Rachya Arzumanyan: what is happening in Yerevan is a continuation of the April war. An intelligent person attributes to me intelligence, and a stupid person attributes stupidity to me.

Rachya Arzumanyan on current events and trends around Armenia April 9th, 2016

https://www.facebook.com/hrachya.arzumanian/posts/10154063227594709?pnref=story

Rachya Arzumanyan

One touch before you go off to work on your topics.
I see unwanted trends and attempts to start looking for external causes and actors. Trying to look outside. This is an extremely undesirable trend. The war led to the release of the spiritual and psi-energy of the people and it is necessary to direct it inside Armenia, convert very expensive energy to solve our Armenian problems. Yes, we must work to slap Russia, Israel, Turkey, etc. in the face. But in this case, such steps must be interpreted as purely “emotional” steps, like a cry. “Swearing out” is sometimes useful and even necessary, but then you need to start working within the country.
One must understand with a cool head that Russia remains a center of power, which at all times has been distinguished by its ability to operate with hard power (military force) in the geopolitical and even diplomatic arenas. This is her strong point and we just saw how she masterfully “resolved” the situation in the Caucasus, forcing Aliyev to flee to Moscow for help. However, this is the point that doesn’t matter now and another analysis
The main thing is to understand that all centers have their own interests, and today we can influence them only through the growth of Armenia’s potential. It is necessary to set and solve the problem of qualitative improvement of the socio-economic situation in Armenia, to create conditions for qualitative changes economic structure, the situation in the political arena of Armenia. Here, within the country, our main challenges and potential opportunities are to truly change attitudes towards Armenia.
The centers of power have behaved and will behave the way they behave - this is objective. So it was in the 19th century and so it will be in the 21st. The only thing that has changed is the opportunities information space and social networks, which give Armenians the opportunity to watch online how this is happening, how our interests are once again surrendering. I repeat - this is objective and we are already strong enough to complain and shake our fists.
We need to be prepared for Russia to conclude an agreement with Iran and Azerbaijan. This is a natural desire and a natural regional and geopolitical union. We must think about how we can counter such an objective trend and how we can destroy it without resorting to military force.
What we have today and what may appear in a year, 5 years, 10 years. The Armenian soldier has once again completed his task, it’s time for others to do the work.
I intend to devote this year to preparing another military book devoted to the theory of autonomous military systems. The work began last year, but we all see how relevant this area is. We need to figure it out and adapt it to our realities.

From the comments:
Vadim Sergeev Tell me, stupid, what's wrong with the Russia-Iran treaty?
Rachya Arzumanyan Nothing bad. It’s bad for us if Azerbaijan joins the team and can ask for a price.
Karen Agabekyan Vadim, we don’t want to confuse Russia with Iran at all, for us Iran good friend and we have very good relations with Iran!

Director of the Ashkhar Center for Strategic Research (Stepanakert), expert on military and national security issues, candidate of technical sciences Rachya Arzumanyan, in an interview with ArmInfo, discusses the possibilities of resolving the Artsakh issue in the 21st century when the region is in a gray zone. He talks about the dangers fraught with the compromise settlement options being discussed in Armenia, and the possibilities of the Armenians to resist such plans.

In the Armenian political elite, the future solution to the Karabakh problem has long been reduced to the formula “ultimately, the Artsakh Armenians will solve the problem.” How viable is this formula in the realities of the 21st century and isn’t there a fair amount of guile in it?

The future of Artsakh will truly be decided by the Artsakh Armenians. However, it is worth noting the evolution this concept. The question is what should be meant by Artsakh Armenians in the 21st century. Over the 25 years that have passed since the first Artsakh war, about 20 thousand guys from the Republic of Armenia and Spyurk came annually to serve in Artsakh. In other words, over the years, at least 400 thousand Armenians who were born and raised outside Artsakh served in Artsakh. If we add to them families, close relatives, etc., it turns out that at least half of the population of the Republic of Armenia, one way or another, came into contact with Artsakh and the Artsakh problem. Their sons, brothers, nephews and grandchildren defended Artsakh, some shed blood and died in service. And all of them, worried about their relatives serving in the service, thought about Artsakh, became part of Artsakh. Time passes, anxiety and pain subside, and pride remains that they all have their contribution to the national liberation struggle of the Armenian people in Artsakh. Therefore, by the concept of “Artsakh Armenians” in the 21st century, we are obliged to understand not only the Armenians born in Artsakh, but also those who defended it all these years. Some of them are already mature people, and service in Artsakh has become part of family history and pride, and they, of course, feel personal responsibility for Artsakh and have the right to demand explanations regarding its fate.

This responsibility was most clearly demonstrated in April last year, when volunteers from Armenia and the Diaspora set out to defend Artsakh. Moreover, most of Of these, as you correctly noted, she did her military service in Artsakh.

Undoubtedly. In the April days, the whole of Ashkhar, the entire Armenian community, stood up to defend Artsakh, as a global phenomenon. We clearly saw that in the 21st century, with the outbreak of hostilities, literally all Armenians become “Armenians of Artsakh”. That is why the attempts of certain centers of power to take away the victory won in Artsakh from the Armenians face opposition from the entire Armenian people, and not just those who live in Artsakh today. If during the first Artsakh War most of the difficulties of the war fell on the shoulders of the Armenians of Artsakh, today it turns out to be distributed over the whole of Armenia and more broadly – ​​over the entire Armenian people, the whole of Ashkhar. It is certainly surprising that there are still “dinosaurs” in Armenian politics who do not want to understand that in the changed realities of the 21st century, it is impossible to interpret the Artsakh problem within the context of the 90s. last century. Concepts, meanings and meanings evolve and change over time in order to remain adequate to the emerging realities - within society and internationally. Indeed, it is impossible to step into the same river twice - the river, the international security environment, and the Armenian society and Armenians as a whole have changed. The above applies not only to Levon Ter-Petrosyan and his followers, whose deviant behavior makes conversation with them meaningless and simply impossible. The problem is broader and such misunderstanding and reluctance to see the changes taking place are characteristic of almost the entire political spectrum. We, as a nation, a nation, a political phenomenon, and not a people, for the most part do not want to admit that Artsakh has become an integral part of Armenia. And trying to talk about possible compromises and concessions to Azerbaijan and the centers of power behind it, we do not realize that not only Armenians born in Artsakh, not only the power elite of Armenia, take part in the development of such compromises. The entire Armenian people takes part, which, in this case, becomes the very Artsakh Armenians who are authorized and have the right to make decisions about the fate of Artsakh. In other words, neither the Armenian government nor the Armenian society noticed that in the 21st century Artsakh is not only a national security problem. Artsakh Armenianism, born as a result of the ability of the entire Armenian people to defend Artsakh, has also become a social, political and ideological concept, the meaning and significance of which is much broader and goes beyond the geographical borders of Artsakh.

