Nichol Pashinyan Fears This: Artak Zakaryan

Former Deputy Minister of Defense and member of the Republican Party, Artak Zakaryan, writes on his Facebook page:

THE TERRIBLE STATE OF HUMAN RELATIONS
There has always existed, through tradition, a mutual respect formed in human relationships, family and educational upbringing, and social norms that have prevented crossing boundaries.

Imagine if social networks had been accessible to everyone in the early 2000s, and they contained hate-filled posts. Back then, those who publicly insulted or expressed offensive thoughts would have been seen as mentally ill, street behavioral types, and would have been expelled from any platform under shame and condemnation. Because, regardless of good or bad relations, people want to maintain the culture of clean communication with each other.

During the change of power, citizens’ stances were dictated by pragmatic adventure-seeking from the organizers, meaning blocking streets, banging spoons, organizing virtual funerals, spreading insults and lies on social media, and so on. This way, citizens became “decisive” in the process of power change.

What role does the citizen have now, and how should they participate in social relationships? Today, every citizen is a potential claimant; they have the right to raise any issue and demand a solution from the authorities. Nikol Pashinyan is well aware of this and fears exactly that. People in meetings have begun to openly state, “We blocked the streets for you,” to which Pashinyan evasively responds, saying that they did not block streets for him.

The high-profile arrests of representatives of the former authorities, the unproven public accusations against them, state media broadcasts about a good life, regularly produced live broadcasts, demonstrative walks, visits to theaters and brothels, and publications of fantastic statistical indicators are quickly exhausting their impact.

Now they have moved to casting light scenes, meaning the publicization of various episodes that are not supposed to be discussed in government meetings. Who knows what topic will emerge tomorrow in our insult-laden virtual relationships? And so it goes every day.

What are we doing today, I mean all of us together, including the diaspora? The Russians have a good saying: Балуемся.
Political relationships have been zeroed out, there is no internal political discourse (it doesn’t exist even within the government, and discussions among them also turn into offensive speech).

A political agenda that stems from the long-term security and sustainable development interests of our state is simply absent. Besides conversational or rally announcements, no external political thought or concept exists.

The economic situation has improved so much that we have surpassed Azerbaijan and Georgia, but then it turned out that we had not surpassed them (of course, it would have been better if we had). And investments have increased so much that even the government is investing in a foreign low-cost airline called Ryanair.

The judicial system has become so independent that after all these experimental strictures, members of the Constitutional Court have “shamelessly” still not resigned and continue to resist for the sake of the constitution. There is no word about other courts and judges either; they too have liberated from the grip of republicans and are now ready to detain anyone left and right.

In social matters, an easy formula has been found: to reduce or close – save money – then distribute it to others (many institutions will still be found to close). Migration has not turned into immigration contrarily. The danger of war continues to exist as it has been.

…It’s interesting how long it will be possible to blind people’s eyes, manipulate their consciousness, and constantly refresh an atmosphere of deception and illusion with new imaginations, selling small achievements as significant victories. And who needs this social environment that spoils, falsifies, distorts, and poisons human relationships, whose only purpose is to divide society? Have people become so weak and deprived of independent thinking that insulting social media has to shape opinions for them? I am confident that there are many rational thinkers and decent people in our society, and that is the guarantee of the future.