9 November stands for one of the most tragic and disgraceful pages of our history. On that day, the authorities of the Third Republic, in a display of utmost amateurishness and faint-heartedness, had determined to put an end once and for all to the question if there is any future for the country and the people. For a while, it wasn’t allowed to talk about it as the chief architect of this high treason was anticipating an internal explosion. He vanished everywhere, including Facebook he adores, only taking reports from his would-be minion Janissaries forecasting the ‘magnitude’ of the expected outburst. Without any doubt, Nikol Pashinyan spent the first hours after signing the act of unconditional surrender worrying about how his earthly life was going to end. Perhaps similar to King Louis XVI, decapitated before an exultant crowd? Or rather like his Romanian namesake Nicolae Ceaușescu, who was executed together with his wife Elena at the walls of the very court that ruled on their capital punishment in just one day? It’s hard to imagine how ‘disappointed’ Pashinyan was when he realised that the imminent nationwide tsunami just lightly hit Ararat Mirzoyan (Janissary head of the Foreign Ministry) and ruined a few chairs and laptops in the government premises.
Spyurk (communities abroad) was profoundly embittered and frustrated, cursing Nikol from fashionable Glendale neighbourhoods, Marseille beaches, and Moscow parlours. With the ‘courageous and determined opposition’ accompanied by the humble Armenian Church and the aggressively silent Artsakh leadership, as the cherry on the top. Seeing the whole picture from a bird’s-eye view while being still alive, Pashinyan realised that he can and should accomplish much ‘more’ than mere extermination of Artsakh and Armenia. Instead of repentance and resignation, he has chosen to renew his reigning mandate. It marked the first and most crucial test of the resilience of the nation’s immunity. A society with at least moderate protection would not let a man who has humiliated the entire nation declare or initiate anything. Meanwhile, in our case, he acted like a proper Roman emperor after a triumph – ‘he returned (from the bunker), he declared (the election), he conquered’. He made retreat all those who dared to question his greatness – President Armen Sarkissian, who offered an alternative way out, and General Onik Gasparyan, Chief of the General Staff, who cooled his ardour quite sharply as well.
Beyond that, Pashinyan was inspired by the flattery of the mighty of this world. The Emperor of All Russia called him a hero of his people, while the Sheriff of the United States and his subjects in Europe have been relentless in showing support to all his endeavours. But all of it pales next to what Turkish Sultan Recep Erdoğan actually did for him. He unequivocally proclaimed that Pashinyan is under his personal protection and the entire second NATO army will be brought to full combat readiness should that collaborationist regime in Yerevan be under any threat. The people is divided and humiliated, national and state immunity has been destroyed as a result of the ‘great fathers’ of the Republic’ 30-year rule, the Church has been turned into an appendage of the feudal system, the Spyurk has degenerated, while the external agency has seized control of the entire strategic infrastructure, both political and economic. What could possibly threaten him, the new vizier of ‘Real Armenia’, which is becoming a part of the entrenched Turkish world, brought about by the ‘ingenious’ geopolitical game of the great masters of the West and the East? No one and nothing, thus it is time to proceed to the next and foremost stage, the elimination of meanings.
The occupation of Artsakh, its blockade and subsequent expulsion of the Armenian population from there, and the penetration of Azerbaijani troops into Armenian territory are severe and tangible blows, albeit not deadly. After World War I, Turkey was on the verge of complete collapse and extinction. The existential threat spawned a national aristocracy led by Mustafa Kemal, who came to be better known as Ataturk – the father of the Turks. Indeed, he became the founding father not only of the Turkish Republic, but the new Turkish nation, one whose interests are now respected by the entire world. The current Turkish leadership realises the historical chance not only to subjugate Armenia, but to destroy the Armenian identity, which is rooted in historical memory, once and for all. Wherever Armenians are born and bred, they are always drawn to the habitat of their ancestors. We can be in whatever condition, but as long as we remember, nothing is lost. The foundation is the memory, we must not lose it and let it be tampered with.
It was on this day of 9 November that the process of annihilation of our fundamental meanings, which Nikol Pasha and his Janissaries would later label as obstacles to the great peace, began. They would follow their Turkish masters in casting doubt on the fact of the Genocide, asserting that this issue should be addressed by historians, not politicians. They would reduce the rich history of Armenian civilisation to the current Republic’s lifespan of 30 years. Thirty years seems too optimistic, though, for the period between 1991-1994 (the liberation of Artsakh) will be excised as well, or denounced as a ‘big mistake of Armenian nationalists’ of the kind of Vazgen Sargsyan, Monte Melkonian, and Leonid Azgaldyan. Their statues will be dismantled, as will their tombstones in the Yerablur pantheon. The 2000-2018 period will be labelled the age of reign of Russian agents. Consequently, the history of the Third Republic will be narrowed down to the scope of ‘Real Armenia’ i.e. ‘Turkish Armenia’. Armenian history, the Armenian Church, Armenian communities united by the memory of the Genocide are all to be obliterated. For the intended outcome is to devastate the Armenian, turning them into an empty disembodied form to be easily filled with whatever one wishes. So far this process has already taken place (due to the absence of national aristocracy), but now imagine the pace of its unfolding under present conditions, when Armenian world is devoid of all footholds, of its honour (as embodied by liberated Artsakh) and dignity (historical memory). That is why Turkish collaborationists exhibit some extra audacious behaviour on the each 9th of November. Nikol Pasha’s wife who posts cheerful photos on social media on that day is a glaring example of this. The essence of these kind of publications is obvious – to stress to Armenians that the 9th of November is the day of colonisation of Armenia and conversion of its citizens into slaves. As interim governors, the authors of those publications are celebrating the day with an undisguised smile. To some extent, such frankness is helpful, since it will make it easier for the future Armenian aristocracy, which will undertake decolonisation and delineate the red lines of our identity, to organise a Romanian-inspired single-day trial with all the ensuing consequences for its ‘defendants’.
