Nerves Are Open

Interview with Nvard Manasyan, political scientist, education expert

Nvard, the parliamentary elections are in the past, most people think this situation will last till 2018. What ways out do you see?

We have a small example of materialization of values, positive poles with small percentage emerged which will face to still unrevealed, even negatively assessed majority, and the confrontation in crisis opens up a big horizon, and in this sense we have an opportunity for a good progress both in the country and in the region. By an oriental approach, we are strong with our weakness and we are the weakest by the consciousness of strength. Consequently, we are both weak and strong. We are weak with a strong majority in parliament, we are weak and our weakness will be used, we are strong by this weakness and this weakness will resolve things which cannot be solved in a stage of strong identity.

No opposition is left in the street, everyone was shifted to the National Assembly. Will the civic activity which had a victory in the fight for saving Trchkan waterfall and Mashtots Park form a new force which will be able to retrieve the country from crisis?

Victories will continue and these are not only result-based victories, they are victories of progress and values. This is the case when we are weak in our strength and the strong majority with its strength will make more frequent mistakes and cannot avoid this. Any identity which is aware of one’s own strength always stumbles more often than if it were weak, those weak are more cautious. Now this big, non-cautious, selfish majority will constantly foster the emergence of different civil hotbeds, such as in universities. The confidence with which the minister of education and culture dismissed the president of the university opened up new opportunities for appreciating independence and self-determination because freedom without self-determination is very dangerous, the framework of populism is freedom which has no self-determination, in other words, there is no civil position and values, there are no approaches for freedom, there is no responsibility. They will be many, and look, the elections still in progress, the rumors that the building of the Armenian Organization of Cultural Cooperation may be dismantled spread at a high speed, while if I am not mistaken the reaction to the house of the Afrikyan family was not so fast. The buildings are equal in value but now the nerve is open, and more people react and understand that this is not just a thematic issue.

The people who have been active towards the establishment of a civil society say that these are, unfortunately, fragments of success, no systemic success has been achieved yet. Why?

Fragmental beginning will make systemic success possible, and this is the signal of qualification of the species and the beginning of progress. New qualities emerge in different small groups, that is the ability to express one’s own identity, and it will show that these separate qualified groups will start shelling with qualities the silent majority which has no coloring and position. They will definitely change our reality and make possible systemic changes. It is not strange that two or three days after the elections people are not angry, you will not see angry, disappointed people. In other words, though the political forces say that they offered systemic solutions and the plans are complete, the understanding is the vision of a small group and thus the majority does not have ownership. The vision will mature by way of civil movements and resistance. Resistance is the ability to say no consciously.

Nvard, do you agree that there was no alternative to electoral bribes so they accepted? Why was the field so ideologically void?

The political forces offer correct abstract solutions but abstraction must be visible to each of us. When we are told about planting trees, they must go to Mashtots Park in person and be visible by their struggle and solution, they must be visible in Trchkan, then Teghut, the statements on non-partisan education system must be resolved by way of struggle of the Linguistic University. The rights must be promoted by way of struggle and tactical approaches to it. Then we will understand that we need to fight for our labor rights, by bringing into being real trade unions which are mere formality today.

In your opinion, was the conduct of this election progress?

In form, yes. If you are not asked out of the polling station or they do not stuff the ballot box, the progress is a formality but it is meaningless. One can insist with great confidence that what we survived was a 100% formal election which had no content, while a content-free election is not an election. People with civic self-determination have not come to the polling stations. They did not understand that they voted for the idea so there was no free expression of will of citizen. Having to choose between money and meaningless and non-understandable idea, a hungry man will choose money, and this man should not be reproached for his choice.