- In other words, you consider the scenario voiced by Ter-Petrosyan to be unrealizable. Can you name the reasons?

The problem is that not only the opposition, but practically the entire political spectrum of Armenia, including the authorities, do not fully realize that formalizing any concessions in the form of a return to the realities of the last century is simply impossible. One could talk about concessions in the proposed terms and concepts in 1988, 1991 and even 1997, but not in the 21st century. Any political force and power, hostile states and centers of power trying to resort to blackmail in order to achieve concessions will inevitably face the mobilization of the entire Armenian people. During his meetings with Diaspora Armenians, for example, at the end of last year with the Armenian youth of Moscow, these sentiments were clearly manifested. I also talked with Armenian public figures and businessmen who also considered themselves “Artsakh”, since they had their contribution to the future of Artsakh: military service, knowledge and skills, investments. And, naturally, Artsakh and the Armenian power elite have reciprocal obligations to this wide circle of people who are not indifferent to the future of Artsakh. Protecting your investments, your hopes, is a natural reaction, and it is quite naive not to understand this. In light of the above, attempts to play the Artsakh card by any political force in Armenia will always end extremely poorly for it.

- What is Ter-Petrosyan guided by, remembering the old plans right now? Is it really the upcoming elections?

I think he's doing it as part of the game he's been asked to play. In other words, his latest actions were not inspired by him. He is smart and experienced enough not to realize the dangers and consequences of such statements. Ter-Petrosyan, just like Serzh Sargsyan or Gagik Tsarukyan, is a participant in some kind of political game, the goals and rules of which may not be fully understood. To call Levon Ter-Petrosyan an old man out of his mind, trying to prove he is right in 20 years, means trivializing the threats.

Ter-Petrosyan, asserting the need for concessions on the Armenian side, directly hints at the presence of reciprocal concessions from Azerbaijan on the negotiating table. At the same time, we do not know the content of these supposed reciprocal concessions. What can Azerbaijan actually agree to and what, in your opinion, is Azerbaijan discussing in negotiations with Armenia?

Over the 30 years that we have known Levon Ter-Petrosyan, I cannot remember a single case of the implementation of his forecasts and the implementation of the scenarios that he spoke about. For me, the statement about Azerbaijan’s readiness to make concessions is rather a sign that such a scenario is unrealizable. Azerbaijan, in reality, is not ready for concessions and is not going to make them. Concessions in Baku’s understanding mean its willingness to limit the size of Azerbaijan’s territorial expansion at the expense of Armenia. They are ready to negotiate and discuss the possibility of leaving Yerevan to the Armenian people as the capital of Ashkhar. And you should not treat such statements as a joke or absurdity.

- Question for a person living in Stepanakert. How could the surrender of, for example, 6 regions of Artsakh end?

We must clearly understand that surrendering even one square meter territory not as a result of hostilities will end with the loss of all of Artsakh and the collapse of Armenian statehood and power, both in Stepanakert and Yerevan. Armenia will not be able to fulfill its basic functions of ensuring the security of the people. You won't be able to convince old people, to raise children in a country that without a fight surrenders territory to the enemy, who in the 21st century, like a hundred years ago, cuts off the heads of old people and dead soldiers. The response to such behavior by the authorities is either leaving or being forced to take up arms. We all saw this during the April war, when, in response to the Armenian authorities’ lack of understanding of the essence of what was happening, the thoughtless statement about “800 hectares” led to the “Sasna Tsrer” crisis. Armenian lands were lost in Artsakh, the response and crisis unfolded in Yerevan.

Contrary to the prevailing opinion that the Artsakh issue has been resolved for Armenia, it seems that this is not the case as long as Armenian soldiers are dying on the border. And you still need to look for a way out...

The problem is that the world has changed, the security environment has changed. And besides the zones engulfed in war and peace, today there are gray zones in which there is neither peace nor war. Unfortunately, this is exactly our reality. And all we can do in such a situation is to minimize the risks and, accordingly, the number of losses. Until the dismantling of the power elite of Azerbaijan, which is Nazi by nature, through which destabilization is introduced into the region, the choice we have is this or that level of tension and conflict. There is no point in hoping for a change in the nature of Azerbaijani power without the focused efforts of the international community or the Armenian army. It is criminal to trust any agreements written with such a reality. However, today neither Russia, nor Turkey, nor Israel are interested in removing Ilham Aliyev’s regime from power. These centers of power are balancing the level of destabilization of the region in order to represent their interests. In such a situation, everything that Armenia and the Armenian people can do comes down to strengthening the economy, strengthening society in order to be able to stop attempts at pressure and simply blackmail with the possibility of war. “If you want peace, prepare for war” is an old truth that does not cease to be correct. This is the only way to minimize our losses. To follow illusory hopes means choosing the path that leads to great blood.

