Edgar Ghazaryan, former head of the staff of the Constitutional Court and extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador, came forward with a public initiative called “0 votes for the enemy, 0 votes for the traitor.” Nikol Pashinyan is the addressee of those qualifications, naturally. In response, the government, its propagandists, who present themselves under their own names, as well as “fakes,” “trolls,” and “bots,” have started active anti-propaganda. True to this style of authority, they make ad hominem arguments. In other words, they are trying to discredit the person who expresses the thoughts they don’t like, using the well-known logic of “why are you the last one?”
With respect to all pro-government and opposition political figures, I must record that at the moment the initiative has no chance of becoming a reality. According to the sociological poll conducted by the Gallup international organization at the beginning of August, Civil Contract (Pashinyan) is confidently in first place. If the national elections were held on the Sunday closest to the survey, CP would get 16.1 percent, and the second-ranking Armenia alliance (Kocharyan) would get 5.1 percent. It is more proof of the well-known truth that people choose not those they love the most, but those they hate the least.
According to the same survey, there is a huge mass who say they will not vote for anyone – 4.5 percent, refuse to answer – 12.1 percent, find it difficult to answer – 15.6 percent, and will not participate in the elections – 32.8 percent. The last number is very telling; so many people, to put it mildly, are tired of all political forces, but, in the context of Ghazaryan’s initiative, we can note that perhaps 5.1 percent agree with the “traitor” and “enemy” labels, plus the potential voters of the I Have Honor alliance are 2.7 percent. Of course, many people will say that they don’t believe Gallup’s polls, but even if the poll has a 10 percent error, not 2-3, it still speaks of prevailing trends.
But let’s assume for a moment that the majority of Armenians agree with the terms “enemy” and “traitor” and they will carry out another revolution tomorrow or the next day. Will the revolution with that agenda benefit our state? LI think not, because the suggested slogans open the way for enmity and hatred again. LIn that sense, they continue the policy of the current government, which deepens the division. Meanwhile, today we need slogans that unite society.
Read also
Aram Abrahamyan
