For Monitors, Unions, and others purveyors of Justice: Between Scylla and Charbydis

OPEN LETTER May 16, 2008

In many things I wonder, if taking a step back doesn’t help see things in a clearer light. And tonight, I wonder if I can help certain individuals and organizations, perchance, view the events in Armenia in a clearer light.

We all, at times, lose the forest for the trees. When we see that forest point in the same direction as the trees, we know we are on the right path.

Starting out with an obvious, more objective, statement, the people of Armenia, Armenia itself, is presently in turmoil. Let’s take a look back.

After WWI (during which the Armenian people of Eastern Anatolia endured massacres, also known as Genocide), to maintain a semblance of identity and cohesiveness, and to survive, Armenia was incorporated into the Soviet Union (this is a gross oversimplification, but let us move on for now). During this time, Armenia, and more importantly, the people of Armenia, were subjected to all of the laws and regulations, including the repressions and limitations, of the USSR.

In 1988, a resolution by the legislative council of Kharabagh (February 20) was supported by mass demonstrations by the people of Armenia, which later became even more massive in protest of pogroms and murders in Sumgait, and later, in Baku. Over a million people gathered daily to protest such injustices, and to demand the unification of Kharabagh to Armenia. This was approximately one third of the entire population of Armenia. These demonstrations turned into a movement, a movement against corruption, into a movement for the people.

On December 7, 1988, one of the largest and most devastating earthquakes ever hit northern Armenia (centered in Spitak and Leninakan, Armenia). In response, and supposedly to maintain security, Soviet tanks were brought into Yerevan, and, out of fear on the part of the governing bodies, the leading members of the Kharabagh Committee were thrown into Russian prisons.

Through the forces of international pressure and time, these individuals were released. Reconstruction continues to this day in the areas devastated by the earthquake.

As the Soviet Union was collapsing, Armenia was the only Soviet Republic to establish independence through means that were actually established and recognized as legal by the USSR. Armenia became an independent republic again on September 21, 1991. In October of the same year, Levon Ter-Petrossyan (LTP) was elected President of the Republic, in an election whose validity has never been questioned.

It was during his presidency that the conflict of Kharabagh was militarized and continued (because of the decision by Azerbaijan to have a Kharabagh without Armenians), and was brought to an end in a cease-fire in 1994, which is maintained to this day. The Armenian forces were not only able to defend Kharabagh, but to secure areas around it. These were extremely hard times in Armenia, with minimal water, heat and electricity. To this day, many still personally blame LTP for those hard winters.

Why am I restating the obvious?

I will tell you why.

Because, dear Monitors, Judges, International Courts, and Unions, it is the same people who have raised their fists in protests of pogroms in Sumgait, in defense of fellow Armenians, in unity as Armenians through a series of transformations almost unprecedented in any other country in the world during the past 20 years, it is these same people who now raise their fists in support of a democratic, independent and free Armenia.

It is, in fact these same men and women who were congregating in Yerevan's Freedom Square, raising their fists in unity. And it is now these same men, women, and now their children, and some cases grandchildren, who now do not have the right to congregate in that square to voice discontent.

Know that when you make a decision or vote in any way to allow the current regime to continue in its manner, that when you ignore something you have seen or read about what is happening in Armenia now, you are, in fact, betraying the fundamental principles of Freedom, Truth, and Democracy.

You are betraying the fundamental principles of Freedom, Truth, and Democracy.

Politics and diplomacy are difficult. A path between a rock and a hard place, between Scylla and Charybdis. But certain Truths are undeniable.

What are you willing to compromise, dear Judges, Monitors, and Unions?

Know that you are gambling with the lives, and futures, of millions of people.

Tzitzernak