People sometimes ask me why I speak almost exclusively about Pashinyan, and why I don’t go into detail about the—let’s put it mildly—ugly behavior of his subordinates. The answer is simple: their behavior is dictated by Pashinyan’s orders. I can’t bring myself to say, “Oh, what bad boys those masked NSS officers are, pinning to the asphalt people who neither resist nor attempt to flee.” They do it to produce the right footage—material that will later be shown to Pashinyan, and which, in turn, warms his heart.
Of course, those who carry out a dictator’s orders will bear moral, political, and possibly even legal responsibility. But that’s not the point. I don’t want to amplify the hatred already present in society—whose primary source is Pashinyan himself—by fixating on secondary figures. Without Pashinyan, the Civil Contract MPs would not be MPs at all; some might even become opposition deputies—in both cases my attitude toward them would improve. The same goes for the ministers, the law-enforcement officers who carry out Pashinyan’s instructions without question, the president of the republic—everyone currently working under him.
The decorations change, but the people remain. Some of them, of course, will serve the new masters as well—there are people who are “chronically compromised.” And again, I would urge everyone not to waste time and nerves on them. Because what matters is not them, but the one giving the orders. Perhaps someday we’ll reach a point where the first official of the country simply won’t have the ability to issue illegal, immoral commands.
For now, I simply register these people’s degradation, but I try not to speak about them personally. If they feel the tragic nature of their situation, I sympathize. If they don’t—well, no matter. Everything ends sooner or later.
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Aram ABRAHAMYAN
