“If I were in control of the situation, I would have responded to Margarita Simonyan’s statements briefly and on behalf of the Office of the Prime Minister. But there was no need for the Prime Minister to be included in those details. However, it should be taken into consideration that Pashinyan enjoys debates due to the fact that he is a journalist by profession,” the founder of the Modus Vivendi Center and political analyst Ara Papian told Aravot Daily regarding the argument between Nikol Pashinyan and Margarita Simonyan.
The editor-in-chief of Russia Today, Margarita Simonyan, had criticized the authorities of Armenia on Facebook regarding expectations that Russia would help Armenia during the attacks on Tavush, which was discussed in detail both in Armenia and in Russia.
By the way, Nikol Pashinyan had also responded to Margarita Simonyan’s criticism in an interview with a Russian news outlet. The “debate” continued; Margarita Simonyan posted another status yesterday, quoting from an article written by Nikol Pashinyan in 2005.
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“Let’s stop praising our ancestors and ask ourselves a very pragmatic question: what did our ancestors give us? Nothing, and more than nothing. Because ‘nothing’ is when you have to start from scratch, yet we have to start from a negative number because all our ancestors left us with were genocide, humiliation, betrayal, and immorality. As it seems, overcoming that is difficult- extremely difficult.
I condemn our ancestors and curse them because they did nothing to make us more dignified and proud today. Our ancestors did not care for their descendants in the same way that animals care for theirs instinctively. I condemn all those who praise our ancestors,” Nikol Pashinyan wrote in 2005. After quoting Nikol Pashinyan, Margarita Simonyan wrote about her great-grandmother who survived the Armenian Genocide and harshly criticized Pashinyan. “It is good that my dear great-grandmother, who survived the genocide and raised me with the memories of the victims who faced unprecedented and bloody massacres, is not seeing this right now. You don’t know that the leader of Armenia is accusing you, a saint, someone who watched her entire family get murdered and whose older sister drowned herself so that the others would survive, of ‘genocide and immorality.’ Now I understand why my statement had caused an uproar in Armenia. I cannot be a part of a society that is happy to have a leader who ignores Armenian history, curses our ancestors, and who does not respect the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims. My great-grandmother would have spit in his eyes. How shameful.”
Ara Papian considers the statements of Margarita Simonyan, Andranik Mihranyan, and others to be political demonstrations of some parts of the Kremlin. This was a demonstration of those circles who cooperated and still cooperate with the former authorities of Armenia. They had something to lose, which they lost, and now they are trying to help their former “allies.”
As far as why Nikol Pashinyan is taking the bait, Ara Papian explained that it is due to the fact that he does not have enough political and life experience. “He has never experienced something like this. That is why I think that the leader needs to have the appropriate education and experience. Many people before him did not have that, but they at least tried to get other people to resolve those problems for them. But Nikol Pashinyan likes to solve things on his own.”
As far as what should be done, Ara Papian said, “As a result, we are in an undesirable situation. The Prime Minister is involved in a debate with some woman in Moscow. We have seen that there are no fundamentals or logical reasons for anything from political appointments to other steps. For example, Nikol Pashinyan should not have created such a situation in Amulsar. They needed to at least wait until the end of September. But he is doing things to make the situation worse and his own reputation worse.”
Nelly Grigoryan
