Yesterday I recorded an interview with Professor Suren Zolyan; it will be published on our website on Saturday evening. But there is one thought I feel compelled to share with readers right away.
Alongside the many bad, terrifying, and disastrous events of recent years, there is also something positive. And that positive element revealed itself when Nikol Pashinyan’s campaign against the Armenian Apostolic Church, by and large, failed to achieve its goal. In fact, quite the opposite: the Church is being очищed, and the authority of those clergymen who remain faithful to their service and vocation has grown — regardless of what those same clergymen may have done in the past.
Indeed, if ten bishops and several dozen other clergymen preferred — allow me to say — “Nikol-loyal sycophancy,” then that baseness must have already existed within them. Pashinyan’s anti-church campaign merely provided a “good opportunity” for their petty qualities to surface. From now on, we can deal with those clergymen who, yes, are by no means saints and have many sins, yet remain loyal to the hierarchical order of our Church.
The same yardstick can be applied to any event, even a tragic one. Yesterday Ruben Vardanyan was sentenced to 20 years in prison by Aliyev’s regime. Ruben is a man who had devoted himself to the spiritual and economic peaceful development of Artsakh. Meanwhile, on social media, I read reactions to this “verdict” that fall outside the bounds of human decency — “Russian slave,” “Putler,” and so on. Thus, I am given the opportunity to distinguish between normal, decent people — whatever their political views — and individuals with washed brains, suffering from certain pathologies.
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You may say that the second group constitutes the majority. Quite possibly. Even if the dividing line runs between three million people and just ten, the choice between light and darkness is clear. Of course, we cannot all be Ruben Vardanyan — nor are we required to be. It is sufficient not to stand beside the executioners.
One more important observation: remaining silent in such circumstances is also tantamount to supporting the executioners. The German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was tortured and executed in a Nazi concentration camp, wrote: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
