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Two Good Things (for Armenians) to Come Out of the Recent Clashes

By Nareg Seferian 

The Armenian and Azerbaijani media – as well as many international media outlets – devoted much space over the past week to cover the notched-up hostilities in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.

As one might have expected, Armenian and Azerbaijani websites poured out strong nationalistic rhetoric in all directions. Each side blamed the other for initiating and prolonging the escalation and for violating any cessation of hostilities. Each side continues to speak in terms of historical rights, traditional lands, and remembers horrors of the conflict of the late ’80s and early ’90s, especially massacres of innocent civilians. 

From a broader, human perspective, truly all the violence, both old and new, remains reprehensible and regrettable. I don’t care whether or not I am Armenian and I am certain I speak for many millions across many borders when I say that I hope the fighting will stop, some sort of resolution will be achieved, one that will honour and remember all the dead as a lasting peace is established and maintained. 

From a more Armenian perspective, however, there are a couple of other conclusions to draw.

I have long held a concern that any flare-up in fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh would result in… well, apathy. The social, economic, and political situation in Armenia has been quite discouraging in recent years. Such incidents as the attack on the parliament in 1999 were perhaps counter-acted by an economic boom in the early 2000s. But the March 1st violence of 2008, followed by years of lulls in growth, palpably-increasing rates of emigration, constant acts of ineptitude and corruption on the part of the government, improper voting, etc. and the fallouts of the above all give me the strong sense that the people of Armenia feel that they lack ownership of their country. I would have expected any fighting to be met with people shrugging their shoulders and saying, “Well, why should I care? These idiot politicians have made this mess, let them sort it out. I have a family to feed”. 

Perhaps that was the response from some part of society in Armenia. But the greater impression I got this past week was a sense of determination, righteous indignation directed towards the Azerbaijani government, and a willingness to fight voluntarily by many. This gives me a boost of confidence that, at tough times, the people of Armenia can apparently get together. I am happy that my more cynical expectations were not met. 

Secondly, this increase in hostilities only adds to Armenian arguments against any future in which the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh could see themselves a part of a peaceful and stable Azerbaijan. The same conclusion was easily drawn when the axe-murderer Ramil Safarov was released from Budapest and given a hero’s welcome in Baku – where, in fact, he had been sent to carry out the remainder of his jail sentence. The claims that the Armenians make about institutional discrimination and the continued state policy of hatred towards Armenians by Azerbaijan are clearly demonstrated through such events. 

It is all very unfortunate.

I genuinely look forward to the day when Armenia and Azerbaijan (and Armenia and Turkey) will simply be neighbours with open borders and citizens who freely interact with one-another for work and leisure. The events this past week sadly shift that vision ever farther into the future. In the meantime, as far as the Armenian point of view goes, at least there are a couple of silver linings on the very dark and stormy cloud. 

Nareg Seferian’s writings can be read on naregseferian.com.

Comments (9)

Arsen
I am surprised that Hetq has published this article. It is obvious that Nareg is not an Armenian, but rather a cosmopolitan with no nation and motherland. It does not matter if his surname is Armenian. I met this guy some 10 years ago and were surprised how a diasporian Armenian can lost his identity this much. After finding out his family history, everything became clear. It seems buy with years Nareg is getting more and more lost is his feeling and thoughts, openly declaring that he is indifferent if he is an Armenian or not, and also he hopes that Armenian and Turks will live a joyful life together. Nareg, this is not Brasil, this is Caucasus, full with lot of conflicts and wars for past 4000 years, and you are not welcomed here with your cosmopolitan ideas. Shame Hetq for publishing such articles.
Garen
Good article. It goes without saying that it is not in the interest of Turkey or Azerbaijan's respective leaderships to push for normalized relationship with Armenia. This would entail a good look in the mirror, in other words, genuine democratic process within these two societies. Well, come to think of it, we can use a good dose of that in ours. Let us not forget that well over 100,000 people came to the streets and said: I am Hrant Dink! This was in Istanbul not Yerevan or Los Angeles. Overwhelming majority were Turks not Armenians. The issue was justice and human rights, humanization of the citizenry. I believe this is what the author is talking about.
Artthur Trevelyan
Sadly, HETQ IS at fault here, allowing a NAIVE young kid post nonsensical anti-Armenian story. HETQ was admired for it's push of Democracy and Fairness. Let me see if HETQ believes what it preaches.
GB
Nothing good came out of this AXEeris new wave of assault,, but magnified corrupted oil man, indisputable hate, toward Armenian nation!
briton
Nareg is leaving in a cloud somewhere in the stratosphere. He looks forward to the day when turks and armenians can love each other like brothers. Well Nareg go and preach this message to the criminal turks, and see how far you can go.. In the meanwhile keep looking forward to that fantasy time.
George
Nareg jan, I fully understand you...but the recent aggressions by our neighbour came to prove that peace is unreachable between us. It is a clash of civilizations which has been ongoing for long time now and it's not something we cans top right now. On the contrary, this is a time that we should be prepared for the next battle with all types of weaponry possible......that's the only thing that will stop them.
armen_yan
Arsen and Hagop sound like turkish trolls.
hasmik
Well-said, I hope Armenian humanists will rise above the ethno-nationalists that have been driving the narrative for so long. It is extremely exhausting to hear shit like Hagop and Arsen are saying above. Shows how little they know and care about the well-being of our people, which is substantially related to the well-being and coexistence with the neighbors.
Paul
I found this article to be fair and well put. I have no idea what Arsen and Hagop are talking about and they seem to have a personal issue with the author based on who he is as a person and not fitting their mythical notion of what makes a true Armenian, as opposed to any substance in their very weird attacks.

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