Film director: Armenia wants to be independent country or colony?

Professor and film director Ruben Babayan has said that Armenian people and society have always had a choice.

“Do we want to be an independent country or a developed colony with great autonomy? We tried to analyse the cause of all the misfortunes that have happened to our people for more than 100 years,” Babayan told 1in.TV channel, Caliber.Az reports.

“I understand that perhaps the reason is our traditional thinking. I'll try to explain what it is. I think it’s not a secret that the best option was the one that Levon Ter-Petrosyan [Armenian first president] once proposed. Why did he lose? There were very simple explanations that he was defeated by Vazgen Sargsyan [Armenian former prime minister], Robert Kocharyan [ex-president], Serzh Sargsyan [ex-president] and Arkadi Ghukasyan [former foreign minister of Garabagh]. Surely not, Levon Ter-Petrosyan was defeated by our traditional thinking. Let us remember numerous intellectuals who opposed him and his programmes,” the professor said.

“What is traditional thinking? We are surrounded by enemies, and our only hope is Russia, regardless of what Russia wants to be: democratic or dictatorial, it is our only hope. Then this hope is not justified, accusations are made, but no attempt is made to change this traditional thinking. We did not analyse terrorist Nairi Hunanyan’s phenomenon [participant in the terrorist attack in the Armenian parliament]. We only condemned him, calling him a murderer and a terrorist,” he noted.

“What fuels this terrorism? If we analyse this, we will understand that Nairi Hunanyan also took into account traditional thinking, where terrorism is our national value. While condemning Nairi Hunanyan, this thinking will not be changed. Even today there are groups of people who are ready to take such steps. So I think that in general, before treating any disease, it is necessary to make a correct diagnosis,” the film director said.

“The first duty of every government is responsibility to its people, rather than to ideas, allies, etc. When you take on this responsibility, it means that you become the master of everything. Here we must compare our demands with our possibilities because beautiful words, patriotic appeals and toasts are very pleasant, but in fact, when they are not based on real strength and opportunity, it brings misfortune. As an excuse, we constantly see the following words in our history: they wanted to do good deeds,” he said.

“This is not an excuse. Exoneration may be the result, and the result today is tragic. It is unbearable. Refusal of all kinds of contacts is presented as the greatest adherence to principles. Is this integrity? Is this the result? I'm not just talking about recent incidents. The 2020 war also began because the government took such an uncompromising position. In fact, we saw the result. Why do I think so, because it was another basis of ideology - national thinking. This thinking should be eradicated,” Babayan said.

“During that period, Azerbaijan offered the broadest autonomy, before the 44-day second Garabagh war, and we refused - that's a fact. The fact is that we could not understand that three principles proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group, peace negotiations, self-determination, territorial integrity, could actually be implemented. In essence, this meant that Garabagh is de facto independent and de jure part of Azerbaijan, but the map, the paper, is more important for us,” he added.

“As for those who got rich, I have been to Garabagh a lot and saw these castles. I met with many people from Garabagh and I know who was rich there. I am aware of the situation in those liberated or occupied territories, those mines, those hydroelectric power stations, those fields where wheat was not sown, as well as other facilities, profit was divided among rich men. Ordinary people received nothing,” Babayan noted.

“Some people must be punished for treason to establish the country. Will these people ever think that they are committing treason? Unfortunately not. When collaborating with the intelligence services of other country, they consider this quite normal. I think that they even compete with each other to see who serves better. We remember the rallies which were aimed at our northern neighbour rather than the interests of our people,” he said.

“This is a certain part of traditional thinking. It is enough to try to convince others that we will be good servants to you. We must eradicate this traditional thinking to get out of this situation. This should not be presented as a national value, as our traditional orientation. Anyone who tries to bring Armenia to a more adequate state should not be considered a traitor,” Babayan said.