In his article published on 22 September, Vahe Hovhannisyan, co-founder of the Alternative Projects group, analyses the nature of the current political struggle in Armenia and its future prospects. His main argument is that continuing the struggle is not enough if its objectives, vision, structure and mechanisms for action are unclear.
“The struggle continues,” he writes. “We can add a question mark, an exclamation mark or any other punctuation mark that conveys fatalism or pathos. The essence of the problem will not change.”
This statement is often repeated by political parties, public and political figures, as well as by honest individuals. But there comes a time when it is necessary to ask a new question.
A struggle against which viewpoint and in favour of which viewpoint? A struggle in what context? With what public demand? Ultimately, the struggle must have a vision, a timeline, a structure, evaluation mechanisms and resources: human, intellectual, material and of other kinds. There was Varges Gaspari, simply lying there. In this kind of struggle, his figure stood out. From the outside, it seems that our current political struggle has almost turned into a giant ‘Varges Gaspari’. We are fighting once again. The struggle continues at an individual level, in prisons, in detention centres, outside parliament and in the National Assembly: there are serious people fighting. But this is not an institutional struggle. It is difficult to say what the chances of success are.
‘The Armenia of tomorrow’ is taking shape today. We must understand clearly – and explain just as clearly – where Armenia is heading.
Today, our national, state, political and public agendas consist of a series of isolated incidents, rather than being formulated as a coherent whole. Tigranashen, the constitution, the church, the Russian military base – no claim or initiative put forward by Azerbaijan can be treated as a stand-alone issue. The struggle of the 2021–2026 period cannot continue today, after the 2026 elections, in the same spirit. The approaches, methods, priorities and content cannot remain the same. After this difficult five-year period, it is impossible not to experience personal and social growth, to rethink life and to undergo further profound transformations. A struggle centred on a single issue will lead to the same result. Put simply, if we focus on Tigranashen or any other single issue – the constitution or any other captured village – the government will always repeat the same scenario, saying: ‘If we don’t do this, war will break out.’ And it will achieve the desired result. We must face the results of the 2026 National Assembly elections without fear and move beyond the scenario we ourselves have created: the scenario of ‘our law-abiding and noble society destroyed at the hands of the oppressors’.
Everything has already been said and explained in the context of the 2021–2026 period. The consequences of this period represent a shared history, one that is unfolding before our very eyes, and if the election results remain the same in the future, then that section of society which operates honestly and struggles for survival will have to embrace profound changes, thereby gaining prominence.
True politics is the Armenia of today and the Armenia of tomorrow, which is being built today. We must understand the situation, change and clarify issues without fear, formulate unified approaches, present new solutions without hesitation, and introduce innovations to the general public. And, above all, present them in a new language and tone. In this atmosphere, in this context, in this uncertainty, which ‘Kyarki’ or entire regions will society abandon without a second thought, only to return to normality tomorrow? How can we overcome this situation? How can we shift the social focus from food and drink towards a state-centred civic mindset and behaviour?
In the final section of the article, the development of dialogue between the domestic sphere, the intra-societal sphere and the various constituencies is identified as a key issue. According to Hovhannisyan, today’s agenda must reflect the reality of contemporary Armenia and a comprehensive understanding of the country’s future.
“The agenda for today’s struggle cannot be the same as yesterday’s. From within, and even more painfully from without, they will exploit our naivety in such a way that we will not emerge from this for the next 100 years.
This raises a crucial question: internal dialogue, dialogue within society, dialogue between elections. We will discuss this later.”
Main source: facebook.com