Today Is Victory Day and There Is No Alternative!

• 05.08.2021, 18:15
• Alla Aydiyan
•  Region,  World,  Armenia,  NKR

Today is Victory Day and there is no alternative. At the same time it is clear that today Armenians of the world are going through one of the most difficult days in the modern history of Armenia. For the first time after the operation "Wedding in the Mountains"- which gave us a great victory - the Day of Liberation of Shushi we greet with pain, without our Shushi.

This day will bring with it a lot of discussions, emotions about how to mark May 8 after all what happened. It is not appropriate to call into question whether this day is a Victory Day for us. On this day we should thank and bow before those who made this victory possible; a victory that showed us and the whole world that we have the will and the ability to restore justice. Yes, this is the day of victory. And from generation to generation we must not only remember this day but also celebrate it as we used to, because I am sure we will liberate Shushi once more!

The other side of the question is the assessment of what happened: who lost the war and to whom. We didn’t lose to Azerbaijan or Aliyev. We lost to ourselves. In this war the patriots lost to those for whom the word Motherland has no meaning. The reality is that Shushi itself has no real value neither for Pashinyan, nor for Aliyev. Otherwise, Nikol Pashinyan would not have called Shushi an 'unhappy and colorless' city, and consciously or subconsciously he would not have thought that by giving up Shushi he would get rid of a big problem.

In his turn Aliyev, no matter how he sings the praises of Shushi today, understands that he will have to invest huge amounts of money in order to ''Azerbaijanify'' Shushi - under a pressure of international condemnation which he will still face. At the same time, Aliyev realizes that this is the price he has to pay in order to assert himself before his own people. This is the path that helps him to remain in power and also helps to constantly remind people about Karabakh who want to get rid of his tyranny. Aliyev will use Shushi for this very purpose.

But despite everything May 8 marks one of the most significant victories in the history of the Armenian nation – the Day of Liberation of Shushi, the Day of Victory and the Day of Justice. Justice can be hurt and sometimes very hard - we know this from our history- but justice cannot be destroyed if you fight for it and know how to pass on the real values to the next generations.

Shushi Liberation Day is also a symbol today. A symbol that carries a message to all of us that we must not allow again what happened to us, to our people, what led to November 10th. It is not the first time that we have to look at our beloved city from afar. We are not the first generation of Armenians who left their native land. And not the last generation to return there. And even though Azerbaijan and Turkey are trying to erase Armenian identity, they must understand that everything in the world is changeable - they will not succeed.

Shushi has Armenian color, Armenian taste, Armenian smell. And it is simply impossible to erase it. We will be back – definitely…