money, to try and save this nation.
I know many people in the Diaspora, and I do know some who still do
not know much of the above, though their numbers are dwindling. The
Diaspora leadership certainly knows the above. But why do Diaspora
leaders embrace (literally) the oligarchy?
How are we doing as a nation? Not well. We are losing 100,000 of our
people from the homeland every year. Can we invent riches to keep our
people on the land? No. Can we govern ourselves better? Yes, but first
we need to actually have a government. We should stop pretending we
have a government. We should stop lying. There are too few left who
could be lied to, and Diasporan leaders are increasingly turning into
ludicrous jesters. And what are we, regular Diasporans, who accept
this?
The major media, in the homeland and in the Diaspora, are controlled
by the government or the Diasporan leadership respectively. They spew
lies. What is uglier is us. Standing in church and community halls...
applauding. Empty words; ridiculous, soundless, heartless, applause. A
wailing silence all around, stabs, impalement, again and again, into
the core of who we are, into the heart of the journey that brought us
here.
Oh, what our fedayeen faced in the mountains of Agdagh and throughout
Anatolia, to save what few they could from the caravans of death. Oh,
what deprivation, rape, and abuse survived the helpless young girls,
who, somehow, against all odds, carried us, delivered us, here, before
they dropped, annihilated, but hopeful, hopeful, thinking that they
did their part, that we would do ours, that evil will not win, that
the nation will survive...
It is time we opened our eyes. It is time we became honest. It is time
we got serious. It is time we stopped being scared.
I conclude with an extract from Grigoris Balakian's book, Armenian
Golgotha. Srpazan Balakian, on his way to be killed (which he
miraculously escaped), with a small group of destitute co-deportees
came across a sight not to be beholden by human eyes. He wrote
(translation by Peter Balakian with Aris Sevag):
"For a moment or two, on seeing this misery, we lost hope. And we
asked ourselves: Why are we living and for whom are we living?... But
then, suddenly, the flaming fire of life strengthened our weary steps.
No! No! On the contrary, it was necessary to live at all costs... All
that mattered was to stay alive and see the resurrection of the
Armenian people."
http://www.keghart.com/Minassian-State
Dr. Berge A. Minassian, Member of Armenian Renaissance, Toronto, 28 August 2014
In a democracy, the government is a team elected by the people
andcivil servants hired by that government to pass and administer laws
that optimize the well-being and prospects of the people. In the wake
of the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia was naturally
unready to set up such a system. As a result power fell into the hands
of persons who soon realized that money is power.
Where was this money to come from? Naturally from the sources intended
for the people. Soon, a coalition of clans formed and the oligarchic
system of governance was established. Within this syndicate, struggles
for leadership led protagonists to forever try to enhance their
strengths, i.e. grab more and more of the people's resources. The
oligarchy then became increasingly more sophisticated. Thus the
members of the major opposition party in parliament are also members
of the syndicate.
Now a system of rotating chairmanship of the hierarchy is in place
masquerading as political discourse. It's not known to what extent the
individuals in power have national 'feelings' or aspirations, but
assuming they do, they find themselves stuck in an all-or-nothing rut,
the price of extrication from which too high for them and their
families. So the self-serving oligarchic government perpetuates
itself, with the consequence that Armenia does not have a government.
In other words, citizens do not have a collectively selected team to
realize their collective goals.
The collectivity (the nation) is headless, rudderless, glue-less. As
such, it is temporarily no longer a collectivity (a nation). Worse,
the 'head', to maintain itself, has to steal from the 'body' (how else
to satisfy its source of power?). The sum total of this situation is
that Armenian parents lie sleepless in bed late at night and worrying
about their children's future, do not see themselves as part of a
group that together can build a good place for all the children of the
group. The longer the current situation persists, the more entrenched
in the minds of individuals the notion that nation is a myth.
