Garen Yegparian
BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
It’s ridiculous how much Soviet–era nonsense still persists in the Republic of Armenia a quarter-century of the collapse of the USSR. The expectation that improvements will come from the top down, ONLY, is one example. People do not think that they have the power to improve their (and the country’s) lot by dint of their own work. But even more ridiculous is some of the anti-ARF propaganda that is still believed. A friend living in Yerevan just related a story about a doctor, a seemingly sensible man, who is active in one of the major political parties of the country. They met at a social gathering. This doctor proceeded to ask why the ARF had not yet returned the gold taken out of the country when the Soviets took over after toppling the first republic. He even cited the Lithuanian case where the pre-WWII government had taken its gold out of the country when the Soviets took over. When the USSR broke apart, it was returned… but even this story is not correct, it turns out, as the gold had been stored in Europe even BEFORE the takeover!. The lie about the ARF and gold is decades old, yet it still persists. Enough.
Then there’s the “oppositeâ€
