Pashinyan Tried to Imitate the Behavior of the President of Belarus, Gagik Hambaryan Says

During the visit of the Prime Minister of Armenia to the Noragavit customs checkpoint, several statements made have been actively discussed in expert, political, and civil circles for several days.

Recall that the Prime Minister first made a remark regarding cleanliness, specifically mentioning, "Especially on the day of my visit, why is there garbage on the ground? This is a 25-year-old trash problem; this is an issue of our country’s image. This is a disgraceful dirty area. This is an attitude towards people, towards our flag and emblem. This is unacceptable behavior. You’ll deduct from their bonuses now and bring them here to get things in order." Upon reaching one of the customs rooms, Nikol Pashinyan addressed a uniformed inspector, saying, "When the Prime Minister approaches, you must stand straight, this is not how you stand (showing a relaxed stance)." Then, upon seeing a flag placed in the corner, he was furious, saying, "You’ll write your resignation and go home, did you hear? Everyone who has worked in this room should be dismissed. The way they stand, their dress, it’s as if they are in the streets.

It’s good that they haven’t fled. What does it matter that it’s rented space? When we go to live in a rented house, do we say, ‘Let it be a pigsty’?

Sociologist Karen Sargsyan believes that the Prime Minister is forced to address issues that he had not planned to solve. "It turns out that while resolving large-scale issues, there are small-scale issues that do not receive any solution. The Prime Minister is forced to work as a department head and not as a Prime Minister, which is not good," he said in an interview with ‘Zhamanak’.

Sargsyan added, "The problem is that the Prime Minister has other expectations. His tone and the nervous situation arise from the fact that he did not expect these issues to still be relevant a year later. The Prime Minister expected the revolutionary momentum to carry over into the workplace. But people have long been accustomed to a different work style; they are not used to someone taking an interest in their well-being. Now someone has come and is showing interest, and this creates a conflict. From a purely sociological perspective, this is quite clear, academically normal, but from a human perspective, this situation is not normal," noted our interlocutor.

According to our interlocutor, the Prime Minister is forced to make such decisions as there are no other mechanisms to control the situation. "The Prime Minister is forced to make drastic decisions, and making those decisions means saying yes to one and no to another. When you are just managing people, choosing one path over another means depriving some people of something to achieve a common goal. I reiterate, this is a normal process; it’s impossible without it, and it had to be this way. Simply, part of the population is accustomed to something else. The person has been in power for a year; certain steps are being taken, and suddenly we find ourselves facing the exact same problems we faced a year ago. Who can withstand this? But I actually consider this a sign of weakness; this is also a result of not being in major politics, and his biggest problem is precisely this," he stated.

Political scientist Gagik Hambaryan noted in an interview with ‘Zhamanak’ that Mr. Pashinyan is engaged in elementary "plagiarism." "He tried to imitate the behavior of the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, who, upon visiting a farm in one of the regions, was enraged at the state of the livestock, ordered the dismissal of several regional leaders, and arrested the farm director. But Mr. Pashinyan forgets that he came to power with a different mandate—to restore the rule of law, and imitating Batka does not quite align with the mandate that Pashinyan assumed," the newspaper writes.

Read the full article in today’s edition of the newspaper.