Leaked circulars issued by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports (MESCS) occasionally surface in the press, indicating instructions to remove from schools the “Corners of Glory” dedicated to heroes who fell in the Artsakh wars. Each time, the process halts after a wave of public outcry, only to resume again after a while. At the same time, principals and senior staff are reportedly instructed to remove the topic of Artsakh from school life altogether and to avoid any discussions or references to it with students, politely bypassing any questions students may ask.
What does this mean, and what is its purpose? Most likely, this demand, among others, comes from Ilham Aliyev, who most eagerly wishes that this quaint Armenian heartland with a history spanning thousands of years be permanently erased from the memory of future generations and consigned to deep oblivion. The “Corners of Glory” in public schools trouble our hostile neighbor precisely for this reason and disturb his sleep. Ilham knows that Artsakh does not belong to Azerbaijan and that sooner or later it will return to its rightful owner. And if he does not know, let him recall father Aliyev’s famous self-confession: “Karabakh is not ours; it is Armenian territory.”
As the saying goes, a guilty conscience needs no accuser. Even this modest school corner frightens the younger Aliyev, where our sacred martyrs of the war he instigated are portrayed under the title “Glory to the Heroes,” accompanied by brief notes about their lives and feats. Our brave Armenian heroes depicted in these photographs do not need these concise and meaningful texts, but they are necessary for the living, for the younger generations, so that they may be educated and raised in the spirit of patriotism. Patriotism is a supreme value, and shame on those, especially high-ranking officials, who subordinate the Homeland and love for it to their parochial interests.
Although certain officials from the MESCS attempt to deny that any instruction regarding the “Corners of Glory” has been issued by the Armenian educational authorities, a reliable source of “Hayatsk Yerevanits” claims the opposite, stating that many regional schools have received circulars ordering the dismantling of corners dedicated to freedom fighters who died in the Artsakh war. Responsibility for coordinating this “work” has reportedly been placed mainly on regional administrations, which carry it out quietly and as discreetly as possible, pursuant to instructions from the government.
Regrettably, Armenians have not been fortunate with the incumbent authorities: for them patriotism appears to be a false category — faceless and shapeless. During the Second Armenian Global Summit in September 2024, Nikol Pashinyan, speaking about the Soviet model of patriotism, described it as a foreign phenomenon introduced into our socio-psychological mindset which diluted the essence of Armenian statehood. “From the very first day of Armenia’s independence, we proclaimed our independence based on a model of patriotism according to which we should not have an independent state,” he emphasized once again presenting the “face” of patriotism through a distorted mirror.
It is difficult to believe in the sincerity of a person occupying the chair of the prime minister of Armenia when he claims that the greatest problem he has faced was his patriotism. A teenager who lived only 13–14 years under the Soviet system could hardly have understood what Soviet patriotism truly was, something that inspired hundreds of thousands of people in Armenia and beyond, in both their large and small homelands. It was patriotism that helped win World War II in 1941–1945, and in the postwar years it helped rebuild the country scientifically, culturally, and economically, turning our tuff-stone capital into one of the most beautiful cities in the USSR and the world. This is the true face of patriotism, something that, perhaps, lies beyond the comprehension of the Civil Contract party.
“Hayatsk Yerevanits” Journal