“You don’t build a state through vengeance”. Today marks the birthday of Vahan Hovhannisyan.
August 16th marks the birthday of Vahan Hovhannisyan, Armenian politician of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and former Ambassador of Armenia in Germany. He would be 62 years-old today.
On this occasion, we share one of his memoirs.
“…. The prison physically exhausted a good 3 years of my life…
That said, I was never really preoccupied during my imprisonment by such thoughts as ‘oh my, what have I done?’, or ‘why did I choose to meddle in such games?’, or ‘I will not do it again’…
Not that I was pondering the opposite either, thinking how I might get back at them once I get out. I’ve never asked for revenge and I refuse to do so now. Rather, I am merely revolted by this regime and its leaders. Besides, you don’t build a state through vengeance. Revenge begets revenge, and the cycle goes on…
Ultimately, the mobilization against Ter-Petrosian was victorious. It is true, that certain immediate legal steps had to be taken with respect to him: in the aftermath of his overthrow, a constitutional assembly had to decide on his new political status, which the newly elected government would then review. That, however, was not our problem. Instead, our mission, which was the liberation of the country from its plunderers, its anti-Armenian factions, did not presuppose a change in government. At that time, there were, I recall, a few political factions, and the Republicans who were initially on our side later somehow aligned themselves with Levon, and Vazgen Manukyan was appointed Minister of Defense…
Essentially, Levon managed to destroy the unity of the opposition coalition, he coerced one, persuaded another, but he couldn’t bring us to heel. Rather than destroying us, he found himself defeated.”
Vahan Hovhannisyan passed away on December 28, 2014.
Translated by Goryoun Koyounian