Armenia The end of the state

“The important thing is not to lie to yourself.”

F. Dostoevsky

Years ago, the former Prime Minister of Armenia, Tigran Sargsyan, published a scientific-analytical article entitled “The End of the State”. I remember that the title alone caused me pessimistic emotions, but it was hard to assume that the title also had a fatalistic depth and would describe Armenia in the 2020s. The end of the state can be predicted or confirmed in the event that the status and factor of the given country in world processes is nullified, and the politics and morality within the country, as such, cease to exist. In parallel with this, the regime of self-deception joins in the ending states, in which the government, the opposition and a certain part of the society appear consciously or not.

Politics in Armenia ended when those occupying the radio station in Yerevan openly insulted, criticized, mocked the liberators of Shush, and the latter, for various reasons, are unable or unwilling to adequately respond to insults and criticisms. And as a logical continuation of this situation, the “radiotun occupiers” win the “Shushin liberators” in the elections.

And morality in today’s Armenia ended at the moment when some crook or crooks dared to insult, curse and even hit a disabled participant in the Artsakh war or a parent of a person killed in that war. The founding president of Turkey, Kemal Atatürk, in 1920. The parents of Turkish officers killed in the Turkish-Armenian war or destroyed by Armenian avengers were addressed as “devlet babasu”, meaning “father of the state”, and in today’s Armenia in 2020 the parents of those killed in the Turkish-Armenian war, our “fathers of the state” and “mothers of the state” are insulted, cursed, and even beaten. Moreover, these despicable actions do not receive any legal assessment, as they do in the case of taking any action against a representative of the government or any citizen close to the government. This is no longer a process of collapse of values,

And when the majority of our society is indifferent to all this, the majority of “intellectuals” are “bravely” silent and “do not see”, and the authorities are also busy with “very important” issues with a serious and sullen expression, then they join and quickly collects the regime of self-deception by absorbing the state as an idea. The regime of self-deception has created two unrelated realities in today’s Armenia: internal and external. We are losing in all respects in external reality and politics. Armenia has become a symbol of weakness, Armenians, at best, a nation worthy of superficial and hypocritical pity. And inside is a celebration of self-deception: standing ovations, applause, toasts to the defeated head of government.

The events are upside down: the authorities are unable to win any victory against their enemies, and celebrate a “crushing victory” against their internal opponents, the opposition, and heat up a crushing, self-righteous rhetoric towards them. People in different circles of power behave so confidently on television, in the National Assembly, on social platforms, and sometimes in public places, that the impression is created that these people have a dual personality and as if they and their power have not been defeated by our enemy, insult and humiliation. were not awarded. However, these “victories” of the government are first short-term and then fully correspond to the regime of self-deception, because even the complete crushing of the opposition in the ending state,

And for a large part of today’s opposition in Armenia, the so-called “Bourbon syndrome” is fully applicable. when the representatives of the French dynasty, after being overthrown, lost the throne, and then restored to power, resumed almost the same style that had brought them down, and came up with the very typical and apt political formula, “The Bourbons forgot nothing, but learned nothing.” By making tactical mistakes, “pouring new wine into old barrels”, the opposition presented to the public the most serious challenges threatening the existence of the state, but they interested a certain segment of society, which came out to protest rallies. I assume that not even a significant part of the public with that same concern went out to the streets, emphasizing not the nature of the slogan, but the characters that are unacceptable to him. It must be admitted, and it is an undeniable fact, that for a certain segment of our society, it is more important not to be subjected to unnecessary pressure from the tax authorities, paving the road, restraining those who live next to them and who have insolent and outrageous behavior, in short, conventionally speaking, the “elimination of all tolerance” than or Artsakh, Meghri, etc. Roughly speaking, a large segment of society makes a choice between its personal security and the security of the state and gives preference to the first one, because these global threats are not yet visible or significant for it, they are far away, and its daily comfort or security is concrete. For a large part of the society, it is not even important that they support the defeated government abroad. “those authorities lost to the Turk” but he has defeated his neigh-boring bully, the tax inspector, and other demonized real and fictional characters. Of course, it is a completely different topic of conversation, how far these positive developments presented by the authorities have anything to do with reality and what is the dose of falsehood, populism and hypocrisy in them.

We are currently living through a serious demystification phase, when it became clear that the state and national red lines that exist for us can be erased very quickly, and those with a mission to maintain them remain silent or unable to take any serious action. Conventionally speaking, the slogan “we will hand over the land to the land” was false, and the majority of those who voiced it were just pathetic, toast-level patriots. Most of the “horror faces” who have uncontrollable fury and brutally punish those who overtake their car seem to be silent when the value system of our statehood collapses, heroes, ideas, goals are dishonored. Voltaire has a very accurate assessment of the fall of the Holy Roman Empire. “It wasn’t sacred, it wasn’t Roman, it wasn’t an empire.”

Vazgen Sargsyan’s two thoughts in particular have been quoted a lot recently, but only one of them became a reality, and the other one has every chance of never becoming a reality. Vazgen Sargsyan thought that some people can “mix poison with our people”. yes, this is a reality today, and conventionally speaking, poison has been mixed into our flesh and that poison is starting to work, because the “freed from hell” are actually in hellish revelry and rejoicing in deaths. This rejoicing on social media and in real life over the deaths of dissenters, pregnant women, is just like a satanic ritual and is not the swallows of the “age of death”, but the ominous ravens. Well, Vazgen Sargsyan’s other wording that “one day Meghri may explode in Yerevan” is unlikely to come true and like Shushi, Hadrut did not explode in Yerevan.

In my opinion, the way of Armenia as a state is changing today. it becomes a country of service: amusements, restaurants, waiters in costumes, dancing with swords, and, in international political terms, a country of transit, a country of corridors. In such countries and societies, not real victories are important, but fake, sentimental victories, for example, dancing kochari with “dukh” in Western Armenia or elsewhere, “bravely” unfurling the Armenian flag on a boat in Lake Van, and celebrating micro-victories of that style. To be honest, for me those false, moral, sentimental “micro-victories” are not acceptable, but unpleasant.

We seem to have all come out against the state and statehood. the majority of today’s Armenian society is similar to the societies of the last periods of the collapsing states. Societies of this style do not have statehood. Precocious public speaker (Orientalist by education) Tigran Hayrapetyan made a very accurate observation as if predicting the social and political image of Armenia in the 2020s back in the 1990s. “The destruction of a civilization, the fall of a state, or the genocide of a people is the final stage of a long process that begins long before a natural disaster occurs, an enemy appears near the borders, or a decision is made to commit a terrible crime. …peoples who undergo such trials experience a period of internal chaos, demoralization and loss of values. The society first experiences agony from within, only then is it overtaken by a natural disaster or an external enemy. …A nation infected with such vices is doomed, and it does not matter at all who will play the role of executioner: Byzantium or Persia, Arabs or Mongols…”.

It is necessary to stop, remove the society from the clutches of self-destructive revelry, turn off the engine of self-deception, restore moral standards, remove state-destructive and nation-destructive forces and figures and save the state.

Ruben Melkonyan