Justice Minister Srbuhi Galyan expresses her distress, recalling that following the death of Arsen Gevorgyan, people may send her messages and direct curses at her family members, including her child. This is reprehensible, beyond any question. Nevertheless, given that this is a matter of public concern, that the phenomenon has become widespread, and that the political force which, de facto, introduced it into public life is the very one Galayan represents and supports in this way—at times with brazen cynicism—it is worth examining the phenomenon in all its aspects and making a few observations.
First, does Ms Galayan, whose distress is entirely understandable, give any thought to the relatives and family members of Arsen Gevorgyan, who died in custody, to their emotional state and how they perceive things, when she declares that “people die everywhere in the world, including in penitentiary institutions”? You cannot play with the button of a nuclear reactor and then say that “the use of nuclear weapons is unacceptable.” Let me stress that I am in no way writing this to justify curses. But it was the current ruling force that started playing with that “button” when it came to power, and it is the one that must put an end to it. Will Srbuhi Galyan, for instance, raise this issue within the ranks of her own political force? Will she call for an end to this war? Will she acknowledge that it is a path to complete disintegration, one that must be blocked as quickly as possible?
At the same time, will she consider the possibility that she herself could be a target not of public backlash, but of a political tactic? A tactic whose purpose might be to use an attack on her, for example, to strengthen the government’s position against the opposition. Can she rule out the possibility that all these messages directed at her are merely a weapon wielded by the authorities themselves, only to be later planted in the opposition-minded public’s pocket, so as to shift responsibility and blame over the tragic death of an opposition figure? I would not rule it out.
But let me repeat: even while not ruling out this “roundabout tactic,” targeting anyone’s family is unequivocally reprehensible. Yet the one who let the genie out of the bottle must be the one to put it back. There is simply no other way: the genie obeys no one but the one who set it free. Instead of keeping political opponents behind bars and putting their lives at risk, put the Genie back in the bottle.
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Hakob BADALYAN
