Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Yearning For Sovereignty: The Burden Of Independence, Nerses Kopalyan

Political Science Faculty Research

Hundreds and thousands on the streets, with fists raised, symbolizing a singular maxim: Struggle. The demand for independence and the Karabakh conundrum, inextricably entwined. The nostalgia of 1918, beautiful yet suffocating. Moscow blinked, and Yerevan made its move: the bittersweet burden of state-building. Collective memory is an extraordinary phenomenon, as it transcends generations and imbues within a people an astonishing responsibility, the responsibility of defying history, of seeking a renaissance, and creating anew, a political reality. For the Armenian people, September 21, 1991 marked the realization of this new political reality: the independent Republic of Armenia.