There was an anecdote in the Brezhnev region that was a dialogue between Soviet and American preachers. The American talks about political persecution, Politburo’s madness, the sausage queues, and so on. The communist ideologue’s answer to all the accusations was “black people are being killed in your country.”
It is clear that the “counterargument” that has nothing to do with the problem is a well-known rhetorical trick, but sometimes it turns into a joke.
MP Artur Ghazinyan asked the Prime Minister whether he is ready to announce from the parliamentary tribune that Artsakh is Armenian land. That was the meaning of the question, and we can not say that the question was not appropriate. After Pashinyan’s December 24 interview, one may get the impression that, according to the Prime Minister, there is no other option but to recognize Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan. Instead of answering that question, the Prime Minister hints at bribery “in one of the faculties” at Yerevan State University.
This style of debate is not familiar to me even in journalism and public discourse, and it does not suit politicians, especially not the head of state, to put it mildly.
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But such a small, low-level, and meaningless debate is specific to this composition of the National Assembly. The opposition MP uses the nickname “Omega” to insult Ararat Mirzoyan when addressing the Foreign Minister, and the latter counters with the nickname “Narimanov,” alluding to Serzh Sargsyan. It had nothing to do with the content of the question and answer.
The Civil Contract MP built his arguments on the opposition MP’s last name, Stambulyan. Moreover, the Yerevan-Istanbul flight is perceived by both sides as “compromising,” although it was opened in 1995 and was interrupted in 2019. I hope it will be reinstated; there is nothing “anti-national” about it.
Such a terribly low, primitive intellectual level is truly “unprecedented” in the 30-year history of Armenian parliamentarism. And I have no other explanation for that than the appropriate level of our constituents. Deputies do what voters expect of them. They are very happy, they appear in the seventh heaven, when, say, the Prime Minister, in fact, without answering the questions, does what he does well – “jabs at” any opposition member. “Well, he is doing the right thing. Who did they become to ask a question? They have robbed this country for 30 years,” the “people” become ecstatic. Voters of the Armenia and I Have Honor alliances experience the same joy when they hear or read the phrase “Omega Aro.”
So, everything happens in accordance with democratic norms. Until the voters change, the parliament will not change either.
Aram Abrahamyan