In other words, it is in reality impossible to stop being part of the gray zone by signing a compromise agreement with Azerbaijan and surrendering some territories.

In conditions when the actors playing in the region are betting on destabilization and preserving the rules of the game in the gray zone, this is definitely impossible. In such geopolitical conditions and scenario, the surrender of at least one region threatens the loss of all of Artsakh and at least the Meghri corridor.

Yes, but there is another factor. Armenia has its own function, a role assigned by the same and other external players. And in this light, they cannot be interested in the disappearance, weakening of the Armenian factor and the concomitant strengthening of Azerbaijan...

This is true, however, for external forces the difference between Armenia with Artsakh and Armenia without Artsakh is extremely small. Armenia will fulfill its geopolitical function in both cases. Artsakh is important for Armenia, for the future of Armenians. By fighting for Artsakh, we are fighting only for ourselves and our own future.

David STEPANYAN, Arminfo

Rachya ARZUMANYAN
Director of the Center for Strategic
"Ashkhar" research
Stepanakert

Assessing the possibilities of the Artsakh settlement on the basis of the Madrid principles developed in the 90s, it is necessary to recognize that they do not correspond to the realities of the security environment of the 21st century. The Madrid principles reflect the military-political realities that developed in the region immediately after the victory of the Armenian side in the Artsakh War and the conclusion of a truce at the request of the Azerbaijani side.

However, over the past decades the security environment has undergone dramatic changes, forcing settlement parties to consider developing new settlement principles and philosophies. The scope of the article allows us to draw attention to only some elements of this rethinking.

First of all, it is necessary to realize that in the security environment of the 21st century there is a change in the meaning and significance of the concept of “settlement”. If, within the framework of the traditional conflict model, settlement was understood as the achievement of peace between the conflicting parties, secured by the appropriate international treaty, in the new conditions such an understanding of the settlement turns out to be inadequate. In many regions of the world and conflicts, it is necessary to distinguish not only the state of war or peace, but also “neither war nor peace.” The third, “hybrid” state in the characterization of conflicts and relationships between actors forms a separate category in the conceptual and categorical apparatus, with the help of which the challenges and threats of the security environment of the 21st century are described.

In the 90s, the truce reached within the framework of the Artsakh settlement was considered a “temporary” solution, which should be replaced by peace (or a new war). This vision of the situation and expectations are, in many respects, a consequence of the narrowness of the methodological basis, built on the basis classic model conflict. Moreover, the stability and longevity of the achieved truce and the status quo, based mainly on the military balance of the warring parties, are perceived as a deviation from the norm. Echoes of such an outdated understanding of the conflict can be heard in a number of statements by world powers on the Artsakh settlement.

However, in the current security environment, the state of “no war, no peace” is considered as a variant of the norm, and “frozen” conflicts and “gray zones” are one of the recognized forms of military-political reality, formalized as a separate category. The consequence of revising the classification system, typology of conflicts and the state of the security environment are changes in the meaning and meaning of the term “settlement”, which in turn requires a rethinking of the goals of settlement. In the new conditions, settlement means not only and not so much the achievement of peace enshrined in the framework of international law. Such goals are unattainable for most conflicts in the Greater Middle East region, since the international community and centers of power lack effective mechanisms that would allow achieving final peace and force the parties to fulfill their obligations over a long period of time to achieve such a state of peace or a new war, . In the security environment of the 21st century, we have to speak not in terms of a final settlement, but an acceptable one, when it remains possible to control the conflict, containing it within certain limits and preventing it from escalating into full-scale military action. Regional and geopolitical actors, international institutions in the new conditions are forced to solve the problem of preventing the emergence of black zones in the world political system. In such zones, controllability is lost, there are no capable authorities and actors who would be able to take responsibility for maintaining order and controllability in the controlled territory, as well as ensuring the basic needs of the population in the field of security and life support. In other words, the international community turns out to be interested in the existence of actors who would be ready to take on and provide basic functions government controlled. At the same time, issues of international legitimacy and recognition, while continuing to play an important role, are no longer considered as decisive. In the security environment of the 21st century, the goal is to prevent the chaotization of the territory in which the conflict is unfolding, the rise to power of radical religious and extremist groups that deny the foundations of the existing international order.

Looking at the South Caucasus and the Artsakh problem through these methodological lenses requires a reassessment of both the problem itself and the already achieved settlement, as well as the possibilities for improving the existing regional security system. The qualitatively changed security environment requires the development of a new philosophy and principles, as well as a new strategy for the Artsakh settlement. Moreover, all three components of the strategic triad need to be revised, when it is necessary to reformulate goals, determine methods and means of achieving them, as well as resources that can be involved in the settlement process.

The experience of recent decades shows that both the resources of geopolitical centers of power and the methods and means used are limited. Suffice it to recall the Syrian crisis or the crisis around Ukraine, in which world powers are unable to fulfill the role of guarantors of international law. In the 21st century, world powers have repeatedly lost control over the initiated processes, making it impossible to implement the planned action plan. They were unable to force the parties to fulfill their obligations within the framework of the agreements reached. Such limited capabilities of geopolitical centers are objective, given the growing number of conflicts against the backdrop of discussions about the need to revise the existing and form a new international order. Today, none of the regional or geopolitical centers of power is able to provide comprehensive security guarantees to the parties to the conflict or force them to fulfill their obligations.

In developing a new resolution philosophy, it is important to recognize that not all conflicts can be resolved within the existing security environment. Such awareness should be regarded as positive knowledge. Recognizing the possibility of “knots” in the world political system that cannot be untied, and refusing to try to completely untie them will reduce the risk of creating new problems. The localization of loci of the security environment, in which an escalation of tension out of control is possible, should be regarded as a positive result and activity. The regional security system of the South Caucasus, the Caucasus as a whole, of which the Artsakh settlement is an element, should be classified as such nodes.

