If You Have a Nail, Scratch Your Head. Եղունգ Ունես, Գլուխդ Քորիր ( Քերիր)

by K. M. GREG SARKISSIAN

There is an old Armenian proverb:

“If you have a nail, scratch your head.”Եղունգ ունես, գլուխդ քորիր (Քերիր):

It means something very simple: use what you have and take care of yourself. Do not always wait for someone else to help you.

For Armenia, this proverb should become more than a saying. It should become a lesson in how we think about the  country’s future.

For more than a century, Armenians have studied their painful history.  They remember the 1894-96 massacres during the Hamidian regime in the Ottoman Empire; the Russian imperial government shutting down Armenian schools in 1885 and 1896, and when they were allowed to reopen, the state had banned the teaching of Armenian history and geography; the policy later known as Lobanov-Rostovsky’s ‘Armenia without Armenians’”, the so-called 1905–06 Armeno–Tatar war when Russian authorities incited Azerbaijanis to attack Armenians, the 1909 Adana massacres and the 1915 Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey; and, more recently, the 2023 violent expulsion of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan.

The entire nation  knows what happened. But knowing history is not enough.

We must learn from it.

Despite  independence from Soviet Union on 21 September 1991,  Armenia continued depending  heavily on Russia for its security. Today, we have learned a difficult lesson: no country can depend completely on another country for its survival.

This does not mean that Armenia should be against Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, or any other country. We must live with our neighbors. We should seek peace, cooperation, trade, and good relations whenever possible.

But we must also be realistic.

Friendship is good. Alliances are useful. But self-reliance is essential.

This is where our political disagreements must be understood correctly.

In a democracy, it is healthy for the government and opposition to disagree. They should debate how to improve education, the economy, health care, jobs, living standards, and many other things.

They should disagree.

But they should not disagree about the need and the strategy for Armenia to survive and become stronger.

Think about Christianity.

There are Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestants and many other Christian traditions. They have differences in their churches, traditions, and practices.

But there is a central belief that makes Christianity Christianity: Jesus Christ is central to the faith, and Christians believe in His resurrection.

Without that foundation, the differences between the churches no longer matter because the central purpose has been lost.

Armenia needs the same kind of common foundation in its national life.

Our political parties can disagree about how to build a better Armenia.

But they should agree on what the ultimate goal is: a secure, independent, self-reliant Armenia.

That means building their  strength at home.

The  greatest resource is our people. We need better education, stronger universities, science, technology, engineering, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, energy security, and a modern defense system.

We cannot be the biggest country in the region.  But we can become one of the smartest, most educated, most technologically capable, and most resilient.

That is self-reliance.

We should not spend the next generation asking:

“Who will protect us?”

We should ask:

“What must we do so that we can protect ourselves?”

Our neighbors may have  friendly relationship . They may be partners. They may sometimes disagree with us and become  our adversaries .That is international politics.

But Armenia must never forget the lesson of its own history:

We cannot control what other countries decide. We can control how prepared we are.

The Armenian proverb gave us the answer long ago.

If you have a nail, scratch your head.

We have the nails.

Now we must learn how to use them.

 K. M. Greg Sarkissian isFounder and President of the Zoryan Institute.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the official position of the Zoryan Institute.