The anti-Artsakh hysteria fueled by the authorities is intensifying. The crude, anti-Armenian, and inhumane slogan “You should have stayed and fought” is now heard almost daily from the podium of the National Assembly and on the airwaves of H1. Open threats and calls for extermination are being published on the websites of government propagandists, targeting the people of Artsakh. Meanwhile, the Prosecutor’s Office—quick to launch criminal cases over criticism of Pashinyan or even a “like” on social media—remains completely inactive in this case.
It is evident that the authorities and their propagandists are attempting to shift the blame for their own failures onto the people of Artsakh—the very victims of their reckless adventurism. But the issue runs deeper. When discrimination is encouraged at the state level, when institutions selectively apply hate speech laws and impose penalties in only one direction, the result is an escalation of an already volatile situation, increasing the risk of violence. And in such a case, the blame will lie not only with the state’s indifference but also with its active role in fanning the flames.
At this point, the issue goes beyond sympathy or hostility toward the people of Artsakh—it has become a threat to the stability of the state itself.
Our so-called “civil society” also takes a peculiar stance. If someone so much as glances the wrong way at a transgender person, twenty reports are filed and twenty grants are likely awarded in response. But when Armenians are openly called to be “razed to the ground” on a government-affiliated media outlet, there’s not a single reaction—not a raised eyebrow. Apparently, it’s not “grant-worthy material.”
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Aram ABRAHAMYAN
