By Sevag Hagopian
Many ask what is happening in Syria these days.
To summarize: Massacre. The victim is always the ordinary person.
The remnants of the former regime are committing massacres.
The new regime is committing massacres.
The army is committing massacres.
Various armed groups are committing massacres.
The government is committing massacres.
The opposition is committing massacres.
And if I were to expand on this, I would say that the previous government’s greed, stubbornness and excessive self-confidence in not undertaking reforms, and the inhumane attitude of crushing those who demanded reforms, were what brought the situation in that country to this point. Let no one say that what began in Syria more than a decade ago was another game of Western powers to destabilize the region. It is the duty of the government of a given country to expose such plots and work accordingly and thwart them. Otherwise, this is the result.
And if we go deeper, we should understand that the fingerprints of “civilized” Turkey are clearly visible behind a major portion of all this today.
Meanwhile, where is Armenia and where are we, as we witness this situation? It seems that to a not-insignificant part of the Armenian population that what is taking place is happening on another planet, many miles away from us, and that what is happening there does not concern us.
There is a large mass of geographically ignorant or indifferent Armenians who do not know that Syria is a country directly bordering the Armenian world, where Armenians lived and still live — Armenians who ended up there “thanks” to the genocidal Turks, and today once again are paying a heavy price, both in human and economic losses.
The current authorities of Armenia shortsightedly are still playing the “Crossroads of Peace” game with the same people. The very next day after achieving “peace” and opening the borders, our country could turn into the Armenian Republic of Massacres and Murders.
(Sevag Hagopian is the editor of the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party newspaper Zartonk. This article is a translation from the Armenian version which appeared in the latter paper.)
