IF THE ARMENIAN NATION WANTS TO SURVIVE, IT NEEDS SOMETHING LIKE SARDARAPAT
by David Stepanyan
arminfo
Wednesday, September 28, 14:00
ArmInfo’s interview with Zhirayr Sefilyan, hero of the Karabakh war,
member of the initiative group of Sardarapat Movement
In your latest interviews you have repeatedly predicted a sooner
collapse of the Third Republic of Armenia and establishment of the
Fourth Republic…
Being convinced of the full exhaustiveness of the Third Republic of
Armenia, which resembles a marasmic old man despite its 20-year age,
we are sure that it will collapse in the near future. And pretty soon
all of us will witness this event. However, the main thing is to create
the basis of the new Fourth Republic of Armenia not to remain under the
ruins of the Third Republic. Sardarapat Movement is currently creating
the necessary basis though many of our compatriots are unaware of
the core of our activities. At the moment we are working with the
Armenian intellectuals in both Armenia and Diaspora, as we attach
much importance to the people of Diaspora, who are not indifferent
to Armenia’s fate. We do our best to involve them in the forthcoming
building of the new statehood of Armenia. Much work is being done
with the Armenian youth, which has a huge potential. At the same time,
is not going to create a youth wing. On the contrary, the youth will
take an equal part in all initiatives of Sardarapat. Our goal is to
create a strong youth core, which would be afraid to act independently
and assume responsibility and the initiative if necessary. Our
generation should become a kind of bridge to involve the youth in
active political activities in the qualitatively new political field
we are creating. This means that we do not imagine radical changes
without the participation, energy and ideas of our youth.
Let’s speak of the possible ways to achieve the Movement’s goals…
Today we have been drawing out the long-term actions program,
which covers the period of 40 years at least. The most important
in this program will be not how we shall get rid of the regime but
what we shall do after that. The Armenian society should strictly
know that in a very short period of time Armenia will be put to the
rails of fast development. We understand very well that Armenia is
not Switzerland, that we are not in the center of Europe. We have a
very small period of time to increase the quality of our new state
for many times. We are simply sentenced to it – to have high quality
when having small sizes. We believe that in Armenia elections cannot
result in qualitative changes as they are always falsified. Those
planning to run in the next elections are either naive or just tools
in the regime’s hands. The bog you call a political field is fully
controlled by the regime.
What is the way out of that bog?
The only way-out of this situation is a new political field controlled
by new rules rather than the regime. It is the opposition’s fault
that the regime is still existent. They have failed to consolidate
the people that were able to change something. Today, our politicians
are more like traders, pursuing only personal interests. Sardarapat
is going to put an end to political Bacchanalia in Armenia with the
help of a group of intellectuals rather than one leader. We have the
necessary human resources for creating such a group. As soon as we
gather them, we will urge people to go into the streets so as to get
rid of the regime.
What is the fundamental difference between Sardarapat and other
opposition forces in this context?
The main difference between Sardarapat and other oppositional forces
is that we will not urge people to hold protest actions in order to
overthrow the power and only after that to decide what to do next.
Sardarapat clearly realizes its further actions. Both in Tunisia and
Egypt the people managed to get rid of the ruling regimes, but the
question what to do next still hangs in the air. It is very important
to know for what sake everything should be changed, and when people
know and understand the prospects, they will realize that they should
start the struggle for the substantial future. Such an explosion
already occurred on 1 March 2008, when the people demonstrated that
they were not going to put up with the tyranny. Sardarapat has always
appreciated the qualities of Armenian people, but this explosion
occurred for the sake of changes. He thinks that Armenia has been
under the power of authoritarian regime over the past 20 years with
few exceptions. I wouldn’t say that we manage to do everything or that
we are content with everything, but our work over the past 1.5 years
has already given and is still giving the first results. If earlier
we were looking for people to involve them in our initiative group,
now the people themselves join us. Internet gives us an excellent
opportunity to break through the information blockade.
Taking into account the fact that overwhelming majority of Armenians
lives abroad, Sardarapat will manage to gain big results in unifying
the compatriots in both Armenia and Diaspora thanks to the internet.
You have repeatedly mentioned the potential and possibilities of
Diaspora. Why does it is still unclaimed? Do the threats and risks
overwhelm the perspectives?
Since 1991 the Armenian authorities have been trying hard to sow
discord between Armenia and the Diaspora. Their principle was “Let’s
Give Armenia to Armenia and Diaspora to Diaspora.” This principle
has already become a
Stereotype. The problem of the Armenian authorities is that they have
the mentality of slaves and have never believed in the capacities of
the Diaspora and have never planned to create a strong Armenian state.
Their only plan was to retain their throne. If the Armenian nation
wants to survive, it needs something like Sardarapat. Today our
compatriots abroad have already realized that there is no statehood
in their homeland, and they are also responsible for this situation.
Nevertheless, parliamentary elections are coming. What political
situation do you expect after the elections?
The risk of social explosion is still existent in Armenia, but there
will hardly be a revolt after the parliamentary elections 2012. Those
elections will be very much like the previous ones. The regime will
once again try to diffuse the opposition and to reshape the political
field the way it likes.
More details please…
The developments in the Middle East have created an unpredictable
situation. Even the leading institutions and analytical centers of
the world refuse to make any forecasts on this situation. In this
situation everything may happen in Armenia. If Turkey is allowed to
invade Syria, Lord forbid, this will inevitably have a bad effect on
Armenia. However, I am sure that not a single Armenian politician
has thought what may happen to Armenia in this case. History likes
to reoccur, and the situation in the region resembles the situation
100 years ago. If the Turkish troops invade Syria under the guise
of liberators of Syrian people, Turkey’s image in the region and
in the Arab world will considerably grow. The Turkish policy of
Neo-Ottomanism, by which Ankara is trying to raise its significance
as a regional power, is conditioned by the elementary self-protection
instinct.
If Turkey fails to shortly take serious steps beyond its borders,
the collapse of Turkey will be inevitable. At the same time, he thinks
that today it is much easier to control Turkey than it was during the
Ottoman Empire 100 years ago. This performance, Sefilyan said, is aimed
at creating a new influential state with Islamic ideology in the person
of Turkey, as a counterweight to Iran. This is the task of the West,
and this process is not new. It has been going on for about 100 years,
but it has recently become more intensive. Therefore, a force -majeur
is not ruled out and we must be ready for any developments.