InternationalYerevan Spring: a metaphor for instability
Published: Saturday March 22, 2008 in Living in Armenia
An apple blossom in Armenia. Grigor Hakobyan
Yerevan - The first day of spring is celebrated on March 1 in Armenia. It has nothing to with the tilting of the axis of the earth toward the sun, impacting the length of daylight as the hemisphere begins to warm. No, it's just an arbitrary date, like all things Soviet. Summer officially begins on June 1, autumn on September 1, and winter is December 1. It is an oversimplification of processes, both natural and cultural, which probably began when Soviet authorities decided to change our alphabet decades ago, allegedly to simplify the spelling.
Spring, however, has taken on a whole new meaning in Armenia these days. Just as the Prague Spring is used today as a metaphor, denoting a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia 40 years ago in 1968, that was followed by the invasion and occupation of the country by the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries, the Yerevan Spring of 2008 will be remembered for its turbulent unrest.
A few days ago, while the sun was shining brilliantly, and flower vendors were selling the first local blooms of spring, I had the sad task of going to the wake of my friend's mother. In Armenia there are no funeral homes and the custom is to keep the deceased in the home until the burial. The rituals surrounding funerals are always the same. One room in the house is cleared of all furniture, the casket is placed on a table in the center of the room. Flowers are placed, candles burn, and the lamenting, soulful melody of a duduk can be heard playing from another room. The mourners, mostly women, sit in the room with the deceased on benches that are lined up along the walls, while the men stand outside, their shoulders bent, eyes cast downward, struggling with a sorrow they don't know how to express. Mourners file in, express their sympathies to the immediate family, sit by the casket for an appropriate amount of time, and then leave.
While my husband stood in the hallway with the other men, I sat by my friend's side and held her hand. "My mother was a good woman. She had five children and never once did we ever hear her complain about anything. Yes, my mother was a good woman," Hasmig said, trying to affirm the fact that her mother's existence had meant something. It certainly had to her children and bevy of grandchldren. Suddenly, I realized that the events of March 1 that had rocked the country were no longer a priority for this family who had to deal with a personal tragedy of having lost a loved one.
However morbid it may sound, it was a relief not to have to think about it - about the thousands of people protesting at Opera Square, the clashes, the riot police, looting, death, the complete structural meltdown of the country's political system and the declaration of a state of emergency. A funeral had served as a welcome diversion.
The political and social crisis in Armenia has taken over our lives. It seems that's all we talk about. It has been all-encompassing and overwhelming. For days, immediately following the clashes, we went about our business, but we all felt like there had been a death in the family. I can no longer remember what we used to talk about before March 1, or even before February 19. There was the usual list of complaints that we were good at complaining about. But there was also hope and belief and although not always clearly defined, a vision.
I no longer know whom to believe and what to believe. What I hear on the news, I question. What I hear from friends and acquaintances, I cannot verify. What I hear from people who participated in the movement riddled by rumours and innuendo, I brush aside as rumours and innuendo.
Everybody theorizes, postulates, makes assumptions based on their own perspective of events and of the nation's history. But there are so many unanswered questions. How did we get here? Was it a necessary evil on the road to democracy? Where do we go from this point forward. Are there solutions to the very complex problems that this country faces? How do we create a consensus when political discourse is at a standstill? Will we ever be able to rebuild social cohesion? Was there ever social cohesion in the country? I could fill up pages of blank paper with questions to which I have no answers.
What I do know is that on the first day of spring in Armenia, the country was almost knocked off its foundations. It was a political earthquake, the aftershocks of which we will feel for years to come.
Different politicians and political forces are offering solutions, but there's no roadmap and most importantly I am not convinced that there is the political will without which any fundamental structural and institutional change is only a pipe dream. We can only hope that the newly elected president of the country and his political team will realize their vulnerability, that their legitimacy is hanging by a thin thread and that they not only have to face the people who took part in the movement, but the entire nation.
If we had a truly free and independent media, it would take a leading role and honestly survey all the viewoints and present what the collective thoughts were on what went wrong and how we could have prevented this. The media needs to serve its purpose and serve our democracy. It must be the voice of the people, all of the people and not only one narrow power or interest group. Mass media needs to and can bring all the issues together, put them on the table, examine all the viewpoints, without passing judgement or editorializing and then offer solutions. Presently there is no forum where the country is talking to each other. We only have people in different corners, each yelling louder than the other, with no one listening.
No one is explaining the motivation of the demonstrators, why they were there and what they were searching for. Not all of them had joined the movement because they believed Levon Ter-Petrossian was their savior. They demanded something: what did they want? Why didn't the government hear them? The media was never objectively reporting their concerns. The opposition media, instead of serving as a counterbalance, only contributed to the lies and half-truths. We need balanced journalists, free, unhindered reporting that searches for the truth without governmental blockades. With the state of emergency over, it's time that all journalists and editors rose to the occasion.
