A Letter to Monte: `Shame on us for abusing your legacy’
hetq
11:14, June 15, 2012
By Norick Markosian
It has been 19 years since you passed. A lot of things have changed,
but a lot of things have also remained the same.
Volumes have been written about you and your life, including an
autobiography by your brother Markar. No one really knows what really
took place on that godforsaken day of June 12, 1993.
A couple of hours after you left this world, Saribek also passed away
from the wounds that he received during that day’s firefight. About
three years later, Komitas lost his life on a reconnaissance mission.
Vartan died of heart disease there years ago.
Now, I can’t help but to remember what you had once said once about
your martyred soldiers, `Seems like the good people are leaving us in
an untimely manner.’ A few days after you passed away, we as a nation
gave you a state funeral with full military honors, attended by many
dignitaries and several of your close friends.
We have erected monuments and named schools in your memory. There is
even a military academy named after you. Your eternal home looks
straight to Mount Ararat. Many of your lieutenants have become
generals and are holding major posts in our military, but
collectively, as a nation, we have failed to make your dream of an
independent Armenia, with a just and lawful society, come true.
About sixteen months after your passing, the Artsakh liberation war
ended. It seems that our nation has to be first in everything: as we
were the first nation who accepted Christianity as their state
religion, we are also the first nation that annihilated its enemy’s
forces and their will to continue to fight. But thanks to the
shortsightedness of our government officials, we agreed to sign a
cease fire agreement rather than a capitulation accord.
As of August, 1994 we have lost close to 300 of our sons in border
skirmishes, due to the enemy’s violation of the cease fire agreement.
You should see the self-assured and victorious pose that Aliev Jr.
assumes when he sits around the negotiation table to discuss the
status of Artsakh with our presidents. It is still a mystery to me why
we need to negotiate the fate of our nation and our national security
when we were the clear cut victors.
The territories where you and many of our nation’s brightest
sacrificed their lives to liberate, has now become a subject of
debate. Contrary to your belief that our national security interests
and long-lasting independence is directly related to the union of a
free Artsakh and Armenia, some of our leaders are considering the
return of the liberated territories in lieu of a stable peace with our
neighboring enemy.
Maybe it is the existence of this trend of thought among our top
leaders that has prevented them from implementing a comprehensive plan
for the resettlement of the liberated territories. Not much has
changed in Artsakh since you saw it last, except for some newly built
hotels and restaurants to attract Diaspora tourists and put money in
the pockets of a few rich people who are connected to the top
government officials.
To state the state of Armenia for you, I have only one piece of good
news – we are still `independent’. On one occasion you were asked by a
reporter, `how would you like to see Armenia in the future?’, and you
quickly responded, `free of corruption’.
Unfortunately the prevailing oligarchic/feudalistic system in today’s
Armenia has resulted in a lawlessness where rich people have
monopolized every profitable business in Armenia and are exempt from
paying taxes.
The national poverty rate is almost 70%, our national debt has
ballooned to unbelievable proportions, largely due to the fact that
majority of the financial help which we receive from IMF and World
Bank loans go straight to the pockets of the oligarchs.
Our infrastructure is in shambles, there is no social welfare, nor is
there any public healthcare system in place. The justice system is
also suffering greatly. Judges and court decisions are bought and
sold, like cheap merchandise on a given Sunday at a public bazaar,
where one cannot help but to notice the abundance of imported goods
manufactured in Turkey.
Meanwhile, casinos frequented by the oligarchs and their family
members, residential high-rise buildings with selling price tags only
affordable by Diaspora Armenians, restaurants along the Zangou river
where only tourist and few locals can afford to dine, are being built
like wild flowers blossoming in spring time.
The fact that our young generation today does not foresee a future for
themselves, let alone a bright one, has given birth to a sense of
hopelessness, resulting in a massive exodus from the motherland.
So far, about 1.5 million Armenians have immigrated to the four
corners of the world to secure their family’s daily bread. The
majority of the rest who have stayed will immigrate as soon as
possible if they find the opportunity. All the while, officials insist
on a population count of almost 3 million people for Armenia. Our
population count fluctuates from election to election.
Maybe, in next election, I will pay a visit to some of the voting
precincts in the hope of seeing you and many of our martyrs who were
lost in the liberation war. I say this because, when it comes voting
time, miracles do happen in our country, where dead people arise from
their graves and vote for a certain candidate.
Last but not least, while our oligarchs are busy stealing our nation’s
wealth, destroying the environment, demolishing historical buildings,
and turning our country into a cheap nightclub destination for
visitors from our neighboring countries, our proverbial enemies,
Turkey and Azerbaijan, are arming themselves to the teeth and waiting
for the opportune moment to once and for all resolve the Armenian
question.
Yes the same Azeris, backed by Turkey and other superpowers of the
Middle East, who you and the rest of our fighters beat to a pulp, are
dreaming about plowing our land and discarding our nation into the
annals of the history.
Shame on us for abusing and mishandling the legacyyou left us. And
further shame on us for not having finished what you started. I leave
you in peace now.
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