In a turbulent security environment and narrow horizons for strategic foresight, attempts at long-term planning are futile. As a consequence, the philosophy of the Madrid principles, which assumes a final and complete settlement within the framework of a multi-stage plan, turns out to be inadequate. In these circumstances, it makes sense to think about the philosophy of “small steps” and the corresponding principles and strategy. The goal of settlement in this case is to move towards solving local and private problems in small steps and avoiding actions and initiatives that could lead to destabilization.

Within the framework of this approach, a strategy built on measures to build trust at the local level, the micro level, seems promising. In a sense, we can talk about a new interpretation of the concept of a “phased approach” used in the Madrid principles. However, in this case, it is applied not within the framework of a strategy involving a comprehensive solution, but locally through the implementation of micro-steps, each of which, at a minimum, does not worsen the existing balance of power. The new philosophy and principles should give preference to activity at the micro level, involving the forces and capabilities of the actors in the regional security system themselves. In this case, geopolitical centers of power and security guarantors need to decide on a less costly and more simple task– accompany and monitor processes, facilitate the implementation of steps and initiatives that do not require a radical revision of the existing regional security system. In other words, preference is given not to transformation processes, but to evolution unfolding locally and on a short time scale.

This interpretation of a phased approach to resolving the Artsakh problem seems to be the only possible at the present time and makes it possible to avoid an unintentional escalation of the conflict. In this case the problems international recognition, other elements of the final settlement, which are at the basis of the existing balance of power in the Armenian-Azerbaijani confrontation, are being pushed into the distant future, when changes in societies and the security environment will make it possible to pose these problems. This range of issues is being developed only in theoretical terms, which does not imply implementation in the foreseeable future. The main attention and resources of the international community are focused on supporting the immediate next “small step” and cutting off actions and initiatives that upset the existing balance.

It is important to understand that we're talking about not about the conservation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, which is fraught with an increase in internal tension and an explosion, but about small changes and balancing on the brink of what is possible and acceptable for societies. Thus, both individual societies and the regional security system as a whole are pushed towards evolutionary rather than revolutionary development. In this sense, we can talk about an ecological, holistic approach to the development of the regional security system of the South Caucasus.

Small steps can be supported and strengthened by macro-level initiatives. For example, if there is a consensus between the centers of power, the tasks of preventing the entry of new weapons systems into the region, stopping or reducing the pace of the arms race, etc. can be set and solved. In this case, we can talk about two parallel processes. The first develops at the micro level, in particular, as part of measures to build trust between warring parties, the second - at the macro level and is implemented by centers of power, with the aim of creating conditions that would reduce the likelihood of escalation of tension and the resumption of large-scale hostilities.

Of course, both the settlement itself as a whole and both processes can be successful if there is the will and desire to avoid new war. The latter is critically important, since any philosophy and the principles and strategy built on it are meaningful and constructive if all actors and centers of power have the intention and will to follow the path of settlement, but not confrontation. The lack of will for peace and the focus on using a military instrument to resolve the conflict makes any initiatives aimed at achieving peace meaningless.

If there is a will for peace, priority should be given to the ability of the states of the region to maintain the regional security system of the South Caucasus without the direct participation of centers of power. In conditions of limited resources, availability large quantity conflicts, initiatives that involve immediate and direct intervention by external actors, in particular, the deployment of peacekeeping forces in the region, should be considered unrealizable. Currently, the states of the region are able to ensure the balance of power in the region, being security providers. The takeover of security functions directly by the international community and centers of power will inevitably turn the countries of the region from providers of security into consumers of security, which in every sense can be costly. The experience of Afghanistan and the Middle East clearly shows how costly and inconsistent in the results achieved can be direct intervention, the creation and direct support of a regional security system by a geopolitical center of power. This strategy creates many more new problems than it solves existing ones.

It is also necessary to soberly assess the currently available alternatives and possible future scenarios for the region. New initiatives may either seek to maintain the existing balance and status quo, or become a trigger for the escalation of tensions. Until an acceptable level of trust is achieved in the region, allowing the warring parties to think about reducing the level of hostility, discussions about any other alternatives should be considered divorced from reality. Attempts to artificially speed up processes and conclude an agreement that societies will not be ready to accept, instead of stabilization, will lead to an escalation of tension and a large-scale war, which for the Armenian side will be of an existential nature. Today, the top political leadership of Azerbaijan does not hide that the goal is not only the destruction of the NKR, but also, for example, the “return of Irevan.” The Armenian states in such a situation have no right to illusions and defeat.

Thus, the arguments discussed above are intended to show that the existing settlement philosophy and Madrid principles must be replaced by new ones, the development of which is a complex task that needs to be correctly formulated. In particular, we can talk about an approach that does not involve a comprehensive and final settlement, but “small steps” and context-sensitive initiatives. In the emerging security environment, we may not be talking about an effective, but working strategy, which, while maintaining the existing balance of power and level of security, allows the regional security system to move towards a more sustainable and stable state, including through the implementation of confidence-building measures in the region.

For traditional and nonlinear conflict models, see the corresponding section in the work. Arzumanyan, Rachya V.Edge of chaos. The nonlinearity paradigm and the security environment of the 21st century. Publishing house "Regnum", Series Selecta XIX, Moscow, 2012. 598 pp.

Gray, Colin S.Perspectives on Strategy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, May 2013; Gray, Colin S. Categorical Confusion? The Strategic Implications of Recognizing Challenges either as Irregular or Traditional. Carlisle, PA: United States Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, February 24, 2012; Arzumanyan, RachyaIN. Strategyirregularwars: theoryAndpracticeapplications. Theoretical and strategic problems of conceptualization, religious and military-political relations in the operational environment of irregular warfare/ under general editorship A.B. Mikhailovsky. – M.: ANO TsSOiP, 2015. – 315 p. (- New strategy, 4).

