The 62 Lucky Men and the First of All Ladies

Apparently, there are 62 ‘successful’ men in Armenia, or, simply, 62 men willing to pay 1 million drams for the chance to savour the splendid presence of the Prime Minister’s wife, Anna Hakobyan. Being bestowed with such an honour requires luck indeed. This is in reference to a charity dinner organised by Anna Hakobyan’s My Step Foundation, aimed at raising funds for the Youth Dream project from successful businessmen.

While it was hosted at one of the high-end restaurants in Yerevan run by a successful owner implementing large government-funded investment programmes in agriculture, with a musical accompaniment by Yervand Yerznkyan, renowned court performer, Honoured Art Worker of the Republic of Armenia and People’s Artist, from the expressions and lowered heads of the participants of the celebration, one can still tell that many were attending the event unwillingly, some of them even being ashamed of being present.

Indeed, how can an Armenian man of dignity cheerfully break bread with a ‘lady’, no matter how first, who seizes every opportunity to be photographed beaming alongside her Turkish counterpart; who invited Mehriban Aliyeva to Artsakh for mugham, while wearing jewellery melted from bullets; who ‘commanded’ not to grieve the mothers of the young men who just a little earlier sacrificed their lives in the name of their homeland; who believes that thousands of Armenians gave their lives ‘for nothing’; who carelessly cruises European capitals in tragic moments for the Armenian people, while cheerfully posting on social media? This list could go on, but for those ‘gentlemen of fortune’ to realise with whom they are sharing a table, it should suffice to recall that, ‘thanks to’ this ‘lady’s’ husband, the very same Armenian youth have forfeited their dream – the right to dignified life in a free, independent, and sovereign Armenia, while young people coming from Artsakh were deprived of their homes and the opportunity to visit the tombs of their loved ones, that it is with his light hand that Armenia is steadily becoming a Turkish colony. After all, to break bread with such a person is to stand complicit.