When we step outside Armenia’s Independence Day celebrations, we have to acknowledge with pain that very little may be left of that independence — and perhaps what remains is largely symbolic.
On the ground, there is the dominant “ideology” or “concept” of the “Real Armenia,” which is essentially an information and propaganda campaign aimed at adapting Armenian society to Azerbaijan’s strategic vision of statehood.
It also has a “reserve,” or parallel, name and package: the “Fourth Republic.” Nikol Pashinyan seeks to present himself as its architect, although at the level of practical politics he is not the architect but rather the “builder” — one might even say the person doing the “manual labor.” Because the architect of the “Real Armenia–Fourth Republic” project, within the actual political regime, is Azerbaijan.
Moreover, it is even possible that Azerbaijan is, so to speak, the “main contractor” of the “Fourth Republic,” while Nikol Pashinyan and the Civil Contract party he leads are the “subcontractor.”
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Who is the client commissioning the project? This is perhaps a more complicated question, because it is apparent that, within the geopolitical environment, the project as a whole is considered legitimate — or desired — by all sides, among all the major stakeholders.
That is why no one is merely standing in the way of “subcontractor” Pashinyan carrying out his work; on the contrary, he is even receiving support, each actor in its own way.
Unfortunately, this is the current everyday reality of 35-year-old Armenian statehood.
And the whole point is that a real state is about everyday life, not festive finery.
Therefore, genuine public thought that values the state and statehood must focus on everyday reality. Otherwise, a state reduced merely to festive pageantry very quickly turns into nothing more than a memory.
Hakob BADALYAN
