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What was supposed to be mind and will of people is a tool of corruption for authorities, Manukyan says reflecting on 16 years of independence.

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Khachatryan thinks past mistakes should have taught some important lessons.

Independence Day is a cause for reflection . . .

Aram Manukyan of the Armenian All-National Movement board sees independence as a house with several columns – those of institutes, foreign and domestic ties, democracy and human psychology. Columns should be founded on the law and the roof is the mind and the will of the people and the authorities.

But, Manukyan says, the authorities in this Armenia called independent have turned the columns into an instrument to develop corruption as much as possible.

Manukyan believes setting foreign relations is a priority for a newly independent state:

“The wrong foreign policy has resulted in a formation of coalition of hostile countries that creates a network where Armenia won’t be included in the future,” says Manukyan. “Georgia does not like Armenia. We are in such a hopeless situation with Azerbaijan that there are only militaristic statements made. In the relations with Turkey we beat only about the Genocide, and cannot therefore be reconciled. There was only Iran remaining but it made friends with Turkey; as a result our relations worsened.”

Gurgen Yeghiazaryan, former deputy director of National Security Service and former member to the National Assembly is also discontent with the 16 years of work in the sphere of foreign relations.

“The wrong foreign policy has resulted in that Russia, our strategic partner, treats us like a child; many of the infrastructures have been passed to Russia. Russia can easily change anything if it decides so any moment,” Yeghiazaryan asserts. “In a word, everything in the region bypasses Armenia just like the railroad connecting Russia and Iran will bypass Armenia.”

Yeghiazaryan says relations with the only Christian neighbor Georgia are also hopeless:

“Javakhq is our way to the Black Sea, but it has now appeared on the edge of de-Armenization. Only 25 children went to school in the largest [in Javakhq] village of Gandza this year, while the number was up to 800 once,” Yeghiazaryan tells. “And then, the Georgian authorities, having allotted $27 million, build a prison there using Armenian workforce, which means Javakhq will be filled with criminals.”

The former deputy minister is concerned with both that situation and the indifferent posture of the Armenian authorities.

“When asked whether Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan is aware a prison is built in Javakhq, he replied saying that asking the question is the same as to ask the PM of Georgia whether he knows a prison is being built in Goris or Sisian. But more than 80 percent of Javakhq population is Armenian, how can he respond in that way?” Yeghiazaryan gets indignant.

Former officials accuse the incumbent authorities in the creation of a clan system in the years of independence:

“And the Armenian people live in that system waiting for money from the United States and Russia, when the same system tries to steal 50 percent of the money,” Manukyan depicts the situation.

“In the years of independence a monopolized and therefore uncompetitive economics was formed: there is only one person engaged in the import of granulated sugar and fuel (meaning the Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan) and so on. Also a juridical nihilism has been formed as a result of which no citizen can feel protected today. Judges do what they want and how they want,” says Manukyan.

Hrant Khachatryan, chairman of the Constitutional Law Union, former member of the National Assembly thinks Armenia lost its system of values in the years of independence:

“Armenia cooperates with international structures – the UN, OSCE, the Council of Europe in an artless way. As a result Armenia constantly appears at the ‘honorable’ last places in the studies regarding the freedom of speech, corruption and human rights protection,” Manukyan mentions with regret.

Manukyan’s words are confirmed and at the same time scoffed by young political scientists who recall the torture and murder cases in 1991-1998 when the leader of the Armenian All-National Movement Levon Ter-Petrosyan was the president of Armenia.

In those years the State Security Committee head Marius Yuzbashyan, Railroad director Hambardzum Ghandilyan, former mayor of Yerevan Hambardzum Galstyan and others were assassinated, when grounds for dictatorial means of fight against dissidents like mass arrests were created and the oligarchic culture with criminal fame was formed.

In response to the young experts Manukyan tries to assert he does not aim to justify the former or slander the present.

And Hrant Khachtryan soberly evaluating everything says: “The analyses of the past should be made to keep back from repeating the still viable mistakes.”

Contrary to those who slander, Kiro Manoyan, head of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Hay Dat and Political Affairs Office believes independence is an achievement in itself:

“Independence is an irreplaceable achievement: we have to be proud we managed to survive those hard years, which means we have leverages also to keep the independence,” says Manoyan. “One of the achievements of independence is the factual annexation of Artsakh to Armenia, similar to the fact that Armenia as an independent republic became the Fatherland for all Armenians at last.”

Manoyan does not deny there have been losses either.

“Doubtlessly, there have been shortcomings, mistakes, but they have not been caused by independence but the wrong policy of individuals. Therefore one can’t blame them on the independence,” says Manoyan.