September 21, 2006
Independence Day: Old School
Today is Armenian Independence Day.
Fifteen years ago -- September 21, 1991 -- the Soviet Republic of Armenia proclaimed its independence. The move came after a referendum in which 94% of the voters said "yes".
September, 1991: the last days of the Soviet Union. Just a month earlier, Soviet hardliners had attempted a coup against Mikhail Gorbachev. The coup succeeded in crippling Gorbachev but failed to revive the USSR; the big winner was Boris Yeltsin, the new President of Russia.
The dying USSR recognized the independence of the Baltic States on September 6. In November, Yeltsin banned the Communist Party. At the beginning of December, Ukraine declared independence, and a week or later Yeltsin and the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus formally dissolved the USSR.
Meanwhile, Armenians and Azeris had been killing each other in Nagorno-Karabakh for a couple of years. By September 1991, there'd been two waves of ethnic cleansing: Azeris out of Armenia, and Armenians out of Azerbaijan -- and two more waves were under way: an attempt by the Azeris to expel the Armenians from Karabakh (which would fail) and an attempt by the Armenians to expel the Azeris from Karabakh (which would succeed).
The Nagorno conflict would turn into full-fledged war in January 1992, with the Xocali Massacre (of a village full of Azeris) in February; the war would continue until April 1994.
(And where was I fifteen years ago? I was a young lawyer in the Northern Marianas Islands. I had followed the Gulf War with deep interest, but the ongoing collapse of the USSR made little impression on me. I was learning to scuba dive and waiting to hear if I'd passed the local bar exam. Armenian independence, I fear, went right past me.)
If I were Armenian, I might take this opportunity to contemplate what's happened since 1991... the good (Armenia maintaining its precarious independence, the gradual recovery of the economy, etc.) and the bad (Nagorno still unresolved, borders still closed, etc.).
But since I'm not Armenian, I'm just going to focus on one odd thing: the Independence Day Parade here in Yerevan.
If you're old enough to remember... back in the old days, the Soviet Union would hold these parades every May 1. There'd be a big box in front of the Kremlin, where the head Communist Party officials would sit. (Kremlinologists would have a field day, watching who was in the front row, who not.)
And then there would be this, like, six hour long parade in front of them. And it would be almost all military stuff: tanks, jeeps, missiles. The armed might of the masses, baby. It would just go on and on, while the Soviet leaders sat there stone-faced, and the drums in the military bands went boom boom boom.
So here today.
Oh, it wasn't quite the same. The reviewing stand was in Republic Square, next to the local Marriott Hotel. The designers did their best, but setting up next to a Marriott is just not going to inspire the same awe as Lenin's Tomb and Red Square. And the atmosphere was not really all that Soviet... thousands of people turned out to watch, with little kids on shoulders and videocameras and ice cream cones. It was a beautiful day, perfect for an outing, and the crowd was clearly having fun.
But the parade was still Old School: box full of politicians, watching emotionlessly as tanks and rocket launchers rolled by, while helicopters and low-flying jets roared by overhead. The only concession to the 21st century was a huge projection screen to one side.
I suppose the purpose of the Soviet parades was to impress, and this succeeded. I wasn't there for the whole parade -- had to go to the ofice -- but even a few minutes of watching made clear that Armenia has a lot of tanks, and some bloody huge missiles. If I were an Azerbaijani military analyst I'd be at least thoughtful. I don't know missiles, but those looked like they could reach the Azeri oil fields, no problem.
Anyway. There are probably a few other places that still do these old parades... some of the other former Soviet Republics, and maybe North Korea and Vietnam. But it still felt like a glimpse of a bygone world.
So how was your Independence Day?
As in, what did I do on the Armenian Independence Day, or what did I do on the Independence Day of the country that I live in?
The answer to the second question would be that the Finnish Defence Forces celebrate every Independence Day with military parades which are even _more_ old school. Solemn generals in their white fur caps, sometimes accompanied by some of the last remaining Knights of the Mannerheim Cross, watching by as the veterans with their flags lead the massive cortége of Sisus, Nasus, Leopards, T-72s, Crotales, Gvozdikas, Giatsints, Marksmans and whatever other vehicles and weapon platforms the organizers have decided to scrape up for the show, with assortments of Hornets and Hawks doing an overflight.
