Tuesday, 26 November 2024

E Editorial

“New Sweden”, “New America”, “New Armenia”

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"Det nya landet" means the new country in Swedish , i.e. a country based on new values, where everyone tolerates everyone, especially the refugees, where traditional values ​​must be replaced by new values.
It is a state policy. As we can see, there was no need for a revolution to build a "New Sweden '' in Sweden and reject the "Old Sweden '' as it happened in the US, but that does not change the logic of the occurrence.

A campaign rejecting "Old America" ​​was launched in the US, in the UK protesters began to reject "Old Britain" likewise. In the US and UK, rejection of old was manifested by a war against statues and monuments: the Confederate statues of "old heroes" associated with slave trading past, colonialism and ill-treatment of native American Indians were taken down from the pedestals across the United States. In  Britain,  protesters started a similar campaign and statues of slave traders were toppled or removed, there were even calls for a statue of Oliver Cromwell to be removed since he stood accused of leading massacres and famine in Ireland. In "New Ukraine" and "New Czech Republic" the statues of communist figures and Soviet servicemen have been removed, and the process is underway.

In "New Armenia" they fight against all kinds of "old", be it "old" corruption and corrupt people, or church and Armenian studies. Our struggle seems to be against the existing values ​​and for the sake of "new values". And that struggle is not limited to the borders of the countries, it is a global process, but is not new as an occurrence. There was a similar struggle in the past, which started in the 19th century, but then the slogan targeted the "youth", not the "new". In a very short period revolutionary movements were formed in Europe and Asia: "Young Italy", "Young Macedonia", "Young Serbia…".

By the way, the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun was founded on the basis of the "Young Armenia" committee, and it was the "young Turks" who carried out a revolution in Turkey. In the 19th century, empires were destroyed by these "youth" movements, and "nation-states" were created based on them. They were national liberation movements directed against empires. The processes now seem to be developing in the opposite direction, the "new" movements are mainly led by the ruling political forces, that is, from above and have the opposite tendency, and they are directed against nationalism, traditions and religion.

It is clear what the "old values" are, but the so-called "new values" are not so clear. It is especially incomprehensible what kind of "new world" is created based on these new values ​​and what we will get as a result. One thing, however, is obvious: the "New Armenia" announced in 2018 is not a slogan born from the flight in one person's mind. It is a response to some global idea or, perhaps, an unsuccessful result of an experiment in Armenia.

The Armenian Center for National and International Studies

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