Yesterday I read some news on www.tert.am, which was a translation from www.newsru.com. The news concerned the fact that Natasha Smith, a British 21-year-old journalist, was brutally raped in Tahrir Square, Cairo, by men celebrating Mohammed Morsi’s victory. One cannot understand from the details put forward by the British journalist whether the news corresponded to the reality or not. Therefore, one can express doubts about the accuracy of this information. However, I was surprised at the comments, which were made on our, Armenian website. Those who made those comments honestly believed that such a thing had happened and the majority of them expressed the idea that this girl herself was to blame that she had been treated like that and generally she deserved it.
People usually cannot abstract away from certain external factors and focus on the very essence. It was so in case of the arson of the DIY club. Since homosexuals also used to gather in that club, the arson was an act of defending our identity and national security, one can say it was a new stage of the national struggle for freedom. Well, if they burned a club where Armenian guys eating kebab used to gather, it would have been an absolutely unacceptable and culpable act. One needs some mental effort to abstract away from everything and just condemn violence.
The same logic applies to some Republicans who comment on the crime committed at Harsnakar “why had they come to the restaurant drunk?” This justification of violent beating up, certainly, wouldn’t have been “in effect,” if the restaurant had been owned by some member of the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) or the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). If you remember, the president’s bodyguard killed a man in Aragast (float) restaurant for greeting the head of state disrespectfully. It is a brilliant justification, there is no denying.
The same, of course, is in the world of journalism. If someone encroaches on any mass media, it should not matter for the journalist at all whether it is Azatamart, A1+ or www.7or.am. There are not and cannot be “our” and “hostile” mass media, if you are a journalist. There cannot be “friendly” and “unfriendly” arsonists and abusers, if you are a citizen. There should not be imperialistic and anti-imperialistic rapists, if you are a human being.
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For some reason, I remembered a fragment from Henrik Borovik’s show shot in 1988 – a Russian officer was giving warm clothes to people who had suffered from the Spitak earthquake and he suddenly burst into tears.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
