Do you remember when, years ago, MP Manvel Badeyan made a disrespectful remark about a national minority living in Armenia during a conversation with a journalist? I’m sure you also remember what followed: the entire human rights community was in an uproar—demonstrations, statements condemning xenophobia, and widespread protests.
And yet, when Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan recently used a similar expression to describe another national minority, that same community remained silent.
Perhaps Donald Trump is to blame for this stony silence—after all, under his administration, grants for human rights defenders and civil society organizations have been reduced, leaving no funding to “stir up” protests.
But the real reason lies elsewhere. Back then, we did not have a “popularly elected government” or a “bastion of democracy”—but now, these problems have been officially resolved.
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Whenever European or American officials shower praise on our democracy, I can’t help but wonder: what sources are they relying on? Are they getting their information from the same human rights defenders who now fail to notice the glaring violations happening around them?
If so, then of course, everything must be fine.
These same human rights defenders may not have noticed that about a year ago, Samvel Vardanyan, who was arrested after an altercation with then-MP Hakob Aslanyan, was left alone by the police—and by an “amazing coincidence”, masked assailants suddenly appeared and brutally beat him.
For an entire year, law enforcement has “failed” to determine who was behind the attack.
Back when we weren’t a “bastion of democracy,” such things were handled behind closed doors by oligarchs.
But now? Well, we are told that we no longer have oligarchs, nor their “enforcers.”
Previously, police officers tortured people in detention centers. But now, according to Western observers and our ever-reliable human rights activists, this despicable practice has been eradicated.
So, then, what happened to Tigran Ulubabyan?
And which police officers were held accountable for those acts of violence?
…Ah, I see. If “power belongs to the people,” then insults based on ethnicity are no longer insults, violence is no longer violence, and police torture is no longer torture.
Because, after all, it is the “people” who are doing it.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
