Ruben Vardanyan, who was dismissed from the post of Artsakh State Minister, at a meeting of the Artsakh government, spoke about contradictions with Artsakh President.
“I will work here, I will stay by your side. Thank you, Mr. President, for everything. Even though we do have contradictions in different approaches, but the general idea is that we have "red lines" that no one should cross. These red lines are very important for our dignity, in order to keep Artsakh Armenian, independent and dignified. I am confident that we will overcome this way together,” he said.
"First of all, I thank you for the way we have passed together and for Mr. President's faith in me. It was a great experience for me.
You know that I have been coming to Artsakh for decades, I had great connections, but at the beginning of September I stated that I had come because I felt that we were standing on the edge of a precipice, not fully aware of the situation.
For me it was Sardarapat.
When I say Sardarapat, I understand the crisis, a different agenda, and I perceive myself as a soldier doing whatever it takes to save our homeland. So when I received this invitation, it was unexpected for me, because I had given myself my word that I would not go into government work, but I realized that if I am a man of my word, going to defend my homeland, there can be no "want, don't want, can, can't." If it has to be done, then it has to be done.
It was, of course, a difficult decision for me.
On the other hand it was easy, because I decided for myself that I was here, I would stay, I would not go anywhere, and if I was needed in this direction, then I would work in this direction, if I could be useful to my homeland in another direction, I would work in another direction.
From this point of view, it may be easier for me to both accept the position and surrender it. We are at war, and had to struggle in that direction, I hope that my struggle has somehow helped us all to overcome these difficulties together.
I must respond to a few talking points.
First, why I did not resign. I want to be clear: I thought I was a soldier - I cannot resign. If necessary, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief should relieve me of my job.
Secondly, I'm sure we did a very important job in a very difficult period, and I want to thank all the people who worked in this difficult crisis, from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m., without light and gas, showing that as a team they are ready for anything. It was a very important experience for me, for which I am very grateful.
Third, there was really a lot of pressure from the outside. Mr. President has more information, and he understands the situation. But we have an outside world and an inside world. It seemed to me that pressure from the outside doesn't help us internally to have a situation so that we feel that we are able to fight that pressure harder. I presented to Mr. President the work of the Government in 110 days, and I'm ready to present it to the public in more detail.
To do the work, you first have to draw up a plan, have a sketch, lay the foundation, build the interior walls. We took steps in various directions, which, of course, in crisis conditions were difficult, but we are happy to pass the results of the work done to Mr. Nersisyan and hope that he will continue to work on these directions.
I know that there is some pressure on me to stay in Artsakh, but I would like to note that not only I won't leave, but I can't imagine myself outside Artsakh. I'm happy to continue the work that I did before. Our foundation, the agency "We Are Our Mountains" has already done a lot of projects. I would like to say that it was a very important example of cooperation between the state and the private sector, Armenia, the Diaspora and Armenian and non-Armenian NGOs. I think it is very important because if we are talking about the future, it is very important that this cooperation continues.
We will continue our efforts and will do a great job so that as many Armenians as possible come to Artsakh, so that not only Artsakh Armenians don't feel lonely but also those who left Artsakh in different times, during this crisis, come back and strengthen our Motherland even more.
As I have already mentioned, we have financial and managerial problems, as well as the problem of preparing for the next winter. During this period we have gained quite a lot of experience, we have understood our shortcomings, and we have recorded the shortcomings in which areas of work have been carried out. It is very important to learn lessons from all this and do everything so that these shortcomings are not repeated either in terms of food, or fuel, or in terms of other problems. We have a much better idea of the situation now than we did before the blockade.
More important than financial, managerial and other issues was the fact that Azerbaijan, which hoped to bring us to our knees, to break us, was cruelly mistaken. Azerbaijan saw that we have become more united, and even the indifference has disappeared. In fact, it was very encouraging to hear people in different communities saying: we are ready to endure without gas and light, just don't betray us and let's keep fighting.
Indeed, your responsibility as president, who was elected four months before the war, is very heavy, you are in a very difficult position, having carried this burden for so long.
I say with confidence that in order to succeed, the approach has to be systemic. If we don't build a system, if we don't put in transparent, consistently created mechanisms, it's very difficult to achieve success.
The topic of discussion is also that no individual is more important than our homeland.
Trust is also very important; I hope our word, indeed, has not lost its value. I reviewed your speeches before the war: they were very brilliant, profound speeches, Mr. President. I am sure that you will subscribe to your words even now. I just wish you would turn your words into deeds. It's very important that people don't lose faith in these words.
I'm sorry, but sometimes we really can't say what we want to say, or we have to resort to allegories. Nevertheless, people must believe our words and deeds.
As someone who didn't work in the government system until these 112 days, I realized that the majority in Artsakh are dedicated civil servants. In any case, the challenges that exist cannot be overcome by the efforts of the Government alone.
The problems that we have in the financial, security, and identity spheres require very serious cooperation, so I hope we will understand the importance of that when we try to use the potential of the Diaspora.
The political field has its own laws and it is possible that if we were not in a blockade, we would look at all this differently.
The most difficult thing for me is that I failed to prove and explain two things: that this is not a normal situation, and that crisis has its own laws. This was probably one of my biggest omissions.
The other difficulty was that I failed to explain that struggle means that we have to understand every day what our weaknesses and strengths are, how we need to strengthen our position, how we need to be able to use our limited resources.
Our struggle is both in the economy and in the information field. These 112 days brought changes, which inevitably showed a new situation, a new Artsakh.
On the one hand, we were all in the same boat, and that boat united us all. But on the other hand, we saw the unacceptable examples I was talking about, that some people do not have this understanding of the unacceptable, when, for example, in a crisis situation you send fruits and vegetables to high-ranking officials, being a high-ranking official yourself... The question is not that it is bad. The issue is that out of those few dozen people, only a few people sent it back, finding the phenomenon itself unacceptable. I'm sorry that bringing pineapples or roses during a blockade is considered normal, but of course I know that the number of these people is small. It's not what they did that bothers me much more, it's what we think is normal. Second, there was no mechanism to punish. Mr. Nersisian and I have discussed this issue extensively: what in this situation should be punished and what should not.
My approach may have been very harsh, but I don't regret it. I recently read Nzhdeh's book - it was interesting to see that 100 years ago Nzhdeh was writing about the same thing. I would like to read a small excerpt from his memoirs: "The fate of the Armenians would have been different if their leaders, instead of devouring each other, had declared war on their shortcomings." I myself know that I was not a perfect leader, I made mistakes, but I was sincere, I was a patriot, I demanded more from myself than from others.
Mr. President, I want to say we are happy here because we have a fantastic nation. This nation has shown that it can endure anything, it is ready to fight, ready to follow us and it is indeed a great honor that I had the opportunity and from communicating with these people I understood how strong Artsakhis are, I understood the difference between Artsakhis and Armenians living in other places. This is very inspiring.
I am confident that we can overcome the "salami" strategy applied by Azerbaijan, which is very dangerous. I am sure that not just one person, or the Security Council, or a few hundred people should have the right to choose the way, but the whole people should make a very hard and responsible decision, which we talked about before the blockade, during the blockade, and during the rally.
We are all human beings who have our faults. I hope that if I have offended someone without realizing it, I will be forgiven, if I have not done something or done something, I am ready to listen to both criticism and advice, because I have always learned from others."