Arzumanyan,Irregular war strategy.

Kissinger, Henry. World Order. New York: Penguin, 2014. For a short review of the book, see Arzumanyan, Rachya V.“Kissinger and the 21st Century World Order,” short review based on Henry Kissinger's book “World Order,” Centerstrategic assessments and forecasts, Moscow, December 22, 2014.

See the corresponding section in the work Arzumanyan,Edge of chaos.

The situation in Yerevan has come close to the brink. It remains tense to observe, participate, empathize, but the people of Yerevan and the authorities really influence the processes. Poeto a couple of general points.

1. It is necessary to name the Armenian Gapons, who blew up the situation that was almost under control, leading the people into the already set snares of violent actions. They always ended badly, but it would be nice for the future for names to be announced.

2. I have written more than once that what is happening in Yerevan is a continuation of the April war. And if we were able to maintain the situation on the front line thanks largely to young guys, sometimes armed only with sapper shovels against special forces, now we need to maintain the situation in Yerevan, the capital of Armeniandom. Moreover, in both cases, the threat can only be dealt with within the framework of all-Armenian efforts. Like the April War, the crisis in Yerevan can only be overcome through the efforts of the entire Armenian community. The opportunities for private solutions within the RA have been missed.

3. Maintaining the situation in Yerevan is a simpler task in terms of physical security risks, and people who took to the streets of Yerevan risk incomparably less than those who met the Azeris in positions. If the soldiers managed to cope, then Yerevan must also cope, especially since there is basically no way out. The first step on this path, in my opinion, should be the exclusion of violent scenarios in which the public has no chance of resisting the security forces and armed gangs of oligarchs.

4. Armenian politicians, regardless of color, orientation, ideological preferences, etc., need to unite and restore a public political format (peaceful national rallies). It is necessary to divert the energy of the people from provocative power scenarios, prevent the overthrow of power by force and preserve Armenian statehood. Armenian statehood was under threat, and not just the power and property of the current power elite. To paraphrase a well-known saying, we must do everything so that today on the streets of Yerevan, when aiming at, we know who, we don’t end up hitting the Armenian people and statehood. It cannot be allowed to dirty water They also threw out the child. This is the main goal of the designers, I’m sure.

5. What is happening today in Yerevan is not a revolution or a civil war, but an attempt at a coup, as a result of which one group of oligarchs will be replaced by others by the planners. A revolution implies a change in forms of ownership, government, ideology - nothing like that exists or is expected. This is not a civil war and cannot become one.

This means we must respond asymmetrically and take steps opposite to those to which the destroyers are pushing. To respond to the attempt to implement forceful scenarios - by organizing a peaceful political process that will make it possible to bring before the Armenian court those responsible for what is happening, regardless of positions, weight and capital, etc.

Rachya Arzumanyan

Stepanakert

Partner news (RedTram)

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Kostan Zaryan and the Armenian Spiritual Tradition

I.

Despite the originality and scale of Kostan Zaryan, a somewhat paradoxical situation has developed around his name. To say that Zaryan has been forgotten would be wrong - always, even in the most difficult years of the 20th century, there was a circle of those who were aware of the role and significance of his personality. The narrowness of this circle in the past and present characterizes, rather, not Zaryan himself, but the state Armenian world, for which the writer still remains largely incomprehensible.

There are objective and subjective reasons for the current situation. The objective ones, of course, include the ineradicable toxicity of the environment surrounding geniuses. This is not only an Armenian phenomenon: everyone who opened new horizons brought back eternal truths from oblivion and oblivion, giving them new life and new sound, had a similar fate. Another objective circumstance should be recognized as the era in which Zaryan worked, living the same life as the twentieth century, torn to pieces, filled with fear, genocide, and attempts to implement totalitarian social utopias.

Subjective factors include creative destiny Zaryan and, of course, his language. A child of his era and his circle, Zaryan was practically cut off from his native language, and his return to the Armenian world, to its spiritual origins, the heritage of his ancestors, took place through Grabar, the richness and depth of which is incomparable with Ashkharabar. Almost all creations of the Armenian language are written on the grabar. written culture, included in the spiritual treasury of humanity. Reliance on the spiritual experience of thousands of years, subsequently supplemented by Ashkharabar, gives Zaryan’s work depth and an incomparable flavor, when there is a feeling of fluency in the author’s possession of the magic of the Armenian language, which is largely lost today. All of Zaryan’s poetic language, woven from metaphors, is light, airy and leaves a feeling of soaring in the heights, although the pleasure of reading requires effort and strain of spiritual strength, and translation turns into a job of enormous complexity. Without such a deep command of the language, without a sense of its internal rhythm and subtle vibrations, Zaryan would not have been able to approach the problems that he had been thinking about all his life. Probably, only in this way and only in such language could one pick up the connection of times that was disintegrating before his eyes.

Zaryan’s texts are characterized by an inexplicable appeal and mystery of the unsaid, hidden from a superficial glance behind subtle associations and subtexts, based on the deep layers of Armenian self-awareness. Entirely belonging to the 20th century, Zaryan, nevertheless, was able to recreate in his soul almost the entire history of the Armenian spirit, plunge into the hidden and timeless layers of Armenian existence, understand its meaning and purpose.

“Thought is the homeland. An irresistible desire to find the sources of our springs in our own mountains. This is the thirst to create your Gods...”

Zaryan’s future author’s style was formed by repeating the natural path of development of Armenian literature. The poet's sensitivity to the spiritual world and intuition were harmoniously combined with the universality and encyclopedicism of classical humanitarian education and the analytical power of the Western world. This allowed him to achieve a holistic perception of the era, place and role of the Armenian people in it.

“We don’t have to wait for strangers to explain us to us. Armenian art, Armenian literature, Armenian culture must return to their fundamental values.”

