“Were we Armenians before 301 AD or not? Obviously, we were. But before 301 AD, there was no Christianity, no alphabet, no Church. So what made us Armenian? Why were we called Armenians? The answer is obvious: we were called Armenians because our kings were Armenian. This proves the thesis that our state is our identity and our identity is our state. And this is a fundamental point to register for our future perceptions and actions,” Nikol Pashinyan declared at an event billed as the Global Armenian Summit, seeking to “promote” his so-called “Real Armenia” concept.
Apparently, Nikol Pashinyan is announcing new breakthroughs in Armenian studies. It turns out that Armenians originated from kings: we are called Armenians because our kings were Armenian. Of course, “Pashinyan-style Armenian studies” may not yet have come up with an answer to the obvious follow-up question: why were our kings Armenian, or why were they called Armenian in the first place? But Nikol Pashinyan has not ventured particularly deep into the complexities of that question or its possible answers, because doing so could have distracted from the so-called rationale for “Real Armenia” and led to entirely opposite conclusions. Accordingly, we should stick to the hypothesis that we originated from kings: we are called Armenians because our kings were Armenian. In other words, we are a nation born of kings.
This is no accidental bit of “Armenian scholarship” that Nikol Pashinyan is trying to advance. He speaks of creating a so-called Fourth Republic and presents himself as the man who will bring that republic into being. Thus, within the framework of the “historical theory” outlined above, if Armenians are a nation born of kings, the Fourth Republic is Pashinyan-born. Which, in turn, means that those living in the Fourth Republic will be called something corresponding to the state and its “king”. And since all indications are that, should the Fourth Republic become a reality, Armenians will not be the only people living in that country, its inhabitants will have to be given a new collective name—one that is no longer Armenian. And since the proposed concept is that people should be named after their king, those living in the state “born” of Nikol Pashinyan will be called something in keeping with that logic—for example, Pashinyanist Armenians, or, in short, Parmenians.
Hakob BADALYAN
