Anniversary should not be used as smock-screen
Sardarapat Movement initiative group has issued a statement on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Armenia's independence.
"The 20th anniversary of the referendum and the subsequent declaration of independence provide an opportune time for assessing the current state of Armenia's statehood and its prospects," Sardarapat said in the statement.
"The Third Republic was meant to help transition the Soviet Armenia from the rubble of the former soviet empire, to establish the Armenian army and liberate Artsakh, and to eventually make Armenia a full-fledged member of the international community.
However, the successive administrations in Armenia have merely changed the façade of the socialist administrative system and instead of removing the ‘rust' of the corruption affecting its governance they have advanced it further by turning it into a widespread "gangrene". By doing so, they have undermined Armenia's fragile statehood and seriously risked to forego the historic advances made at early years of independence. As a result, the country is celebrating this anniversary not as a happy and aspiring teenager but as an elderly sick person; being a country, whose leaders have failed to make it truly independent, a country brought to the brink of bankruptcy, so much so that people see departure as the only way out.
In recent years, the society at large has not been able to resist materialism-an old evil dressed up in the new clothes of globalization. Our traditional system of values has demonstrated an immune deficiency and was unable to put up an effective fight against unbounded greed, inhumane cruelty, and belligerent ignorance. As a result, not only the society failed to reach true independence, but it also got on the ruinous path toward the estrangement: an estrangement of the political "elite" from the country, the state, and the people; an estrangement of the society from its rulers; an estrangement of the members of the society from each other; and finally the most dangerous one, the estrangement of people from their homeland.
On the bright side, it appears that new forces are emerging to reset the clock and start a qualitatively new process in the country. These forces come in the form of various strong and successful civil society initiatives, as an indicator of imminent birth of the Fourth Republic. By and large, their platforms oppose the existing twisted values of materialism, inhumanity, greed, lack of patriotism, all of which have become the embodiments of today's criminal oligarchic leadership.
The thickening of the clouds over the Third Republic will bring an end to its "winter", to be followed by the spring of the Fourth Republic. Born of the strong will of our people to persevere, it will emerge to put an end to massive emigration, economic deterioration, and persecutions. Citizens of the Fourth Republic will regain their freedom and will once again be proud and reenergized by the bravery and sacrifices of its sons and daughters, be it during the battles of Artsakh, Sardarapat, or Avarayr. They will become the true masters of their revitalized country by participating in the decision-making on issues of critical importance. Whether in Armenia or in the Diaspora, Armenians will once again become owners of their homeland and get to decide its fate.
In conclusion, we congratulate all progressive forces in Armenia and the Diaspora on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of Independence. We condemn any attempts to use this anniversary as a smock-screen for turning people's attention away from the grave conditions on the ground and urge them to widen the fight against the oppressive regime to secure their departure.
