The Third Way, Aram’s Legacy – Gaïdz Minassian
OCTOBER 11, 2021 – (ՄԵՐ ՈՒՂԻՆ)
If everyone does his job, preferring the common interest to the personal one, then hope can be reborn in Armenia.
Kayts Minasyan – Also read the PREVIOUS ARTICLE – Read also: FRENCH ARTICLE.
The third necessary way in Armenia and the Diaspora,
Aram Manukyan’s way
The Third Way, Aram’s Legacy – Gaïdz Minassian
OCTOBER 11, 2021 – (ՄԵՐ ՈՒՂԻՆ)
Gaïdz Minassian
Times are tough and morale is at an all-time low. The wounds of the war are still open and the Armenians decided during the early legislative elections of June 2021 to continuously change their senior staff. Since this election, national representation has changed somewhat:
Nikol Pachinyan’s regime has comfortably maintained itself in power despite the November 2020 defeat and the loss of nearly 17% of the vote compared to the December 2018 elections. old opposition, that of “Armenia Luminous” (Edmond Maroukian) and “Arménie Prospère” (Gaguik Dzaroukian) has disappeared from the radar. A new opposition has arisen:
that represented by the forces of the Old Regime or the Yerevan Cartel: “the Armenia Alliance” led by Robert Kotcharian and “the Alliance I have Honor”, led under the control of Serge Sarkissian. So that Armenia returns to a binary system with a homogeneous majority and bearing the responsibility for the short time of defeat and bitter opposition and bearing the responsibility for the long time of the rout.
Here is the political picture as it appears one year after the 44-day war, with on the one hand, those who think “that there is a future”, and on the other, those who think that “the current power is capitular, traitor and incapable ”.
Supporters of a bright future are under great pressure from the forces of the Old Regime, provocations ranging from the names of birds to threats and physical beatings. On the surface, the majority seem compact, but their problem is not in the redistribution of power, even though Nikol Pachinyan is known to be known for his interventionism.
The problem of the current majority is that encountered by all newly established power at the head of a young state: the absence of executives and intermediaries in the public service and institutions, as if the administrative staff were still linked to the old ways. However, without a functioning bureaucratic apparatus, all power is doomed to failure.
The other major problem of the majority “Civil Contract” refers to the security deficit which surrounds Armenia today: defeated in 2020, Armenia sees here and there its territory eaten away by the whims of President Aliev and his army. predatory desperate to obtain the creation of a “corridor” connecting what they call the “Eastern Zanguezur” to Nakhitchevan. Yet the Armenian defense minister said in the summer of 2021 that Armenian soldiers were ordered to destroy any incursion of Azerbaijani military into Armenian territory.
It is clear that words were not followed by actions. Hence the credibility problem of the Nikol Pachinyan regime, which despite the victory of democracy in 2021, has difficulty in crystallizing its enthusiasm and voluntarism in Armenian society.
The supporters of the Yerevan Cartel are going through a very difficult time. On the one hand, they are striking by their inability to change things, and this since the declaration of November 9, 2020. The tactics of micro-gatherings do nothing, except to spread resentment and hatred in a society that tries to heal its wounds.
The tactic of provocations within the National Assembly, which aims to immobilize the power, does not give any result either, except to face the criticisms of their record that they never wanted to hear. for 20 years at the head of the State and appear in the guise of a violent, destructive opposition without any political meaning except the aversion against a man: Nikol Pachinyan.
On the other hand, on closer inspection, things are more complicated within the ranks of the opposition, especially in this three-actor game which features Serge Sarkissian, Robert Kotcharian and the FRA. It is common knowledge that the two former presidents do not get along and try to pass off the other as the main responsible for state negligence.
Robert Kotcharian, strong of his 21% obtained in June 2021 and still under the blow of a judicial investigation, feels in pole position in the camp of the opposition and considers that this one must line up behind him, including the Republican Party of Serge Sarkissian. The latter does not accept the leadership of his predecessor and accuses him of “wanting to overthrow power just to take power”. Each has its relays in society and political life and this is where the complex Dachnakstagan ecosystem comes in.
A few months away from the next FRA congress – scheduled for spring 2022 – the behind-the-scenes game is taking on all its importance, as the future of the main pan-Armenian political organization in the world is at stake. And this is a real play that its leaders have offered us since the summer poll:
Hagop Der Khatchadourian, secretary general of the World Bureau, absolutely wants to distance himself from the tutelage of Hrand Markarian, his predecessor who for about 20 years has placed his men everywhere in the apparatus, including within the current management of which each member him must fuck him hand. Hagop Der Khatchadourian and his “mutineers” are aware that things are not going well in the Armenian branch of the ARF but as they want to appear at the next congress with an honorable record, they spare Ichkhan Saghatelian, head of the Supreme Organ of the FRA in Armenia, at the risk of appearing as a “weak office”.
