Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan recently posted on Facebook about Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan. In that post, she used language and expressions I had never heard from her before. This is the kind of rhetoric usually employed by Civil Contract (CP) deputies and Pashinyan’s propagandists. Either they wrote it for her, or the minister managed to “overcome herself” and adopt an aggressive, propaganda-style tone.
This is especially troubling in institutions like education and healthcare, where people with diverse views and values work side by side—not to mention the many beneficiaries those systems serve.
But why does the government drag people into Nikolyan-style verbal battles? I believe this follows a pattern typical of such structures. We’ve seen and read that when a mafia, a gang, or a totalitarian cult recruits someone new, they test that person’s loyalty.
The method is to create a situation from which the newcomer cannot turn back—so to speak, “no fish or mouse will escape.” The person is pushed to take a step that irreversibly discredits them. From then on, they become increasingly aggressive in defending their leader. This, of course, doesn’t mean the system won’t discard them without hesitation when it no longer needs them—no matter how passionately they try to prove their loyalty.
Let me give a simple example: why, for instance, are people dragged into the “Education Is Fashionable” movement? Because they understand that even 10 or 20 years from now—after all the changes in power—decent people still won’t greet them on the street. With that awareness, they throw themselves headfirst into a campaign of flattery, hoping at least to secure the favor of today’s authorities.
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So far, the government has “spared” two deputy prime ministers: Mher Grigoryan and Tigran Khachatryan. It hasn’t yet required them to speak in the typical Civil Contract style. But that may soon change.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