Without any visible effort, he unfolds the images of his era with a few precise and verified strokes, creating, if necessary, new words and concepts, formalizing the thousand-year spiritual experience of the Armenian world in the language and style of the new time. And not only Armenian - in the hidden folds of the poet’s soul one can feel the power and depth of the entire European world and the European spiritual Tradition, although it was through criticism of the West and Faustian (Western) man that Zaryan almost single-handedly built the Armenian world anew.

Behind external simplicity and the elegance of Zaryan’s texts hide the internal complexity and diversity, which is typical for creators who rely on the spiritual Tradition. The combination of simplicity and internal complexity is inherent primarily in all sacred texts designed to maintain balance and prevent catastrophic scenarios for the development of the world. Such simplicity has nothing to do with simplification and dangerous attempts to make the spiritual world more accessible through “popular” interpretations.

The separation of the messianic ideas characteristic of Russian religious consciousness from the spiritual basis, their fusion with the ideas of Marx, taken out of the context of Western culture, gave birth to Bolshevism - an explosive mixture of incredible power, which led to a real threat of collapse and disappearance of the Russian world. A Simplified Understanding of the Richest Spiritual Experience German people, accumulated over the centuries by its philosophers, musicians, and military men, led to German Nazism.

Western Europe as a whole, it was never able to overcome the consequences of the Enlightenment and found itself buried under the weight of material civilization. The internal structure of the European world began to crumble, the metaphor of which was not the harmonious hierarchy of the micro- and macrocosm and the music of the spheres, but a rhizome that did not recognize value and meaning, structure and hierarchy, beginning and end, and, therefore, heredity and history. European culture entered the twilight era of ethereal shadows, by definition deprived of the ability to create, but nevertheless possessing very real and material force and power.

The Armenian world turned out to be broken by the Genocide and the Soviet system imposed from outside. Once again, a stopped, unmanifested destiny, a failed leap of the Armenian spirit, inevitably had to give rise to ideology and practical military-philosophical teaching to save the fragments of the Armenian world (Nzhdeh, Hayk Asatryan and others). Due to the need to solve urgent problems of survival, Nzhdeh remained a warrior, politician and organizer. He had to deal directly with the formation of ideological and political spheres life of the Armenians. Maintaining and continuing the Armenian spiritual Tradition required a completely different inner attitude and detachment. This work fell on the shoulders of people like Zaryan - they did not allow the chain of Tradition to completely disintegrate and preserved for us a chance for revival, hope for dawn in the darkest and coldest years of the faded moon and the sun that has not yet risen.

In order to see and have time to put on a sheet of paper, canvas or stone the vision of the highest Armenia, the artist and creator must fall out of the everyday flow of Armenian time. Over the past millennia, such care has been carried out through spiritual practices refined over the centuries. The most famous of them was the path of hermitage and monasticism, which, however, did not correspond to the Armenian reality of the 20th century. The blow turned out to be too strong even for the Armenian world, accustomed to blood and suffering - having withdrawn into himself, the genius sometimes lost his way back or did not want to return, and the 20th century, instead of a hermit’s cell, placed him in a psychiatric hospital. So Komitas fell silent, withdrew into himself, unable to express the Armenian pain. Another path, almost forgotten by the West, is the path of a spiritual wanderer who is looking for answers to questions in the world. eternal questions. Zaryan's path.

II.

Attempts to fit into the Western system of concepts that special worldview, which we here call the world of the Armenian spiritual Tradition, have so far proven unconvincing. In all such systems and theories, serious contradictions arose. At the same time, deep researchers could not help but understand that such “material resistance” is an indirect sign of the formation of some other, original reality by the Armenian world and the Armenian Highlands. Toynbee's attempts to find Armenia's place in the system of civilizations ended with the creation of a separate “relict” Armenian civilization. The Armenian world did not want to meet the criteria of one or another culture introduced by Spengler, whose work was well known to Zaryan. Arguing about the limitations of Spengler's system of cultures, Zaryan talks about a separate Armenian culture and a person whom he calls Arayakan or Armenakan - a person who has a unique spiritual experience, his own methods of cognizing the macrocosm and microcosm.

“In my opinion, the concept magical art Spengler’s work is quite chaotic,” wrote Zaryan. - Spengler is like travelers who visit Japan or China for the first time, and for them all faces look alike. Armenian case. This is a special approach to life and space. It is completely different from Byzantine, and from Arabic, and from Jewish. Not “cave”, but Arayakan. The triangle of the pyramid wants to be visible from any edge of the desert in order to demonstrate the presence of a mummy, the flight of the Gothic dome is directed towards the infinite, and the Byzantine, as Strzygovsky rightly notes, back inwards, the roof of the Greco-Roman building is simply a shelter. The temple with an Armenian octagonal dome embodies the symbol of a balanced, peaceful Armenian soul, taking shape human body, - joining two hands above his head, it pierces into infinity, forming one whole with it...”

According to Zaryan, one of the fundamental principles of the Armenian world is the desire to maintain balance and harmony between the spiritual and material worlds. They are not opposed or subordinate, but interact and mutually influence each other, which gives the concepts of time and development a slightly different meaning and suggests special relationship with time. The Armenian world and the Armenian man - Arayakan or Armenakan, “not noticed by the Spenglers”, are different from the types introduced by the German philosopher - classical, gothic and magical.

“If Apollonian is ·, Gothic is ·, magical is a decoration and a mask, then Arayakan is a bright pose of a balanced person with his arms crossed over his chest.

The Armenian temple synthesizes the heavenly and the earthly (in our language these terms differ only by one letter). This is not a place for meetings, it is a temple where a person meets a deity.

He puts into action an arc, an arch supported by columns, connecting his construction batch into integrity. It does not torture the stones, like a Gothic cathedral, to give them dynamics, but with its harmonious, circular, octagonal structure it expresses the weight of the world concentrated in the center - it is built on a hill or on a mountainside, so that the symbol of unity is always before the eyes.”

