“ACNIS ReView from Yerevan”. On December 28, a video went viral showing the occupant of the prime minister’s chair beating a drum and dancing exuberantly with his teammates. It later emerged that a year-end meeting of the Civil Contract (CC) party elite had taken place the previous day, followed that evening by a celebratory feast at which Armenia’s ill-fated rulers toasted the notorious “achievements” of the outgoing year—2025—known only to themselves. Surrounded by CC loyalists, Nikol Pashinyan danced in a state of self-forgetful abandon—if not outright frenzy—to the rabiz song “Wherever You Go, I’ll Come with You.”
The choice of song was hardly accidental. It conveys a message of loyalty—the loyalty of a subordinate to his master, a readiness to serve him personally to the very end because the master looks upon him with a “kind eye,” appreciating his flawless obedience. As the year drew to a close, a lavish payout was once again distributed to employees of state institutions and agencies, including National Assembly deputies, each of whom received a bonus of three million drams ($7,850). Yet the public remains unable to understand what these so-called prominent members of the nation’s “chosen elite” were rewarded for—by the hand of the speaker of parliament and, of course, with Pashinyan’s approval.
Now let us pose a question to these distinguished individuals: dear ladies and gentlemen, have you ever asked yourselves even once what exactly you were being honored for? In the country you govern, more than 25 percent of the population lives in poverty, one in four citizens struggling to make ends meet. In Gyumri, the country’s second largest city, 2,500 families have been living in temporary shelters (domiks/makeshift housing) for 37 years. As a result of your inept policies and incompetence, in September 2020—during the 44-day war—we suffered a humiliating defeat, losing 5,000 lives and more than 10,000 wounded. Later, Artsakh was lost, and 150,000 Armenians were forcibly displaced, becoming refugees overnight.
This list could go on much longer, but let us stop here. One fundamental quality is glaringly absent from the Pashinyan government: morality. From this deficiency flow other vices—coarseness, intrigue, betrayal of national interests, servility, and the worship of money. Had they possessed even a trace of moral responsibility, they would not have handed out three million drams to their own circle while rejecting, from the outset, the proposal for a 13th pension for retirees. Nor would members of parliament, earning salaries of roughly one million drams per month, have hesitated to redirect those funds to one of the most vulnerable groups in the Republic of Armenia—its pensioners.
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We understand: you lack morality. But do you also lack conscience? With the 300 million drams allocated for deputies’ bonuses, could it not have been possible, for example, to provide housing for at least 15–20 needy families from Artsakh or Gyumri? By your own hand, you surrendered Artsakh—the ancestral cradle of the Armenian people, with a history spanning millennia and a priceless cultural and spiritual heritage—to the enemy. Under the threat of ethnic cleansing and physical annihilation, the Armenians of Artsakh were left with no choice but to abandon their ancestral lands, their homes and gardens, their possessions, and the material and spiritual legacy accumulated over generations, leaving with wounded hearts and shattered lives.
And you are still dancing? Still nurturing hopes of reproducing yourselves in power? Those hopes are in vain. Your inglorious term of governance has reached its end. The people are fed up to the throat with your lies and deceptions. National, patriotic forces and competent professionals will emerge, and Armenia—yes, with difficulty, but step by step—will rediscover its rightful place in the region and the world. Until then, you would do well to pack your suitcases and prepare to leave.
