An honest man should explain, write, tell everyone that he is honest and not keep silent as a guerrilla. This is how Gorik Hakobyan, the head of the National Security Service (NSS) explained the attitude of Vartan Oskanian, a Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) MP, meaning
that the former Minister of Foreign Affairs refused to give testimony on the money laundering case. It is obvious that the pattern described by the Mr. Hakobyan is not universal – an honest man may shout that he is innocent and the other way around, an honest man may keep silent or make explanations in a rather unconvincing manner. (I for one often flush because of unfair accusations as if I have really committed the act I am accused of.) Anyway everything depends on how people shout and how they keep silent. Lie to Me, an American TV series – by the way, one of the examples of high-quality TV series – is about that very “how.” A group of psychologists cooperate with law enforcement agencies and try to reveal which of the people and law-enforcement officers related to the case lie. For example, if a man scratches his nose while talking, or if he raises his shoulder, it is very probable that he is lying. Certainly, the important thing is the facial expressions, the microexpressions on one’s face, which betray the liar. The main character of the TV series is Paul Ekman, a professor at the University of California, who has been analyzing different manifestations of lie for a few decades and advises not only law enforcement agencies, but also political and business circles.
In Armenia, however, those psychological nuances are often unnecessary. Lying is a stable and developed culture in our reality and it is not random that a fairy tale of Hovhannes Tumanyan who had a brilliant knowledge of the people’s psychology is about how a king held a competition of liars and how the one who touched upon the material interests of the king won that “casting call.” It usually doesn’t come to facial expressions and microexpressions in our country. One just needs to hear one of those trite phrases to understand that one’s interlocutor is lying. If anyone swears on the graves of his parents or grandparents, if he would rather bury his relatives, if he responds to any argument revealing a lie “there is no denying, but…,” if he curses himself, then you should know for sure that person is lying. Well, politicians’ lie (in this case, not only in Armenia) starts with the following foreword “I don’t need anything for myself.” There is no one on the face of the earth who doesn’t need anything for himself unless he is drawing his last breath. That is the biggest lie.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
