I often wonder: what is the line at which this government will finally stop and cease its ongoing project of corrupting and degrading society?
So far, I don’t see any “red lines,” any—let me put it this way—sacred values before which the Civil Contract people would step back. History, the church, national symbols—all of that has already been trampled. The Pashinyanist crowd has already caught the scent of kebab and is ready to roll down a few more steps. Therefore, a continuation is quite possible.
Do you really rule out the possibility that the Civil Contract majority in parliament might adopt a statement strongly condemning Armenia’s “past territorial claims” against neighboring countries? Specifically, the 1988 movement “instigated by the Soviet KGB,” the “occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh by a group of extremists,” as well as the “war crimes committed by Armenians in 1992–94”? The Civil Contract parliament could even call on law enforcement to “hand over all war criminals to the Azerbaijani side.”
(Possible reaction of the Pashinyanist masses: “Well, they’re right, those people robbed the country for 30 years.”)
Do you rule out that the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports might issue a directive banning Komitas’s song Antouni as a work “incompatible with the ‘Real Armenia,’ stirring up national trauma, and mourning losses”? And then replace Antouni with Being a King Is the Best Thing—with the obligatory note that “the song refers to King Pap, who heroically fought against the church.” Special emphasis should be placed on the line “eat, drink, keep on having fun” as a central thesis of the people’s newly forged ideology.
(Possible reaction of the “ideology-creating” Pashinyanist masses: “Yeah, they’re right, we cried for 100 years—what good did it do us?”)
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All of this is not, in fact, pure anti-utopia, not just the product of imagination. Taking into account the monstrous steps taken in the past seven years, the manifestations of “Real Armenia” could be far more terrifying.
After all this, only one question remains: how is it possible to have a state with such approaches?
Aram Abrahamyan
