The other day, I came across a post by one of the Civil Contract Party members (I don’t remember exactly who) saying something like this: “In the past, the poor held protests, but now look what’s happening — the rich are out demonstrating.” He was referring, apparently, to the rally organized by the “Our Way” movement.
First of all, I’d be delighted if we really had thousands of rich people in Armenia — unfortunately, that’s not the case.
But there’s a more important point here. Civil Contract members, and that part of the “public” which sympathizes with them, seem genuinely convinced that people take to the streets only over social issues — in simpler terms, for money and stomach-related needs. Yet global experience shows that’s far from true. For instance, over the past year, massive demonstrations have taken place across Western cities and university campuses in support of Palestinians. Clearly, those protesters are not driven by hunger.
This fixation on “stomach” motivation is characteristic of today’s ruling-party propagandists. But our own Armenian reality tells quite the opposite story. Two of the richest Armenians — Ruben Vardanyan and Samvel Karapetyan — are now deprived of their freedom through the efforts of two dictators, Pashinyan and Aliyev. Of course, the conditions of their imprisonment are incomparable, but the similarity lies in the fact that it was certainly not material need that drove these men to act for national causes. And to invent some alternative “geopolitical” explanations, I think, strays far from moral norms.
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I especially want to draw attention to Ruben Vardanyan’s recent message. It is, I believe, a remarkable example of how one can preserve human and national dignity even while locked in the enemy’s prison — at a time when those sitting in Armenian palaces have lost even the faintest trace of that dignity. And yes, the existence of such people gives hope to us all.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
