PART BY PART TRUTH WILL BECOME KNOWN
Hakob Badalyan
Lragir
Dec 14 2007
Armenia
The main outcome of the presidential election in 2008 perhaps will
not be who the president of Armenia will be but who is who in the
political, economic and cultural elite of Armenia, what each has done
over the past 16 years, what each failed to do, what each wanted
to do and what each did not want to be done. When all this becomes
known, when the politicians and their teams "pour" all this onto one
another’s head, and the face of the government and opposition elites
of Armenia of all times is exposed, the society may suddenly realize,
with pain of course, that in the long run it makes no difference from
which elite the president of Armenia will be.
The course of the presidential process shows that within about 70 days
before February 19 what happened over the past 16 years will open
up to the society with all its glamour and misery. The statements,
accusations and questions, threats to make historical facts known and
retorts will escalate and aggravate. Certainly, nobody will make all
the truth known, but since many promise to reveal the truth, there
is probability that bit by bit, part by part, by different people,
the truth will nevertheless be revealed to the society.
At first sight it seems that this process may threaten our national
security, as well as our diplomatic stance, posturing with regard
to the world in general and the talks over Karabakh in particular,
the effectiveness of our actions. Our foes may learn things which
they had better not. In the end, every word uttered in Armenia may
be used against us at the international "judgment", in the direct
and figurative sense of the word, though it may sound unrealistic
and nonsensical.
On the other hand, however, though it may sound strange to many
people, a situation has been shaped over the past two decades when
our silence is used against us at the homeland. In other words, by
silencing the truth each has tried to instrumentalize historical
events to achieve their own goals. The Armenian political elite
mainly emerged from this reality. Heroism was ascribed to people,
with which they had nothing to do, and which was criminal acts rather
than self-denial. Meanwhile, now many of them are on the "horse",
and those who could not do manipulations are under the "horse".
Silence for 16 years has become the weapon of the elite against the
society, and now in an effort to reveal each other in the race of the
presidential election the political teams break the silence and disarm
one another. The only positive thing in this process is that the whole
crap lying heavily on the shoulders of the society and relying on
the decency of the society will float, the situation will clear up,
if not for all, at least for part, and the society will be able to
breathe freely, rid of all kinds of "moral" obligations and ties,
and think of future freely. If an opportunity to think about future
freely arises, the society itself will take care of the international
"judgment" and national security in general, face challenges because
the greatest challenge of all times is the truth stuck in the windpipe.