“No need to cross the limit in anything, but first of all, the limit is defined by the legislation of given country”, such opinion was expressed by PR specialist, also analyst Tigran Hakobyan in response to the question of Aravot.am as to whether the terrorism held in Paris could be considered an action against the freedom of expression, or the limits should not be gone beyond in religious publications. He added, “If legally no criminal or administrative liability in followed in the given country for publishing any caricature, then no one has the right to extrajudicial reprisal.”
Tigran Hakobyan thinks that the action against Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly in Paris is a clash of civilizations. Mr. Hakobyan considers this event as a terrorism and a step against freedom of expression, and at the same time emphasizes, “The supreme value is the human life, it is even beyond the freedom of expression. Hence, if you feel that you can jeopardize you and the life of your family by your immediate actions, then you should refrain from doing it. If the Muslim community, some extremists express dissatisfaction with regard to your caricatures, then you were supposed to limit yourself not to put the life of you and your colleagues at risk.”
Mr. Hakobyan thinks that the incident has no excuse. “I see some excuses in the Armenian media and social networks, which is unacceptable. If we allow the religious supporters and extremists dictate what to do, then we will fall into a more extreme situation tomorrow. Tomorrow, they will not like us to buy pork from the stores, or drink vodka, or considering their faith or principles offended, they will begin executing us by shooting for that too. There should be no compromise here. No extrajudicial reprisal is acceptable in this matter. You should fight against the extremism by the most extreme methods.”
To our observation that during the Paris events when a question was asked whether this kind of crime and terrorism is possible to happen in Armenia, many people were excluding it, but a few days later, the Gyumri crime happened, Mr. Hakobyan responded, “It’s not an act of terrorism, terrorism has its own definitions. A classic terrorist act was the October 27 events. The Gyumri event is a criminal offense. It makes no different whether it is a Russian, American or Chinese military base, it should operate within the some limitations in the country to avoid such consequences.” Mr. Hakobyan thinks that the incident is still fresh, and it is hard to analyze it, especially when there are so many questions: whether indeed this person has committed the crime, and what the motive was.
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To our question of whether the anti-Russian statements voiced in this regard are acceptable and whether they will not general inter-ethnic tension, in response Mr. Hakobyan mentioned that no need to demand more from people, because the excitement is always alogical, and people should not be blamed for their primary reaction in this. “When six members of the family are killed, people’s anger cannot be limited to this and proceed by a rational way. Everything is acceptable within these few days. I am sure that if it were the American or Chinese base, the same frustration would have an anti-American or anti-Chinese shade. Let us give vent to the frustration. Each nation demands respect and caution even from its ally for the dignity of its nation, life and security of its citizens. In this respect, no need to demand more from people. It can carry an anti-Russian character and some political forces can take the advantage. It is not essential. What is essential is that our government does everything for the crime, perpetrator and the motives are revealed soon, get explanations from the Russian military base as to why such a thing has happened.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
