March 2008 post-electoral events in new Armenian history book

Photo by Photolur

A new Armenian history textbook designed for university students has provoked heated debates in the social networks due to a chapter relating to the March 1-2, 2008 post-electoral clashes in capital Yerevan.

The book written by Dean of the Yerevan State University’s History Department, Edik Minasyan, was published earlier this year.

“Violently rejecting the election results, the radical wing of the opposition launched a series of rallies in Yerevan on February 20, ignoring the procedures of law in an atmosphere of permissiveness … Serzh Sargsyan, who had won the election, made a call for cooperation to the other challengers on February 26,” says the author.

Minasyan then notes that “the radical opposition continued its mass protest. The unsanctioned rallies eventually destabilized the situation across the country in just 10 days. The statements by different NGOs, art critics and scholars, and the Armenian catholicos were met with contempt by the co-thinkers of [first president] Levon Ter-Petrosyan who had taken a radical stance in the existing environment of distrust. ”

Minasyan took liberties with words and phrasings expressing his personal evaluation of the events

In comments to Tert.am, Lyudmila Sargsyan of the opposition Armenian National Congress faction in parliament described the author’s wordings as an attempt to act against his own conscience.

“If people try to misrepresent the reality and write history, we will not be able to bring up a generation. That means there is no truth in this country at all,” said the opposition lawmaker.

“If this concerned the remote past, many might believe. But such a representation of a tragedy which happened in our times and which was provoked by the tyrannical regime … I don’t think such a person has a right to be a dean, let alone communicate with the younger generation,” Sargsyan said.

Gurgen Yeghiazaryan, another representative of the opposition alliance, was also critical of Minasyan’s description of the above events. “What happened was an evil deed. A barefaced villain, who considers himself a scholar, ignores the historical reality and facts concerning the March 2008 developments and communicates ideas favored by the authorities to his students,” he said, adding that he is ready to meet the author anywhere to discuss the topic.

The mass protests which followed the February 2008 presidential election lasted about ten days and ended in clashes between the opposition co-thinkers and the police, leaving ten people dead and scores of others injured in Armenia’s capital.