Society

One time someone from the KVN said a joke: “Did you know that the Tatar language does not have the word “back”?”

-So, how do you go back?

-We do not go back, we only move forward. Then we turn back and then go forward again. We Armenians leave the impression that we do not have the word “forward”. We always tend to look back. During the Communist era, we used to remember the czar. When Stalin and the Armenian National Movement were in charge, we remembered the Communists, and now the Armenian National Movement. On top of all that, we always remember Tigran the Great (Our United Armenia)….

Generally, one looks back to the past when he has left the best years of his life behind. He is forced to sum up all his years, whereas the young people think about the present and the successful youth is thinking about the future. If we take all this into consideration, then it is safe to say that the Armenian people have lived some of the best years in Armenian history and that we are an ancient nation. But we should be optimistic and recall the more ancient nations which, for some reason, do not only look forward, but also take different routes ahead of Armenians (the Jewish, some European nations, etc.).

Of course, we always look back into the past and in some cases, around us. We only look around us to see who is better than us, get jealous and start whining about that. However, it is hard to imagine the rest of the world feeling sorry for a nation that whines. During the Karabagh war, when we were not moaning and groaning about everything, everyone considered us as a winning nation. But as soon as we recalled upon our “mentality” and started to moan and groan, they started calling us aggressive.”

If we did not look back, the great 70-year old Armenian athlete Albert Azaryan, whom I truly have respect for, would not be holding the Armenian flag during the Olympics in Athens, but rather, one of the athletes who had not won any championship would do that. But maybe it would be an athlete who had the faith and strive in reaching higher. Even during that time we did not wish to look to the future. Just to be on the safe side and be optimistic, I would like to point out that the flag bearer for Belarus was Al. Medvedeyev. We were not the only ones participating in that glorious event. Recently, there are many rumors flying around that Levon Ter-Petrosyan is returning to politics, and that many Armenian citizens and members of the Armenian National Movement are seeing him as the new leader of the country. These people are the ones who, despite the fact that they consider themselves as the part of society that moves forward, is once again looking back. Ladies and gentlemen, we are living in the 21st century. Ever since Churchill (the great political figure who returned to politics after his defeat), I don’t recall any political figure who has returned, if we look at the Western world (forward) as those kinds of people demand, and forget about the East (back). The reason for this is not that the political figures do not want to come back, but rather, that the people (any people) wants to be on the winners’ side. The people do not go after the losers sub- conscientiously and that is a fact. I would like to point out the fact that as in the Armenian National Movement and in other political parties, as well as in all levels of society, there is youth (I am not referring to careerist individuals who go to the Baze youth gatherings, but rather professionals). It is necessary to keep close ties with them for the outlook of our future-not for optimism as a whole, but progression as a whole.

I remember that writers Narekatsi and Kuchak are symbols of our nation, that the whole world must recognize the Armenian Genocide committed by the Turks, that the “Ararat-73” is a great soccer team, that….Please do not think that I am against all of this, I am simply against turning all of this into the dominant basis for developing and stabilizing ourselves in the future. In contrast to us, all nations perceive their glorious past as a base for making way for a new future rather than as the future itself.