Our politicians shout: “I am neither pro-Western nor pro-Russian; I am pro-Armenian.” Admittedly, it’s a great way to beat your chest, and like any empty slogan, it sounds nice. Contrary to those bold statements, I believe any person should have an ideological value orientation.
In that sense, the ideas of freedom, tolerance, and enlightenment, which were proclaimed in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, are much closer to me than the eclectic theories of the “Third Rome” or “Russian spirituality” circulating in today’s Russia. Moreover, the thoughts of Russian writers and philosophers of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, which the modern imperial obscurantists like to refer to, are much deeper and more interesting than the flat propaganda clichés they try to extract from them. Using Dostoevsky or even Ilyin to justify the attack on Ukraine is almost the same as explaining the crimes of the German National Socialists throw Nietzsche .
In short, I think the Western value orientation is much more preferable to the Russian one. Politics is something else; here, you have to choose what is beneficial for your state at the moment. It should be based on weighty arguments, understandable to all the power centers of the world, not “freaks” driven by peasant cunning. Otherwise, even French President Emmanuel Macron, who sympathizes with us, can get nervous.
“Pro-Westerners” in Armenia are the most active, aggressive, and the loudest. Their position is not based on Western European values; otherwise, they would not have rushed into battle like flaming Bolsheviks, trying to silence the voices of their opponents.
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Whether they are the majority, I have a hard time saying. In any case, appropriate propaganda impulses come from “above,” expressed among ordinary citizens in the following saying: “The former and the Russians are to blame; what should poor Nikol do?” Thus, “Westernize” becomes “mainstream,” and those who call not to look for monsters or angels in any power center are declared agents of the Kremlin.
But this apparent propaganda operation discredits real Westernism; the plans to create genuinely free citizens and a strong state have proven their viability over the centuries. Moreover, some Western circles also play a negative role in this case, pretending that these programs are already being implemented in Armenia. The reason for that hypocrisy is also purely political calculations.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
