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And the President Drives the Flock of the Armenian Intelligentsia
9:43 Yerevan | 5:43 GMT | Saturday 19 July 2008
Hakob Badalyan
If someone dared to utter a word about the setup of a joint Armenian and Turkish commission to study historical facts concerning the genocide of Armenians, the Armenian historians would send that person to hell straight away, or into history, maybe also in the direct sense of the word. And why only the historians? The writers, publicists, artists, directors, actors, singers would do the same. And the majority of that hookup, who did not miss a chance to stand up and do in with Turks and everyone who would be ready for reconciliation with Turks. It is enough to remember that after the assassination of Hrant Dink the “vivid” representatives of the conglomerate called intelligentsia started stating unanimously that Turks remain Turks, bloodthirsty, savage, and who knows what else, that even if one thousand years pass, Turks will not change, and those who seek for points in common with Turks are leading us to other genocide.
Little time has passed since then, and many people perhaps still remember the behavior of the intelligentsia. However, the same intelligentsia is now silent with some amazing unanimity. Meanwhile, it seems that there is a reason to speak out. Serge Sargsyan invited the president of Turkey to watch football. Besides, what is a greater reason for the “awakening” of the intelligentsia, Serge Sargsyan endorsed Turkey’s offer to set up an Armenian and Turkish commission to inquire into the historical facts, on the condition that first the border with Armenia opens. The intelligentsia “should scream”, as the Marxist Davit Hakobyan would say at the zenith of his political “youth”. But it appears that the intelligentsia, the historian, historical-ethical (again from the Marxist’s word stock) community does not seem to have even heard that statement by Serge Sargsyan.
Nevertheless, separate representatives of that community scream. They scream that at last Armenia took the longed-for step, what wise diplomacy Serge Sargsyan did, that the Armenian diplomacy had never been so beautiful and marvelous as now.
This may be true. Maybe Serge Sargsyan not only took a mere wise step but also included the whole wisdom of the Armenian people. It is possible that through his step Serge Sargsyan became the collective image of the centennial wisdom of the Armenian people. This is not the problem in this case. In the course of time the real effect of Serge Sargsyan’s step on Armenia will be revealed or it will become known if Serge Sargsyan’s wisdom will be enough for further steps, because Turkey is preparing to respond. It is also a question whether what we deal with is the wisdom of Serge Sargsyan or one of the capitals of world politics, which was kindly lent to Serge Sargsyan. This is an important issue which, however, should be viewed in another context.
The problem now is the response of the community of experts, historians, artists called intelligentsia. When Robert Kocharyan was the president, and conducted a tough policy on the relation with Turkey, stressing a rigid stance of the Armenian community on Turkey, the same hookup called the intelligentsia praised unanimously the tough policy of Robert Kocharyan, considering it as the main option because we deal with Turks. Now that Serge Sargsyan is the president, the same intelligentsia, of different professions, are praising his diplomatic wisdom, although a little cautiously for the time being because they do not know, Serge Sargsyan may change his mind.
This phenomenon certainly drives the Armenian and Turkish relation to the background and sets forth the issue of existence and the quality of the class of intelligentsia in Armenia. The core of this problem is that the community called intelligentsia, which includes a considerable mass of experts, analysts, historians, publicists, artists, writers, singers, actors, with some exceptions, does not try to go deep into the phenomena and only fixes who the president is at that moment and what he says, and also makes sure every morning from some official newspaper if the president has not changed at night. Having such an organ in the body of the society, it is hard to expect it possible to shape a healthy social perception and analyze any diplomacy through that perception. That is why in Armenia no public opinion is shaped on this and other important issues, and only instincts prevail, it depends which one is stronger in each of them.
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