Do You Understand That You Are Nailing a Pillar of Shame for a Withered Tree, Inflicting Psychological Trauma on a Living Person with Feelings and Emotions? Yasha Solomonyan

Yasha Solomonyan, the president of the Armenian Association of Professional Guides, wrote on his Facebook page: "For several days now, the internet has been shaken by the well-known video of the tree in Haghartsin. Different websites, pages, and professional groups have been shouting, cursing, and insulting... I probably wouldn’t have even paid attention to this 'Armenian issue' if it weren’t relevant in our tourism groups as well.

I want us to answer a few questions for ourselves from the very beginning:

1. What kind of tree was that?
2. What happened?
3. Was the reaction proportional to the act?

Let's start from the beginning. This dried-up tree stump, yes, exactly the STUMP, does not represent any value from a cultural or environmental perspective. Yes, it was once a large, ancient walnut tree, and yes, it has not been treated well over time, resulting in its drying up and subsequently burning to death... And today, only a dry stump remains of that ancient walnut, which is useful neither to humanity nor to nature.

It unmistakably does not represent cultural value; otherwise, it would have been officially registered and placed under special protection.

Moving on to the second question of what happened, let’s note that a young individual accidentally damaged the dry STUMP. Now, you might say, ‘Didn’t he see that he was heavier than that passage and so on and so forth...’ Well, he didn’t think long and therefore caused damage.

So, what’s the outcome? Here we come to the third question—the PROPORTIONALITY of the act and the reaction. I deeply believe that this mass psychosis is a very disproportionate response to what happened.

I would understand your blatant outrage if this were about the accidental damage of a cultural monument, if this were about a green tree that was cut down, if this were about some natural monument that has official status. But we are talking about some STUMP, to which certain groups have assigned some superstitious significance.

By the way, let’s note that it has no connection to religion or faith. Any true believer knows very well that trees cannot fulfill wishes, that only prayer is the true way to communicate with the Almighty. Atheists are also confident that there are no supernatural powers. So, what is this agitation, what is this lamentation?

No, do you understand that for some dried-up tree, you are nailing someone to a pillar of shame, inflicting psychological trauma on a living PERSON with feelings, emotions, and experiences? Someone you don’t know, don’t know who he is or what he does. Someone whose existence certainly brings greater benefits to the world and humanity.

Can you at least imagine the mental state of this guy, who in one day became the target of public discussion and attack, who is insulted left and right, stigmatized... and for what? For accidentally damaging some stump?

What kind of aggression is this, what kind of inhumanity is this? I’m not even talking about the so-called political figures and human rights defenders, who, in the logic of a false agenda of 'with the people, for the people,' are trying to unleash the emotional wave of a large and somewhat ignorant mass and continue to stay above water.

People, something is wrong; we are not doing something right, take a moment to reflect on this. We have become a frenzied mob, searching for a dried board to crucify someone on.

P.S. Every day, every hour, monuments are being desecrated, polluted, and destroyed before our eyes; think about that.