However, this “Kotcharianist deputy has also needed to free himself from the caudine forks of Hrand Markarian since he led FRA policy as Robert Kotcharian’s right-hand man. And as Unguer Ichkhan and Unguer Hagop have in common to turn the page of Unguer Hrand, they help each other: Ichkhan Saghatelian will do his best to preserve Hagop Der Khatchadourian at the head of the FRA, in order to have a free hand in Armenia .
Except that the same Ichkhan Saghatelian has another iron in the fire: he now relies on a leadership in Armenia much more intolerant than before and it would not be surprising if he and his generation educated under the orders of the late Vahan Hovannessian the subversive launch themselves in a takeover bid for all of FRA at the next world congress.
A sort of putsch within the party itself with the aim of taking control of the entire Dashnak family in the world. Because, in the diaspora also, the picture of Dachnakstoutioun is not brilliant: dissidence of the movement “Asbarez” and of the central committee elected of the west coast of the United States, bigger and richer federation of the FRA abroad. , who despite his resistance must face the plaster of a puppet Californian central committee set up by the World Bureau, just to say that the party’s crisis is limited to California.
Nothing more false: the crisis begins to affect the FRA in Lebanon, where supporters of Hrand Markarian have lost all influence and where the new team in place does not hesitate to hold its hierarchy to account for the movement’s dissent asbarezagan. Crisis in Greece and Australia too, where voices are raised for an explanation of the zero degree of the discourse of the “FRA” in Armenia. General indifference elsewhere, which is the worst for an action party.
This is how FRA finds itself a few months away from its next world congress as Hrand Markarian works behind the scenes to bring his party closer to Serge Sarkissian while the baroque Hagop-Ichkhan team acts in favor of Robert Kocharian. In short, Hrand and Serge are looking for lost time while Ichkhan, Hagop and Robert are looking for a third way: “neither Nikol, nor Serge” …
But this is where the hypothesis of the Third Way takes all its interest and seems sociologically and politically founded, provided that the other Armenian political forces, those acting outside Parliament and in the diaspora embody it by harnessing themselves. to the task of the gathering.
Why is the Third Way founded? For four reasons: first, nearly one in two voters did not take part in the 2021 election, which shows a lack of confidence in the political forces involved; secondly, Armenia can only be reborn through the eruption of a coalition force devoid of any political responsibility for the defeat; furthermore, the future of Armenia and Armenians around the world is now being prepared with the hope of turning the page on 30 years of neglect and infamy; finally, the Armenians must above all go beyond this objective alliance between the Ancien Régime and the current regime which both have an interest in not allowing a third way to emerge:
Nikol Pachinyan, in order to save the Velvet Revolution, has every interest in typing and once again hit the Old Regime; the Levon-Robert-Serge trio, in order to save their “balance sheet”, also has an interest in hitting and hitting Nikol Pachinyan and his team again. “Thieves” shouts Nikol Pachinyan at the Yerevan Cartel; “Good for nothing”, the Cartel forces reply to the Prime Minister…. And after ?
In reality, it is up to extra-parliamentary forces in Armenia and groups in the diaspora to step into the breach of the Third Way to assume this hope. What could this alternative route be? Quite simply, that of Aram Manoukian, the hero of the resistance of Van in 1915 and the creator of the First Republic of Armenia in 1918. Throughout his life, Aram Manoukian embodied a Third Way.
Within the ARF, in Van or in Yerevan, he, originally from Artsakh, worked for the union of Armenians, of all Armenians. When the FRA had to deal with the proposal of an alliance with the Young Turks of the CUP in 1907, Aram Manoukian did not decide between the “yes” and the “no”, he opted in favor of a Third way, the intersocial way bringing together Armenians, Kurds and Turks from Ottoman civil society, far from power, far from the “Young Turkish Revolution” of 1908 with the aim of promoting peasant solidarity between rural populations of Western Armenia.
In 1914, when the FRA of the Caucasus opted for the creation of battalions placed in the front line of the Russian army against Turkey, Aram Manoukian refused to join this romantic impulse, did not want to hear about additional troops. at the forefront of the Russians because he understood the security issue of the consequences for the Ottoman Armenians of such an alignment with Saint-Petersburg. Aram remained in Van among his own and organized the victorious resistance in 1915.
In 1918, when the ARF faced the challenge of independence from Armenia, Aram Manoukian did not decide between the two camps: the independence through diplomatic channels on the one hand or territorial reunification and the link with Russia on the other. He opted for independence through arms and the formation of a clean and transparent state.
It was a thoughtful but firm independence against corruption, measured but taking into account a hostile environment, namely a strong Armenian state without being a “Greater Armenia” and in good neighborliness with the regional powers, including Turkey, without giving up or being fooled.
