The idea of national consensus is one of the foundations of national ideology. In order for a nation to survive, to withstand the calamities of history, it must be guided by the idea of national consensus.
All nations are divided into classes and parties, which are guided by different social ideologies, on the basis of which class and party struggle unfolds. This is a reality, a natural condition, which no people can escape. And national ideology holds that every nation must first solve its problem of survival, the question of its physical existence, the security and integrity of its homeland, leaving the solutions to social problems to the future.
It is indisputable that no people can achieve success in a struggle waged against an external enemy if it is not guided by the idea of national consensus. All classes and political forces of every nation must realize that one of the main conditions for the nation’s survival is NATIONAL CONSENSUS. The idea of national consensus must prevail over class and party ideologies. In the presence of all the factors of national ideology, if the factor of national consensus is absent, it is the same as the nation’s survival being called into question.
The Armenian people, unfortunately, has no grounds for pride from the standpoint of national consensus. The Armenian people and its political forces, in the centuries-old struggle for survival, have in many cases been unable to overcome internal disagreements, class and party divisions, factionalism, and, in the fateful battles waged against the external enemy, to achieve national consensus. As a rule, the Armenian people has suffered bitter defeats in such circumstances. One of the main causes of the Armenian defeats, if not the most fundamental, has been precisely that factor — division, disunity and the absence of national consensus at history’s decisive moments.
The history of the Armenian people has numerous evident facts proving that indisputable truth. Let us be satisfied with two examples. First, the War of Vardan, during which the Armenian leadership was divided and could not rally the people and go out with united forces against the Persian troops. The consequence was the defeat of the Armenian forces. Here the question is not who was right — Vardan or Vasak. Disputes and disagreements are natural phenomena in the life of peoples. The question is that if the battle has begun, then the entire people and all its political forces, proceeding from the factor of national consensus, are obliged to unite and act jointly against the external enemy. In such circumstances, the people’s INSTINCT OF SELF-PRESERVATION operates. That was precisely the reason why the people placed Vardan among the saints and Vasak among the traitors.
Second, in the national-liberation struggle of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the very existence of the Armenian people was at stake, when the Turks had undertaken the physical annihilation of the Armenian people, the three Armenian liberation political parties — Armenakan-Ramgavar, Hunchakian and Dashnaktsutyun — could not overcome their party disagreements, could not UNITE, create an ALL-NATIONAL CENTER for the liberation struggle, develop a unified tactics and strategy, and lead the people to victory.
Having the same fundamental goal — the liberation of Armenia — understanding the necessity of national consensus in the struggle against Turkish rule, sparing not their lives in that cruel struggle for survival, nevertheless they could not overcome their internal disputes and achieve national consensus, which is why the national-liberation struggle did not attain its goal.
Garegin Nzhdeh says the following: «There is no greater evil, no greater disaster for a people, particularly for a small people like us, than blind party fanaticism. For that divisive spirit there is no public interest, no state-moral one. Everything that does not bear the stamp of his party is foreign to him; whatever is not the offspring of his party is unacceptable and intolerable. Only that which emanates from his party is worthy of applause. For that party-blind unhappy creature, two times two equals anything, only not four… He creates internal fronts, saps the people’s strength; he is the enemy of society, the friend of his people’s enemies. That is the curse of our life. The present of a people seized by the poisonous disease of party fanaticism is sad, its future hopeless. A people sick with that disease is always internally divided, always ready prey for its predatory neighbours».
The study of the history of the experience of different peoples confirms the truth that the guarantee of every nation’s success and survival is NATIONAL CONSENSUS. National consensus has been important for the Armenian people in the past, is important today, and is also important for the future.
All the political forces of the Armenian people — whether in power, in opposition, or neutral — must not, in the political struggle, allow steps that undermine and weaken the foundation of Armenian statehood’s survival — national consensus.
If all the political forces of the nation do not comprehend this truth and do not attain the establishment and preservation of national consensus, then Armenian statehood will not withstand the future trials of history.
Kevork Haleblean
