Over the past two years Nikol Pashinyan has managed to present two concepts around which he intends to build the future of the Armenian people: “crossroads of peace” and “real Armenia”. The fundamental paradox is not that the concepts have been brought up by a man who once declared that he does not believe in any “-isms” as all theories and concepts are obsolete and irrelevant. This is probably the only time that this personage has been completely open and honest, because he does not believe in anything, knows nothing and does not understand anything indeed. Quite an unsurprising “discovery” for those who closely follow and analyse the actions of this perpetually shoddy journalist. But still let’s grasp the sick reality where the crossroads of the mythical “peace” lead.
Putting an ultimatum in the spirit of “either I get the power, or I will order a revolutionary apocalypse” in 2018, Pashinyan had already clearly articulated the program of his reign. Yet again, there was nothing secret, ingenious, or supernatural about it. Nikol is a product of ideological copulation of three noteworthy creatures: the first president of the country Levon Ter-Petrosyan, public figure Ashot Bleyan eager to establish peace with Turkey and Azerbaijan at any cost, and a “progressive intellectual” businessman Khachatur Sukiasyan, who in the late Soviet years engaged in racketeering and protection racket (providing protection – “roof” – in exchange for money) in Yerevan’s “Shilachi” (also known as “Silachi”) district together with his hombres. The program was very simple, and the aforementioned troika spoke of it openly and frankly: to deprive Armenia of a chance for state subjectness and sovereignty and to turn it into a second-rate cheap regional hotel.
To be sure, this goal was not so difficult to achieve. Pashinyan’s predecessors, represented by local feudal lords and oligarchs, substituted for whole institutions. They have subjugated the entire country, extracting material dividends from it and outsourcing its national security to foreign actors. A false narrative had been created that Armenia was too small to determine the fate of the Armenian people on its own. In their mindset, a state devoid of access to the sea, oil, and gas should focus on only one thing – the search for a geopolitical patron. A simple, effortless path. Why develop a national security strategy, what is a foreign policy concept for, what for develop science and education, if you can just extend the presence of a military base of another country for another half a century and expect loans from the very same country to purchase exactly its military equipment? Instead of statehood, an inertial existence dependent on a patron procurer, instead of an educated nation, a humiliated divided people, instead of the national aristocracy and bourgeoisie – opportunists and timeservers pretending to be philanthropists and benefactors worried about the fate of country. Total vacuum on all fronts and a thoroughfare for foreign subjects of all sorts.
In 2018, Pashinyan, who had hitherto been remembered only by the hysterical cries in the parliament assembled on behalf of the hated Serzh Sargsyan (to whom he gave legitimacy by playing the role of a tame opposition for mutual benefit), nicely and easily took power from those who had engaged in inter-clan and interpersonal feuds on the half-alive body of the country. Classic plot, classic outcome. No one with the mind intact would believe that in a real meaningful working state, there is a scenario where a yellow journalist, along with a DJ, a travel agent, and a catering worker, just in a week could become a political decision-maker on whom the life and the future of a multi-million nation would depend. At first they ruled under the masquerade of “velvet” madness, which turned a bunch of amateurs into “Saviors sent by the Lord”. As it withered away, the trump cards of exploiting the fear of the return of the “ex-baddies” were thrown into play, who in turn frightened their people that the new “feudal lords” were not to the liking of the patron providing protection.
People were unable to comprehend that both the creatures and the patrons have been involved in the same campaign of intimidation (doesn’t matter by who or how). The people were forced to believe, accept, and be guided by the principle of the lesser of ever growing evils. Everything else would follow from this: if we don’t give up on Artsakh, we will get a war against Armenia, if we don’t surrender some territories of Armenia, we will lose Armenia itself, if we don’t forget about Tigranes the Great and the Genocide, we will enrage Turkey, which can destroy Armenia. Hundreds of spoilers have been created: some are telling the salvation lies in winning the past patron back, others are foaming at the mouth as they proclaim a new procurer, which would now certainly protect from all adversity. Now they have to convince the Armenians that the best thing their country can be is the mythical “Crossroads of peace” – a kind of geopolitical and economic paradise where peace, friendship of peoples, prosperity, and eternal birdsong reign. If this means surrendering new territories, outlawing history, dismantling the Tsitsernakaberd (memorial to the victims of the Armenian Genocide), changing the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, renouncing international charges against Azerbaijan for crimes against humanity forever, supporting the hypocritical COP-29 in Azerbaijan – so be it. Welcome to the “Real Armenia” hotel ruled by long-term investors (Turkey and Azerbaijan), where the customer is always right and the Armenian is just a servant.