This is Aram Manoukian, showing nuance and strategic calculations, rigor and professionalism, like a good engineer of the balance of power, taking into account the surrounding political reality, without plan on the comet, nor conservatism in principle . So who in Armenia is ready to take up the torch of the third way, that of Aram Manoukian? This is the only possible option to bring Armenia out of darkness and pretense.
Nikol Pachinyan? He presents himself as the political descendant of Aram, multiplies references to this giant in his speeches and bows at the feet of his statue erected in September 2018 on the outskirts of Republic Square in Yerevan. But Aram never knew defeat.
So Nikol Pachinyan cannot claim to be the worthy successor of the founding father of the First Republic. The FRA ? She presents herself as the worthy heir of Aram Manoukian. But Aram Manoukian embodied independence from all powers, especially Russia, without being anti-Russian.
The same can be said of Unguer Ichkhan and company who by joining Robert Kotcharian must endorse his speech of union with Russia. In Armenia, the ARF has nothing to do with Aram Manoukian. Nothing far or near. Especially since one would still have had to dare to compare oneself to the charisma of an Aram. But who can boast the title of leader in the FRA today?
Nobody, neither the apparatchik Hagop Der Khatchadourian, nor Corporal Ichkhan Saghatelian are authoritative within the party and have the makings of Hraïr Maroukhian and Sarkis Zeitlian, the last two real leaders of the FRA, recognized and respected by the leaders around the world. Since their political disappearance, the first in 1994, the second in 1985, the orphan FRA has seen successive leaders without charisma or far-reaching thinking. Besides, we are shown quality writing from Unguer Hagop and Unguer Ichkhan …
We are always looking for them, one sings, the other shouts. Robert Kotcharian then? He attempts to break free from the Yerevan Cartel by drawing the limits of a third way, more mature and responsible. But Aram is the architect of the independence of Armenia, not its gravedigger as was Robert Kocharian, who sold to Russia all the energy park of the Republic of Armenia for the modest sum of 100 million euros. dollars in 2001. Robert Kotcharian squandered the independence of Armenia, which is the opposite of the idea of sovereignty advocated by Aram Manoukian.
In fact, no one at this time embodies the way of Aram in Armenia. Because, if the structural conditions are met, it still lacks this political tool capable of seizing the primacy of the Manoukian line. But it is not impossible to prepare the ground for this new legitimate space of the Third Way. How? ‘Or’ What ? By the meeting in Armenia of all constituted groups and goodwill around the Aram doctrine, with a tight, precise, concise and achievable agenda, far from the current majority and the forces of the Yerevan Cartel.
This is possible, because if everyone does their own thing, putting the general interest ahead of their own interests, hope can be reborn in Armenia. It is possible because if everyone favors national security and independence, the rule of law and citizenship, demography and power by means other than territory, hope can be reborn in Armenia, first of all. within the abstainers then gradually within the ranks of the majority disappointed by the defeatism of Nikol Pachinyan but also of the ranks of the opposition tired by the impasse in which this one finds itself by its excess and its blindness.
As Aram Manoukian had a pan-national ambition – at the time it was called the union between Armenians of Turkey and Armenians of the Caucasus – the principle of the Third Way can only extend to the diaspora, which demonstrated during from the ordeal of the 2020 war all his mobilization and all his will to participate in a community of destiny with a new Armenia, so much so that today, when Armenia sneezes, it is the diaspora that has a cold , and conversely, when the diaspora is bedridden, it is Doctor Armenia who rushes to his bedside.
Therefore, if the dissident “asbarezagan” movement of the west coast of the United States does not take the path of the Third Way, then it embodies it at all, since it has expressed its will to say “Stop” to the collapse of Dashnaktsoutioun, to inject ethics into Armenian political life and to link national security to independence, then his rebellion will have only been a flash in the pan and will have plays the game of a leadership of the FRA, whose authoritarian practices it rightly contests.
The “stop” of the dachnakstagans on the west coast of the United States still resonates like the cry of Aram Manoukian to save the FRA from sinking. It is therefore up to them to bring together those who, in the diaspora, old or new, partisans or not, from the left as from the right, find themselves in the power of the Third Way of Aram, while being in parallel in close collaboration with the equivalent groups in Armenia.
This is the first stone of the edifice of Aram Manoukian: to bring together the groups of Armenia and the diaspora in a single and unique perspective, that of a new, free, independent, democratic and just Armenia to restore hope and say that “Yes I have the real honor” to say that “there is a real future” in a “real alliance of Armenia” and the diaspora. So, gentlemen, at work, far from the old-fashioned and gravediggers of the State but for the memory of Aram Manoukian and also for the defense of our dead, our soldiers, our children, our “honor”, our “Armenia” , of our “future”.
Inglish translation – lousavor-avedis.org
mer-oughin.am/2021/10/11/la-troisieme-voie-lheritage-daram/
