There are only two types of Armenians in the Armenian political discourse: “patriotic, devoted to the nation” and “Turks, traitors.” The debate is over who should be given those labels. In terms of delegations in international organizations, this extremely primitive and subjective “dichotomy” also works. Depending on whether the behavior of this or that delegate is favorable to the given political group, they can be called either a “patriot” or a “traitor.”
In this sense, the work of our delegation in PACE gives “classic” examples. Back in 2004, the government did not like the votes and speeches of the then opposition MPs Shavarsh Kocharyan and Artashes Geghamyan, and sent “labor representatives” from Baghramyan 26 to Zvartnots Airport to embarrass the “Azerbaijani agents.” In 2013, threats were made against Zaruhi Postanjyan, a member of the PACE delegation, who dared to take out the “dirty laundry” and “cooperate” with the Azeri delegates, but this time it all ended without throwing tomatoes, eggs, and pennies at the MP.
Now we live in the digital age and physical persecution has been replaced by, so to speak, “cyberbullying,” where someone attacks another person on social media after receiving a command from a center. Exactly with the same expressions as in the previous two cases, an attack was launched on the Armenian delegate to PACE Hayk Mamijanyan last week. In the same way that RPA deputies used to do it, now the Civil Contract members feel obliged to say a couple of “sweet words” to Mamijanyan, and now he is an “Azerbaijani agent.” At the same time, I have no doubt that whoever uses a tougher vocabulary to address the opposition MP will have a greater opportunity to advance in his career. As in the case of the RPA, not all the members of the faction speak, but 10-15 people, who are the “party assets.”
Whether I agree with Mamijanyan’s vote or not is not important in this case. The important thing is that the claims of the Civil Contract members that they are more democratic, more liberal, and more tolerant than the RPA members do not correspond to reality. As the political regime is the same, so is the government that embodies it.
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Aram Abrahamyan
