Բոստոնում տեղակայված «The Armenian Mirror Spectator» կայքում, որը Սփյուռքի ամենահեղինակավոր և ազատամիտ հրապարակախոսական հարթակներից մեկն է, լույս է տեսել Լևոն Տեր-Պետրոսյանի «Ապացուցվածը և անապացուցելին» հոդվածի անգլերեն թարգմանությունը: Նկատի ունենալով, որ դա կարող է հետաքրքրել անգլերենին տիրապետող մեր ընթերցողներին, ստորև հրապարակում ենք այն:
iLur
The Proven and the Unprovable
By The Armenian Mirror Spectator
May 6, 2022
By Levon Ter-Petrossian
Part 1
That the policy of rejecting mutual compromises and preserving the status quo led to a national disaster, there is no need to demonstrate. Even some who supported that policy before the disaster are now confessing that it is true.
Despite that fact, many, in an attempt to justify their positions, are trying to prove that the path of mutual compromises would have ended up in the same place anyway. This is nothing but a poor attempt at self- justification. It is also absolutely unprovable, since history does not like “ifs”. History records that which has already become reality. Therefore, whatever manipulations the opponents of solution based on mutual compromises (government and party leaders, intellectuals) use to justify their destructive steps, it is all the same; sooner or later they will be judged by history, a judgment no one has yet been able to escape. It is, in fact, their sense of such a judgment that is compelling them to find some way to justify their disastrous politics. And that compunction, sad to say, is further deepening the crises in Armenia and Karabakh.
Part 2
I am referring to the current domestic confrontation which, in my opinion, is making Armenia’s position in the forthcoming complex negotiations weaker and not stronger. It is difficult to understand, therefore, what is the real purpose of today’s opposition. Serzh Sargsyan light-handedly labeled Nikol Pashinyan as the “capitulator” which, although appropriate, still represents half the truth. In reality it is not Pashinyan who has been compelled to capitulate, but Armenia; Pashinyan has simply signed the capitulation document.
Therefore, whoever stands in that office instead of Pashinyan, be it Robert Kocharyan, Serzh Sargsyan or even Ishkhan Saghatelyan, it is all the same: they will obediently accept whatever solution is wrapped around Armenia’s neck. The problem, in that sense, does not depend on the person of Armenia’s leader. If this simple truth is not understood and the internal tremors continue, the solutions imposed upon us will be even more painful, regardless of whether it is Pashinyan or someone else who ends up siging the final document.
The question arises: Is it possible that the leaders of today’s opposition are not realizing that fact? If they are not, that means they understand nothing of politics. If they are aware of that fact but are still continuing the domestic upheavals, then we must conclude that they are pursuing altogether different goals, goals that have absolutely nothing to do with national interests. The rude actions that the authorities have undertaken against the demonstrations and meetings organized by the opposition too have nothing to do with national interests.
Being a hopeless optimist, I am still expecting that the opposing sides will finally understand the danger that their positions represent and exert efforts to reach some kind of understanding in order not to complicate the situation further and to avoid new dangers.
If our intellectuals really wish to undertake a task that is helpful to the nation, they could compel Pashinyan, Kocharyan and S. Sargsyan to sit at the same table and find a solution to the domestic crisis. Incidentally, I offered this advice as early as last January 15.
(This article was originally published in Armenian on May 5 in ILur.am)
See also this accompanying video in Armenian below.