Psychological trauma and ways of overcoming it
Let’s classify the problems according to importance. The first group of issues: will the taxi fare be 100 drams or 150 drams? Will the price of electricity increase by a few drams or not? Will Serzh Sargsyan remain the head of the country or not? The second group of problems. Will Shushi and Hadrut be under the rule of Armenians or Azerbaijanis (actually, Turks)? Will the children in Artsakh be full or hungry? Will Artsakh remain Armenian, or will it be de-Armenian? In Syunik, Vayots Dzor, and Gegharkunik regions of the sovereign territory of Armenia, will be Armenian or Azerbaijani forces in the positions?
The first group of problems seems inferior to the second one, no matter how important. But it is also evident that from the point of view of the public reaction, the first group was significant: people were ready to spend hours and days on the street, block roads, and lie under cars, and all this was accompanied by a strong reaction of “civil society” with Facebook noise, appeals to international courts, etc.: Now public activists are not besieging, for example, the Russian embassy, demanding that country to fulfill the points of the tripartite declaration of November 9, 2020.
The simple answer to the question is known and summed up in one highly elastic and, therefore, incomprehensible term: “Sorosis.” Accordingly, there was transparent funding for the first group of issues, and financing of the second group continues, not to protect our nation’s vital interests but to blame everything exclusively on the Russians. Like any scheme, this one is distinguished by one-sidedness and does not reflect the whole reality. However, I do not rule out that financing public organizations and political figures on a minimal scale affects the situation. But I know many people who do not have such interests.
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For example, Sasun Mikayelyan is not a “Sorosist.” He is a hero of the first Artsakh war, but he also declared that the change of power in 2018 is more important than the victory in that war. From this, the loss of Artsakh is also less significant than the CC’s coming and staying in power. It is possible to list several dozen more perfectly decent, knowledgeable people who continue to selflessly support the government that suffered a shameful defeat in the war and caused its disastrous consequences. To explain it with “Sorosism” is frivolous.
I’m against the idea that if a person doesn’t think like me, he’s either crazy or corrupt. It is a comfortable statement by which you automatically place yourself among the honest and intelligent and free yourself from the duty of listening to arguments you don’t like. But we do not understand each other because of such an attitude, which is one of Armenia’s most painful problems. I remember, before the elections on June 20, 2021, ordinary people often approached me and asked with an expression of sincere hope on their faces: “Nikol will stay, right?” They were not and are not interested in national humiliation, but they were concerned about who will sit on the throne in Armenia. And those people were not Soros favors.
In science, there is a so-called “trauma theory” when a given person or a group of people receives an intense psychological wound, and to get out of it, either time or such measures are needed to heal that wound. The years of Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan’s rule were traumatic for people. Of course, one can wait 10-20 years before that pain will fade to some extent. But, given that trauma continues to divide our society, simply waiting would be an unacceptable “luxury.”
In the South African Republic, when the apartheid regime collapsed in 1994, “Truth and Reconciliation Commissions” was created. The goal was to discover the circles and the persons who implemented the apartheid policy. The point was not to punish them but to separate them from the white people who had nothing to do with those policies. It is clear why it was needed. To distinguish “wet from dry” so that the blame does not fall on all white people. In other words: a/ it should be publicly announced that apartheid was the actions of such and such people, 2/ it should be revealed which part of the trauma is imaginary (it cannot happen that such a part does not exist) and which part is genuine.
It makes no sense to create such commissions in Armenia under these authorities. Let me give a simple example. Suppose one of the commissions investigates illegalities and bribery in the judicial system. Suppose that commission works under the auspices of the current authorities. In that case, it will turn out that Alexander Azaryan is a “servant of the former” and Mnatsakan Martirosyan is “one of the bright faces of the new democratic Armenia.” But it might be worth a try during the next administration.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
“Aravot” daily newspaper,
10.01.2023
