Artsakh was supposedly a terrible place, which is why people allegedly paid bribes to avoid serving there. This argument was put forward by a CP member during the pre-election campaign in Gyumri. In his defense, several other members of Nikol’s team offered the following “justification”: “What’s the problem? Isn’t it true that people paid money to avoid military service?”
This reasoning is designed for the simple-minded: take a true fact and use it to “prove” an unrelated claim. Yes, in both Soviet and independent Armenia, some people paid bribes to evade military service. But this has nothing to do with Artsakh being a bad place—a false assertion that leads to dangerous conclusions: that Artsakh did not need to be defended, and that now its people do not deserve protection either, because they have come to Armenia, taken shelter here, and are ‘eating our bread.’
Discrimination and racism always come with such “justifications.” History offers plenty of examples—Goebbels, for instance, provided countless “facts” to rationalize the Nazi methods of “solving the Jewish question.” Fortunately, today’s anti-Artsakh racism does not take the form of physical extermination. However, the goal is clear: to push Artsakh’s displaced people out of Armenia and force them into emigration. And in the long run, the intention is even more obvious—to erase any reminder of Pashinyan and his team’s disgraceful and catastrophic failures.
To implement this agenda, the government has, among other measures, significantly reduced social assistance for forcibly displaced people since April 1. Naturally, such actions require propaganda support. This is precisely why CP’s campaign has intensified rhetoric filled with discrimination, racism, hatred, and hostility toward the people of Artsakh.
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I will not repeat those monstrous talking points here. But let me emphasize: they are not only inhumane, dripping with venom toward people who have lost everything—they are also anti-state. No strong nation can be built upon a society so deeply divided. Moreover, such an approach demoralizes people, leading them to question whether defending places like Vardenis or Jermuk is even worth it.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
