Letter: A Wake-up Call -- 1996

A Wake-Up Call

Letter to the Editor by C.K. Garabed

Published in the Armenian Reporter International

July 27, 1996

Dear Editor:

It amazes me to observe the lengths to which the supporters of the present government of Armenia will go to justify the obvious illegalities, inequities and illusions perpetrated by the elite of the country. All this talk of fledgling democracy, decades of oppression to be overcome, newfound freedom to be further cultivated, is just a big smoke screen.

You would think (and expect) that a people who have realized their dream of being delivered from the yoke of godless, anti-national communism would thirst for immediate and unconditional reform. The people don’t need time to get used to being free, and the apologists in the diaspora are not doing the common people any favors by propping up the elite who should never have gotten their collective foot in the door in the first place.

To say that true democracy takes time is to fail to appreciate that time is not on our side. As Armenia grows weaker, her enemies grow stronger. Armenia will thrive only when her destiny is made subject to the will of the people.

To say that Armenians are no different from other peoples and therefore must go through the same transformations from tyranny to freedom is contrary to our experience. For decades after Armenians migrated to America after the Genocide, there were few, if any, cases of Armenians in prison, on drugs or addicted to alcohol. How do we account for that, if not by acknowledging it to be the outward sign of the inward strength and vigor instilled by our culture?

Why should we not strive to recapture the true Armenian will and spirit in both the homeland and diaspora? We are what we want to be. If we will to be free, we shall be free!

C.K. Garabed

Teaneck, NJ