Armenia’s Place In Contemporary World

This is an excerpt from the platform of ПРОРЫВ (Breakthrough) Autonomous Action in Yerevan.  It has not been seen for 3 years. Fortunately we had a printout in Russian and translated it (with minor modifications) for our readers: 

The petty-bourgeois social order, which has been inflicted on Armenian people by the global Capital, already suggests that Armenia is not an independent self-determining country.  And it is this condition of Global Capitalism that makes prospects of true democracy in Armenia remote.  It is just a small rotary in the giant machine which processes and launders billions and trillions of world’s capital. 

Armenia doesn’t need another political party — it needs a MOVEMENT!

The fact that there are so many parties in Armenia might not actually be a bad development (given that there is the right type of constitutional setting to cater for such a development). Of course, that’s not what the Rebiblican and Parliamentary system desire, but at least it shows that people care and are involved with political life of the country.

Now it’s not something that should be disqualified as a necessarily ill development on the grounds that it won’t work within the configurations of Parliamentarianism (after all the struggle should be to make Democracy work, and not the Representative Parliamentarism 😉 ). Instead, we should be asking how to re-structure the political system in such a way that would accomodate and make the best use of such political diversification (something that many political scientists, for instance, would praise).

Armenian History in Anarchist Perspective

The History of Armenian People and Their Struggle for Social Justice (fragments of history)

“Who controls the past controls the future, and who controls the present controls the past“. — George Orwell

Abstract:  This article reviews Armenian history, struggles, ancient political movements and peasant rebellions since antiquity and puts it in a framework of the Anarchist theory.  As is the case with any state-controlled historical narrativizations, the history is often de-contextualised and re-contextualised, de-coded and re-coded so as to serve the interests of a particular class.  What I have tried to do in this article is to subvert that process and, in effect, to deconstruct that which has been constructed as “Armenian History”.  This article works its way from ancient movements such as Pavlikians, Tondrakiyts, Messalians and Borborits, on to more recent anarchist fradments of Armenian history such as Shaamirian, Nalbandian, Jheon, Atabekian and especially the Anarchist origins of early Dashnaks (ARF).  [This article could be of particular interest to anyone interested in Armenian history as well as to academics researching on Anarchist history in the region of Caucasus] 

The 1st entry – what is this blog going to be?

Greeting Comrades,

Over the years we have met many Armenian anarchists and like-minded intellectuals. It was also exciting to find out that there is an organized “Autonom” movement in Yerevan (Proryv – “Breakthrough”), though their website has been discontinued. And we have recently found out that the group has been violently crushed in our beloved “Democratic” Republic.  We have also met many socialists and communists, who adopt a critical view of dictatorial communism; we have met many like-minded intellectuals… many Greens, many feminists, many left-wing activists, many avant-garde artists and intellectuals… The only thing is that they are not only in
Armenia, but also spread across the globe – “the Greater Armenia”.

In short, we are starting this website with knowledge that there are many people out there sympathetic to our ideas.  We want to create this website as a sort of convergence point –  a Cyber-HQ and as a focal point to help us come together, discuss and develop our politics… first as a cyber-commune and then, hopefully, gradually grow into a political force.

For now, we are just testing the ground. So if you are an anarchist, a libertarian socialist, an anti-Fascist, a supporter of Direct Democracy, a  democratic-communist who believes that communism doesn’t have to be a Stalinist dictatorship and can be democratic; if you’re a feminist, Green or an intellectual, or just a left-bank individual who is simply interested and who believes that the existing political parties both in Diaspora and the Republic, are a thing of the past, — then contact us (or just post a comment). Tell us about your views and concerns in Armenian politics (both Diasporan and Republican).

We would want to say from the outset that we are not interested to hear from fascists, racists, nationalist socialists, blood-worshipers, “tseghakron” race-worshipers or other intellectually impoverished persons.

About this blog:  In this blog we will present the Anarchist and Libertarian-Socialist review and analysis of political developments that take place in Armenia,
Caucasus and around the world.

Who are we:  We are a network of activists and intellectuals (socialist, anarchist, democratic-socialist, libertarian; patriotic, but not nationalist) who have met in random locations of the globe and agreed that a serious “3rd Way” radical movement is needed in Armenian politics.  We believe that neither the Liberal Capitalism nor a Bolshevik-style Dicratorial Communism, nor the pretentious Social Democracy, provide any plausible answers to Armenia’s requirements,  The 3^rd republic has failed. The problem is the structure encoded in the Republican constitution!  We propose to move in the direction of the Swiss model of Federalism and Co-operative Communally controlled mode of production, whereby the power of decision making is with the people in their communes (Hamainq).  We say: Power to the People – power to the Hamainqs!