In short; nation, home, faith, fatherland. The hardware is a weird mixture of modern and vintage as well as domestic, western and eastern, whereas the traditions date back to the inter-war era and beyond, echoing the memories of Prussia, Imperial Russia and the Great Power Sweden.
Apart from the Minister of Defence, politicians usually don't participate, however.
Cheers,
Jalonen
Independence? We don' need no stinkin' independence!
Australia Day celebrates when the continent was colonised, not when the colonising power was kicked out.
Posted by: Syd Webb at September 21, 2006 05:05 PMDo they call it "Nagorno", over there? I was under the impression that the basic name of the region was "Karabakh", and that "Nagorno-" was a prefix meaning something like "in the mountains".
Posted by: Jim Parish at September 21, 2006 06:08 PMBeer. Cigars. Taking my cousin's boat out for a ride on the canal. (By tradition, the Fourth and Thanksgiving are celebrated at Jesse's place in Fort Lauderdale.) Family reunions. Discussions of baseball. Fireworks. More beer. Barbecue. More cigars. Some --- not me, of course --- mota.
I think that's pretty standard. A big parade (or any kind of July 4th parade, save maybe of ships in New York Harbor) with military hardware just seems un-American. Which is a little ironic, since we are most definitely a militaristic people.
Now, I've also celebrated independence day in Mexico. In which case you'd stick just to beer, mota, lot's of shouting around midnight, and a general New Year's like bacchanalia ... although there is a military parade down the Paseo de la Reforma beforehand. The military is cheered; the police turn on their sirens to drown out the boos.
Posted by: Noel Maurer at September 21, 2006 08:39 PMHmmnn, pretty much like Noel's, except in my backyard and we watch the fireworks a couple of local doctors put on about a quarter mile away.* And no reefer.
* My town's gotten the clever notion of not trying to compete with every other town putting on fireworks that night. They just made up a holiday in September and they blow the wad then.
Posted by: Bernard Guerrero at September 23, 2006 01:06 AMNoel's comment got me to thinking about when I was in Korea and going to the on-base movie theater. Being an on-base theater in a base manned both by U.S. and ROK troops, before the movie, the national anthems of each country played.
When the Korean anthem played, the screen showed scenes of Korean countryside, waterfalls, school-children, and that sort of thing. Then came the American anthem--the imagery on the screen was of tanks, bombers, artillery pieces, and warships.
Posted by: Andrew R. at September 23, 2006 06:17 PMThe Pennsylvania town that I live in has this adorable little July 4 parade. See the Garrett Hill, Pennsylvania article on wikipedia for some details. Following the parade, everybody walks down to the playground at the bottom of the hill for free (*) hot dogs and soft pretzels. Very Norman Rockwell. They always run out before I get there. Later that evening, there are fireworks (rather good ones, for a suburb).
When I used to live in Center City Philly, 4th of July was a different sort of Really Big Deal. The "Welcome America!" series of events last for over a week, and there are usually fireworks just about every night-- on at least two nights during the run, the fireworks are pretty much world class.
(*) Not really free, in the big picture sense, since the neighborhood people who organize the parade pass the hat several weeks before the event, and make it clear that if you don't contribute to the fund, your name won't make it into the parade program. And wouldn't that be a shame.
The Pennsylvania town that I live in has this adorable little July 4 parade. See the Garrett Hill, Pennsylvania article on wikipedia for some details. Following the parade, everybody walks down to the playground at the bottom of the hill for free (*) hot dogs and soft pretzels. Very Norman Rockwell. They always run out before I get there. Later that evening, there are fireworks (rather good ones, for a suburb).
When I used to live in Center City Philly, 4th of July was a different sort of Really Big Deal. The "Welcome America!" series of events last for over a week, and there are usually fireworks just about every night-- on at least two nights during the run, the fireworks are pretty much world class.
(*) Not really free, in the big picture sense, since the neighborhood people who organize the parade pass the hat several weeks before the event, and make it clear that if you don't contribute to the fund, your name won't make it into the parade program. And wouldn't that be a shame.