There is a clear pattern that has been constantly used since 1998. When the pre-election period approaches, the government remembers about “cold and dark.” Even if the Pan-Armenian National Movement (PANM) and Levon Ter-Petrossian don’t participate in that election, the government sees them behind every opposition candidate and to prove how bad their rivals are, they remind of the “horrors” and “nightmares” of the 1990s. Since the given “trick” has been repeated for at least the 6th time already, I am inclined to think that this propaganda “weapon” “fires” with a certain level of success – the bad living conditions of those years are really a “powerful argument” for the people living for instincts. Photo series depicting lines for bread, the process of handing out charity fuel and other horrifying pictures with an inscription “We will not forgive the PANM” are widespread on Facebook nowadays. This is certainly nothing compared to what the gifted Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) spokespersons led by Artashes Geghamyan are to say “freshening the people’s memory” and rather instincts and emotions.
Generally, our political (and why only political) culture is based on arousing negative feelings and I think it is the main obstacle in the way to our progress. There has been no election in these past 18 years, during which the opposition didn’t say, “Folks, we have to get rid of this nightmare as soon as possible. If these people remain in power for another few years, Armenia will collapse, be destroyed and eliminated from the face of the earth.” The government talks about the “PANM nightmare” and the PANM about the “Republican nightmare.” No one addresses the citizens “let’s define the objectives acceptable for all of us and retaining all our controversies, let us move in that direction.” The success of Georgia is based on those “consensual” ideas and not on the fact that Saakashvili is more honest, more legitimate or more talented than our leaders.
Actually, neither in 1990s, nor before that, nor after that there has been a nightmare. There were hard times for our country, for example, those same 1990s, when there was two-day reserve of grain in the republic or when the enemy was close to closing the Lachin corridor again. Admittedly, those were dramatic events, of which our people came out with flying colors. The attempts to “dramatize” the past or the present to win political points seem unserious and ugly compared to those.
Nightmare and paradise are very relative conceptions. They are not only relative, but also quite subjective. Guess a man can have too much ambition or can take on unrealizable tasks and when he fails, life becomes a nightmare for him and his family. And conversely, if a man has found his, even modest, place in life, regardless of all regimes, no horrors and nightmares threaten him.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