Here is an example from my area of work, health care and medical
education. All of society is similarly organized. There is no
accreditation of hospitals and no proper licensing of doctors. This
year, Armenia will graduate half as many medical students (over 500)
as the Canadian province of Ontario (less than 1,000), even though
Armenia's population is at best one-seventh that of Ontario. Armenia
has as many medical schools as Ontario. One, is (was) a reasonably
good medical school (Heratsi State Medical School). The others have
sprouted as private properties of this or that oligarch. Their quality
is dismal, their 'graduates' are youths with money who join the
residency programs next to those with a semblance of proper education
from Heratsi.
In any normal country, medical residents are paid a salary during
their residency. In Armenia, the residents pay the hospitals to do
their residency. Graduation from a residency program is tied to the
number of years spent in the program, and pretty much only that. For
example, one can spend three years in a surgical specialty, and during
these years can operate on zero patients, but then can graduate
anyway.
Some years ago, when the Soviet era dean of the main medical school
(Heratsi) retired, a fantastic new dean was appointed. Her husband was
a minor oligarch. She, however, seemed to have something special in
her heart. She established a superb vice-dean of medical education
office to revamp the whole system. This naturally did not go well with
the oligarchy. The incredible efforts and inroads towards revamping
curricula, introducing accreditation and licensing, etc. led by this
office were abruptly stopped. The dean was replaced, and since then
Heratsi and its teaching hospital are in severe decline.
Incidentally, the Church also owns a hospital. Very recently, the
position of medical director opened at this hospital, and a seemingly
normal competitive process was initiated. People sent resumes,
interviews were held, and excellent candidates were short-listed... and
at the last moment, the Catholicos intervened and said, no, there is
this other guy I know.... he will become the director, and so he was.
I know many people in Armenia, but I do not know anyone who does not
know the above. How do they react to these realities? Most,
understandably, leave. Few are substrata of the oligarchy, and are
able to lead some kind of existence. Few others are the true
embodiments of our nation. They somehow manage to rise above their
fears. They channel the thousands of years of our culture and refuse
to accept defeat. Against all odds they hope and they stay. They join
civic society movements, such as the Pre-Parliament movement, and they
do what they can, alone, or in their small groups, with no power or
money, to try and save this nation.
I know many people in the Diaspora, and I do know some who still do
not know much of the above, though their numbers are dwindling. The
Diaspora leadership certainly knows the above. But why do Diaspora
leaders embrace (literally) the oligarchy?
How are we doing as a nation? Not well. We are losing 100,000 of our
people from the homeland every year. Can we invent riches to keep our
people on the land? No. Can we govern ourselves better? Yes, but first
we need to actually have a government. We should stop pretending we
have a government. We should stop lying. There are too few left who
could be lied to, and Diasporan leaders are increasingly turning into
ludicrous jesters. And what are we, regular Diasporans, who accept
this?
The major media, in the homeland and in the Diaspora, are controlled
by the government or the Diasporan leadership respectively. They spew
lies. What is uglier is us. Standing in church and community halls...
applauding. Empty words; ridiculous, soundless, heartless, applause. A
wailing silence all around, stabs, impalement, again and again, into
the core of who we are, into the heart of the journey that brought us
here.
Oh, what our fedayeen faced in the mountains of Agdagh and throughout
Anatolia, to save what few they could from the caravans of death. Oh,
what deprivation, rape, and abuse survived the helpless young girls,
who, somehow, against all odds, carried us, delivered us, here, before
they dropped, annihilated, but hopeful, hopeful, thinking that they
did their part, that we would do ours, that evil will not win, that
the nation will survive...
It is time we opened our eyes. It is time we became honest. It is time
we got serious. It is time we stopped being scared.
I conclude with an extract from Grigoris Balakian's book, Armenian
Golgotha. Srpazan Balakian, on his way to be killed (which he
miraculously escaped), with a small group of destitute co-deportees
came across a sight not to be beholden by human eyes. He wrote
(translation by Peter Balakian with Aris Sevag):
"For a moment or two, on seeing this misery, we lost hope. And we
asked ourselves: Why are we living and for whom are we living?... But
then, suddenly, the flaming fire of life strengthened our weary steps.
No! No! On the contrary, it was necessary to live at all costs... All
that mattered was to stay alive and see the resurrection of the
Armenian people."
http://www.keghart.com/Minassian-State