Awareness of the uniqueness of the Armenian world and the Armenian spiritual Tradition makes it possible to explain the inevitable difficulties when translating into other languages ​​the fundamental concepts on the basis of which the entire edifice of Armenian civilization and culture is built. For example, the concept Tsegh, often used by Zaryan, is translated into Russian as “genus”. However, the concept of “gender” in the Russian language covers only a small part of the semantic field that in Armenian covers the concept of Tsegh.

Attempts to use the terms “people” and “nation” can also hardly be called a successful solution. Relatively young, they are completely unsuitable for “naming” and “naming” that reality, which in Armenian is called “Tsegh”. In Western and, to a lesser extent, Russian consciousness, this reality turns out to be split and divided into several related concepts - clan, tribe, people, nation - which to some extent reflects the fact of splitting and fragmentation of the corresponding worlds.

“Kin is our authenticity. That depth where all creative possibilities, all sources of primordial forces, all layers of values ​​accumulate.

Rod is our limitlessness. A way of being, a way of becoming and existing. The main root, capable of absorbing and retaining all the delicate juices of its native land. A tree that, even when transplanted, retains its way of drinking the warmth of the sun and the freshness of the rains, its rustle of conversations with the winds and the trembling of branches washed by moonlight.

Genus is a mysterious way of being that has been formed over centuries, with whose help today’s Cosmos is perceived and ordered.

History plows the surface of the earth, shakes and torments the body of the people, rushes, disappears in clouds of dust, but the race remains. He is a capacious cave, where heroic courage has lived and always will live.

And also the genus is the spirit. The inner sun that illuminates the world. The power that participates in the construction of the Universe.”

So, in the Armenian world, Tsegh denotes reality, irreducible to history, destinies, and the will of its representatives. This is not, to one degree or another, an artificial design of a new society (nation) based on the factors of blood, territory, religion, etc. Unlike traditional societies, the legitimacy of which was based on the legendary past and the sphere of the divine, new societies built and are building their legitimacy in generally on the basis of mutual recognition of each other. Thus, the task of creating a new society ceases to be the prerogative of divine providence and providence and becomes the work of man, his mind and will.

New communities not rooted in history or soil could, if necessary, be formed quite arbitrarily. Peoples with a thousand-year history and culture managed to adapt to changing times through painful transformations (revolutions). The Armenian world followed the third path - the path of adaptation, when the manifested forms modern nation or the state continues to live and develop another, higher and deeper reality.

The qualitative complexity and diversity of the Armenian world allow us to reproduce all the necessary attributes new era. Moreover, we are not talking about mimicry, when changes concern only external forms, but adaptation, when all aspects of life in the Armenian world, including such fundamental ones as language, change and are brought into line with time. The ability to adapt in this way provides unique flexibility and virtually inexhaustible opportunities to develop and adapt to new times without losing the unique features of Armenian existence. Language, customs and rituals change and become obsolete religious systems and gods, but the Armenian world remains, as diverse and recognizable as thousands of years ago, since the foundations of Armenian existence, its style and form of self-expression remain unchanged. And it doesn’t matter where Khachaturian’s music is heard, what Parajanov devotes his films to, what Charles Aznavour sings about - there is a common view of the world that, like the sound of a duduk or the taste of a pomegranate, cannot be confused with anything else.

“Only the art of great cultures, which has ceased to be exclusively art, but has turned into a real embodiment and expression of a deep idea, can have a style. Perhaps, since its internal and external structure is initially built on stable relationships, its mission, starting from the laying of the first stones, is obvious and absolute.”

It is worth agreeing with Zaryan that such a world is able to live and develop only through continuous creation and creativity, connecting and transforming two Cosmos - microcosm and macrocosm. The Armenian and his world are alive insofar as his creative creative genius, responsible for harmony and internal balance, is alive.

“However, while the material world is always subject to destruction, spiritual world hides and retains a certain invisible orderliness. It is in it that the artist lives, like a stork in its high nest.

Let it be known that we carry our Armenia within us, like space, like destiny. This is the primordial spirituality associated with the people - it is located in the folds of our being, it inspires our creative flight.

And no matter how much the corrupted lions roar in a hoarse voice, tyrannizing and tormenting the conquered country, they are not able to extinguish its Spirit.

Spirit in highest degree mythical and epic. In art and poetry, he organizes the basic aspirations of the soul and our relationship with the cosmos. It is he who unearths the depths of human personality, revealing it higher abilities and placing the bequeathed mission on a pedestal.

He contrasts the principles of production and possession with the principles of being, creation, and creation.”

III.

According to Zaryan, one of the fundamental differences between the Armenian and European worlds is that the Armenian world does not freeze, fascinated by the inevitability of death, but overcomes it with the idea of ​​​​rebirth. Here Mher the Younger emerges from the stone, Ara the Beautiful is reborn, and the Cross from a symbol of death and suffering turns into a fruit-bearing tree of life.

The decline and decrepitude of the manifested Armenian world is accompanied by the death of not only the old gods, but also the dominant myths. Zaryan and other figures of the failed Armenian Renaissance stated that the old myths are dead. Attempts to preserve frozen forms or go back by resuscitating archaic myths are doomed to failure and can be deadly, as fascism and Bolshevism proved. When the world of the manifest is hopelessly twisted and distorted, the only unclouded source of inspiration and creativity remains the world of the unmanifest, rooted in the collective unconscious of the people.

There is freedom driving force any culture. Being unconditional and eternal, freedom initially acted as an attribute, a property of the individual’s movement in his own way. spiritual path. In the European world, the concept of freedom was transformed from an attribute into an independent value - absolute personal freedom, when any obligations and connections, including spiritual ones, turned into shackles. Such a society inevitably moves towards the loss of Tradition.

