Eight years after the 2018 “Velvet Revolution,” Armenia’s authorities are presenting a book titled Take a Step, Reject Serzh, written by Armen Grigoryan, who, immediately after the revolution, moved straight from civil society into the position of Secretary of the Security Council. By the time the book was presented, however, he had already handed over the post to Alen Simonyan — the former Speaker of Parliament and newlywed.
Naturally, it was not the book itself but Nikol Pashinyan’s remarks at its presentation — about the need for a revolution — that attracted far greater attention. Apparently, according to Pashinyan, Armenia needs another revolution. Or, as a poet might put it, revolutions are not made again; they are made all over again.
It would appear that Nikol Pashinyan and his team are preparing to “reject Serzh” once again. Perhaps, by declaring the need for another revolution, Pashinyan was answering a question being raised in various parts of the opposition camp: why, for example, is Robert Kocharyan being imprisoned while Serzh Sargsyan is not? Perhaps Pashinyan is “saving” Sargsyan for a new revolution — so that he can reject him once again.
All of this would, of course, be genuinely amusing material, giving a boost to the genres of satire and humor in Armenia, if it were not about a profound crisis of governance — and one unfolding at a fateful juncture for the state. Eight years after 2018, Pashinyan’s “pocket” is so empty of new ideas and programs, so devoid of anything new to offer society, that he is preparing to bring back the “badly forgotten” old idea: revolution. And not merely one that has been badly forgotten, but one remembered with profound pain.
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Apparently, this time Nikol Pashinyan will start the revolution from a “zero point” as well — already without Artsakh. Perhaps it is even frightening to think about what will be “sacrificed” to the new revolution.
Hakob BADALYAN
