If there are politicians in Armenia whom I sympathize and whose views I generally share, then Shant Harutyunyan is one of them. But realizing that I am going to express highly unpopular opinion, I cannot say that he and his friends did not break the law. The politicians, who claim it should keep in mind that the vast majority of them were in power, and will be again in power tomorrow or the next day. Will they endure the “rally” with explosives and sticks, and the “fireworks” on the Mashtots Avenue? No. I think in no one, even in the most democratic country, the state would not endure such a thing.
I understand what anger my words cause, but I have no desire to enter into a populist wave. We all should be interested in such things from not happening in our streets, regardless of whether the “authors” of such deeds have political motives, or something else. It’s another matter that 4, 5, 6 years of punishment, in my opinion, is not consistent with the deeds of the guys. And administering punishment on the underage, in this case 4 years, even conventional, is generally beyond moral norms.
I absolutely do not agree with the fact that Shant’s conviction proves that dictatorship exists in Armenia. During the dictatorship, the three non-government parties do not have TV stations (not to mention about the remaining media). Under the dictatorship, the opposition does not organize rallies of multi-thousand people. In totalitarian regimes, millionaires do not act with opposition speeches, and generally, all big businessmen are applauding the high government officials. So it was in Armenia, but, I hope it will never be so anymore.
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On the other hand, Armenia, of course, is not a democratic country. We had a good chance to go forwards, should we have signed the EU Association Agreement on November 29, last year. Various officials and pro-government figures say, “Should we have become an EU member country, we would again have concede a part of our sovereignty.” Thus, because of the ignorance of some of the government officials, while others were deliberately distorting the reality. We would not be an EU member even if it was our ardent desire, and, in my opinion, we should not strive for it. The matter is just about closer cooperation with this structure, which both economically, technologically and political development was more promising. Instead, our government without asking us, the citizens, tied our destiny to the collapsing empire. This is what Shant Harutyunyan was quite rightly acting against. His political career, I am sure, will be continued: in freedom or imprisoned.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
