Although the fact that the National Assembly’s idea of “not electing a Prime Minister” seems silly to me, who knows? Maybe this is what needed to happen in order to uphold some unclear points in the current constitution. In any case, it was a great opportunity to discuss the inner political situation, and Nikol Pashinyan made some noteworthy statements. The most essential was the “revolution-regime change” duality analysis where he particularly noted the following: “The state governing system, if not in its entirety, at least mostly works with old logic and habits, and with the hope of returning to the old ways still in its workers’ hearts.” This description of the situation was correct, but his following statement was arguable, that the “source of inspiration [for the people who think in the older ways] is that the majority of parliament comprises of the former ruling force and the former system.”
Bribe-takers and corrupt individuals are careful and pragmatic. They aren’t politicians, and they aren’t former presidents who have been fed delusions of grandeur for years about how the people greatly loved them and, as a result, have a choked view of reality. The state bureaucracy and oligarchs (who are typically the same people) aren’t so naive to put their hope on one political force that may fade from the political arena temporarily or forever in one week. It’s the same as saying that people who didn’t have honest intentions in 1990-1991 put their hopes on the communists. Isn’t it obvious that their source of inspiration was… the Pan-Armenian National Movement?
The same goes for now. Corrupt people’s hope comes from their own comfort or if we are to use a biological occurrence, “mimicry,” and on the other hand, it comes from the slow degeneration of the revolutionaries. It’s not a coincidence that all oligarchs are now on the new government’s side. It’s also important to mention that in some places, whether during the Yerevan City Council elections or the local government elections, people who “used to work” for the RPA started to join the Civil Contract Party. Changing colors and making revolutionary, anti-RPA speeches is simply a technical issue. Haven’t we been through this before?
How to ensure that this cycle doesn’t repeat- I don’t have the answer to that. I can only say that I wouldn’t put my hope solely on the revolutionaries. Just because someone marched, chanted, and is dedicated to the leader of the revolution doesn’t guarantee that they won’t degenerate. At least, that’s what the experiences of the previous years show.
Aram Abrahamyan
