In the 34-year history of independent Armenia, we have seen everything: political assassinations, political persecution, October 27, March 1. None of these tragic events, incidentally, has received either a political or a legal assessment.
But what the current authorities are doing is incomparable to any previous period in Armenia’s history. Never in the history of the Third Republic have four bishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church been imprisoned on fabricated, concocted, absurd charges. Never have representatives of the highest authorities publicly allowed themselves insolent and disgraceful remarks about the Catholicos and other clergy. Never has a court reviewed the Catholicos’s кадровые (personnel) appointments. Never have security forces carried out punitive actions against journalists in parliament—moreover, on a regular basis. I will not go on.
Why has the government succeeded in establishing a rigid authoritarian regime in our country and yet continues to be regarded as a “bastion of democracy”? Much has already been said about European institutions and the Armenian NGOs funded by them. It is enough to compare how these NGOs reacted to the hunger strikes of Artur Sargsyan (with all due respect to Hats Berogh) and Narek Samsonyan. A certain exception today is made by journalistic NGOs, which do address, for example, the lawlessness taking place in the National Assembly.
But to blame only, in Pashinyan’s words, the so-called “euro-fodder” European officials and their NGOs would, I think, be wrong and would not provide a complete picture.If we take a broader view, we will see that democracy as such has almost entirely dropped out of Armenia’s political and public agenda—unlike in the 1990s. According to sociological surveys, democracy is absolutely not a priority for our citizens and significantly lags behind security concerns and material issues.
Read also
Regardless of their views, the majority of our citizens dream of a “patriotic,” “people-oriented” leader (that is, one who feeds the people well). For Pashinyan’s supporters, such a leader is precisely the current prime minister; for his opponents, he is not. But the latter usually add: “we don’t see anyone else as such a leader either.”
Political forces, especially ahead of elections, as a rule do not want to “guide” their voters toward democracy, toward a democratic system. They probably believe that “now is not the time.”
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
