By Ishkhan Saghtelyan
In order to legitimize the surrender of Artsakh, justify new concessions and defeat, and
escape personal and political responsibility, Pashinyan’s regime is shamelessly trying to
convince us that:
a) The Armenian people have never had national goals, and our national struggles were not
expressions of our own will, but rather dictated by empires.
b) The Armenian people are weak, deserters, indifferent to statehood, and concerned only
with daily needs. They want us to believe that we are an uncultured people who think only
with our stomachs, guided by the principle, “where there is bread, there is home.”
The conclusion of this propaganda is clear: what has already happened was inevitable, and
what is coming has no alternative. They are erasing the past in order to control the future.
Yes, today every fourth Armenian lives in poverty, and social problems are indeed pressing
for our society. But it is also a fact that this same people, after the Genocide, rebuilt
statehood and liberated part of the homeland. At the cost of deprivation, without complaint,
in darkness and cold, our people struggled and preserved independence.
I remember very well the first days of the 44-Day War—the lines of volunteers waiting to go
to the front, and the nearly $200 million raised by the Armenian Diaspora in a matter of
days. This was not for personal comfort or gain. This was for national goals—freedom,
independence, and statehood.
Today, one of the wealthiest Armenians is imprisoned in Baku, another in Armenia. Ruben
Vardanyan and national benefactor and businessman Samvel Karapetyan did not live by
Civil Contract’s “values”—otherwise, they would not be in such positions. Our army
generals and former state leaders are in captivity because they chose to remain in Artsakh
as living hostages until their compatriots could safely evacuate.
Our clergymen, our bishops, are today behind bars. They did not seek comfort; they
defended our national interest.
Therefore, dear people, do not allow your past, your character, your identity, and the pages
of your struggle and sacrifice to be distorted.
We are a nation with national goals—always struggling for our collective aims, peace-
seeking, yet unwilling to surrender our homeland. Our collective image is not Nikol, Alen,
Vahagn Aleksanyan, or the Melikfrangulyans; your intellectual archetype is not Richard
Madlenian.
You are the people who gave birth to Aram Manoukian, Viktor Hambardzumyan, Serzh
Srapionyan, Hambik Sassounian, Soghomon Tehlirian, and Robert Abajyan.
And ultimately, if everything was long ago predetermined, and if nothing can be changed,
why are they making such desperate efforts to convince us of it?
The key to building the strong, vibrant, protected, and powerful Armenia of our dreams lies
precisely in refusing to reconcile with the current situation—and in continuing the struggle.
