Yesterday, on the street, a self-taught “expert”, turning to me, made the following comment, “You see, well, what this Poroshenko does with Americans, how much blood is shed. Yanukovych was wrong, when the Nazi revolted, he should have caught them and kept them in the slammer so that they would not stir, and so many people would not be murdered.” In short, these “commentator” is watching Russian channels every evening, which in a very aggressive form inspire this information and these ideas in people. Plus the Soviet nostalgia, plus genetic sympathy towards Russia.
If this my interlocutor had followed the same events on the Internet, then perhaps he would have a multi-layered image. But the matter is not about the Russian-Ukrainian War, where the parties are shedding each other’s blood, and I, for example, would not take on the responsibility to determine whose trial is fair. The matter is about the notion of the “slammer”, which, I am sure, is viewed by many of our fellow citizens as a way to prevent negative consequences of any event.
This notion also has a “genetic” origin. When in the 30-ies, young people with “strict stance” were intruding into the neighbor’s apartment, searching it and taking the whole family to an unknown destination, the neighbors who were not yet been taken, were consoling each other, “in our country, people are not arrested just for nothing.” Then, of course, they were arrested “just for nothing”.
The president of Russia, who was raised just in the same “strict institution,” rebukes Yanukovych for the “soft attitude”. Russian TV channels conveyed this message to the world and, particularly, it has fallen into a fertile soil in Armenia. The problem, however, is that nothing is solved through the “slammer”, and the evidences of it are in front of us. The arrest of the “Karabakh” Committee did not contribute to maintenance of the Soviet regime. Before March 1, 2008 and after, the arrests of the opposition members, ultimately, only raised the rating of these figures, it is another matter of who afterwards used this rating for what.
If any official has in mind to use this “tool” in the future to calm down the passions, then he must understand that it’s just a waste of time. If the opposition member has a reputation, he is more dangerous when imprisoned, if not, then let him talk how much he wants. But the point that dictatorship and totalitarianism are still in our blood, I have no doubt.
Go out to the street and ask, hey, you are complaining about life. What do you think who should solve your problems? Most of them would answer, the state. And what do you mean, by saying the “state”. You will hear the answer, the president, prime minister and the government. Period.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
