had
established diplomatic relations with every major democracy in the
world. At United Nations headquarters in New York, he had raised the
red, blue, and orange Armenian flag. That was nearly 20 years
ago. Everything was possible then. But the shadow of history soon closed
in on the Armenians. The capital went dark. Faucets dried up. Grain
shipments stopped coming in. And suddenly, as if for the first time, the
Armenians realized where they were. To the west: a history of horror with Turkey, the memory of an unrequited genocide in 1915. To the east: the anticipation of war with Azerbaijan, occupant of the ancient American enclave of Artsakh, or Mountainous Karabagh. It is a dangerous thing, when survival becomes the sole ambition of a people. But that is what happened to the Armenians inthe years after independence.
They lost their hope, their cause, their conviction. They were not as
generous as they used to be. And the old Soviet symptoms reappeared.Corruption and failure

On
the streets of Yerevan, a generation of child beggars emerged.
Policemen waved batons for two-dollar bribes. Teachers worked for
bribes, too. The presidents came to control every judge, prosecutor, and
public defendant who wanted to keep his job. Fair trials and free elections became failed promises.
Incumbents almost always “won” – while losers almost never went home
without first leading a mob of a hundred thousand citizens through the
capital. In 1999, during a session of parliament, all the president’s
key adversaries were assassinated. My father long ago resigned
from the Yerevan government, but he, at least, never gave up the dream.
Instead, in 2001, he gave up his American