The problem of absolute personal freedom is alien to the Armenian world, which does not oppose, but closely links the spiritual and material. Here it still remains an attribute - freedom for daily and hourly creativity and creation. Even today, when Armenia has turned into a small luminous fragment, when, with the confused smile of a lost old man-child, the Armenian people are trying to discern through the fog of oblivion the path to the once boundless sunny Armenian world, creativity still lives in every Armenian. What would Ike's descendant and heir undertake? sunny world, - making coffee or designing rocket technology, renovating an apartment or designing clothes - the inner light of heritage breaks through the layers of times and cultures. “Scratch an Armenian and you will see Ararat rising inside him,” Zaryan asserted.

Freedom in the Armenian world is a double-edged sword, it allows you to accept Active participation in their future and bear responsibility for it, which ultimately leads to shared responsibility for the fate of their world, its unfolding in history. The peoples of the “magical culture” have a strikingly different image of the world, their fate and mission are predetermined by supreme powers. This difference is clearly visible in the example of the Torah, the Koran, and some other sacred texts, where covenants and commandments are descended from above to a person, subject to unconditional and unquestioning fulfillment. The relationship between the spiritual world and the human world is strictly hierarchical here. A priori, it is believed that a person, a people, is not able to cope with their fate and, being left to their own devices, will descend and lose contact with the spiritual world.

According to Zaryan, the Armenian world has the ability to influence the formation of relationships and the connection between the world of spiritual and human and represents a special reality. The Armenians performed the functions of the Prometheus of the coming era. When the classical pagan world was dying, it was the Armenian world that held the disintegrating connection of times, preserving the legacy of the passing one for the new era. The Armenian world found itself close to both the Eastern tradition of contemplation and inner spiritual work, and Western dynamism and mastery of the material world. Special role and the status of the Armenian world are reflected both in Armenian mythology and in the dogma of the AAC. Unfortunately, this greatness is commensurate only with the depth of the gaping holes in our memory.

It has been centuries since the keys to the secrets of the divinely inspired Armenian alphabet. Shnorali also wrote with deep sadness that he could not find a single worthy Armenian to give him the keys and seals of Mashtotsev’s letters. What do the khazy notes carry with them, numb witnesses to the heights of the Armenian spirit, returned centuries later by the genius of Komitas, but still not fully understood? The sharakans fell silent, grass grew on the pointed domes of the monastery. We are not able to read and understand “Sasna Tsrer”, we have not understood the messages to the future of the khachkar and matakh, we have not peered closely at the patterns of chorans on the shabby pages, we have not felt, reverently holding our breath, the stone of Zvartnots. Not for the sake of detailed museum information, but for the sake of a leap into the future, which will at the same time be a return to normal.

Modern Armenians have almost completely lost their sense of responsibility for the world they create. Zaryan was probably right when he said that Armenians are not yet ready to know themselves and appreciate the power that lies in the Armenian world. The twentieth century became the apotheosis of weakness, spiritual blindness and degradation of the Armenian world; Armenians lost the understanding that they themselves build their world and determine their destiny. Attempts to look in the outside world and external forces for the causes of the catastrophe that befell the Armenians at the beginning of the century became a clear symptom of this dangerous spiritual illness. It is no coincidence that all the creative geniuses of the Armenian world have always and at all times spoken about the need to seek meaning and strength within their world, to build it relying on their own spiritual resources, which at the same time become truly inexhaustible.

From the heights of the past years, we look not down, but up from the depths of oblivion. We simply cannot believe in our own heritage. It looks like the deeds of giants, titans, legendary and great nations that have sunk into oblivion. The glory of the builders of the Shamiram canal and the Van fortress is given to anyone, just to get away from the thought that has become unbearable - this is our heritage and the deeds of the Armenian spirit. The unquenchable torch of the Armenian spirit burns in the hand of an ancestor who has gone into stone, waiting for the hour when a descendant will pick it up and light the fire of a new Armenian time.

Responsibility for the connection between spiritual and human worlds involves a special relationship with movement and time. The Armenian world feels and knows itself only in development and continuous change, when staticity is tantamount to the spiritual and then physical death of the people. The Armenian world manages to avoid the poorly understood relativism characteristic of the modern Western world, since the absolute point, the pole, the Armenian Highlands, is preserved. Despite the temporary physical loss of most of the Highlands, it is precisely this that is the unshakable and timeless basis of Armenian existence, around which the Armenian world is revived and shaped over and over again. An Armenian is connected with the Highlands by a deeply personal and inexpressible relationship, when any pain, unforeseen events associated with the Highlands resonate in his soul, make him shudder and, even if for a moment, break out of the flow of time, feel like a part of a single whole - the Armenian world. And it is not without reason that all Armenian children at all times anxiously await the meeting with Ararat, they have drawn and will continue to draw it, driving into a dead end psychoanalysts who are trying to find an explanation for the irrational and inexplicable craving of our children for the Mountain and the Highlands. In the antediluvian times of the first manifestation of the Armenian world and the appearance of the Armenian, his soul merged with the Highlands into a single whole. For modern Armenians, this fact has largely been repressed into the collective unconscious. However, the next revival of the Armenian world through the creation of new myths and the transformation of gods will inevitably again manifest and shape the Armenian perception of the Highlands.

“Our sky, our infinity rests on the tops of our mountains,” Zaryan reminds us. - Where our Gods still live. Where they wait. They are waiting for great spiritual achievements, a great spiritual epic song, for which the Armenian is not yet ready, but with the inspiration of which his history is written.”

Rachya Arzumanyan was born in Artsakh. Received higher education and completed graduate school in Russia - specialty systemology, complex systems. In 1994-95, defended his PhD thesis in St. Petersburg and returned to Artsakh. In 1995-2001, active service in the ranks of the NKR Defense Army. Currently an expert of official structures on national security issues and information technologies. Teaches at Artsakh State University.