By Norick Markosian

Our twenty years of independence, if nothing else, has shed light and exposed two important and differing qualities about our nation.

It takes decades, if not centuries, for other nations to realize the same. In nature, living or otherwise, things are created because of the existence of two opposite and equally powerful forces.

The existence of the negative aspect, alongside the positive, in return creates the opportunity for the positive to shine and eventually overcome the bad and the evil. 
As a newly independent nation, we are still going through our growing pains.

We have witnessed the existence of both, the most horrific and the most exemplary qualities that a human being can posses, among the different sectors of our population and society. 

In the early days of our independence, we demonstrated that we can come together as a cohesive and self sacrificing unit, to overcome almost any difficulty and obstacle thrown at us. We fought, and defeated, an enemy more powerful and better equipped than us, as we were blockaded by three of our four neighbors.

That war produced legendary martyrs who can serve as the heroes of any nation’s epic mythology. But the same war also gave birth to individuals who opportunistically utilized the chaotic situation of our country to amass riches and profit from the war. 

Unfortunately, as we progressed as a nation, the malevolence and the money hungry among us, however absurd it might be, took the reign and formed the oligarchic system which is ruling us today. Along the way, these oligarchs, committed numerous atrocities, and avoided being prosecuted because they were the law.

On June 29th, citizen Vahe Avetyan, passed away after being subjected to a brutal beating by the bodyguards of one of the aforementioned oligarchs (Ruben Hayrapetyan).

The shock wave created by Vahe’s death traveled through the conscience of every Armenian. It spurred the proverbial good of our nation to rise and start the process of the defeating the evil.

Armenians in both Armenia and Diaspora poured out into the streets and protested to voice their intolerance for not only Vahe’s death, but also for the lawlessness and injustices which prevail in Armenia today.

Various slogans were used by the people, of which the most common ones were, “we are Vahe” , “I am Vahe”.

Although young and still growing, we as a nation cannot afford to allow this oligarchic system to continue to thrive in our country.

Almost 18 years after defeating the foreign enemy, it is time for us to become a cohesive nation again to defeat the evil which exists within us.

To coin an old adage, “the enemy’s knife has cut through the flesh and is about to break our bone”…The the situation is as dire as it was during the battle of Sardarabad

We will either truly become “Vahe” and fight to dismantle this oligarchic system, one evil at a time… or…There is no other OR.