You Are Inflicting Emotional Trauma on a Living Person for a Withered Tree, Says Founder of Armenian Travel Club

The founder of the Armenian Travel Club, Yasha Solomonian, expressed his thoughts on Facebook regarding the recent uproar over a well-known video of the Haghartsin tree.

"For several days now, the internet has been buzzing about the footage of the Haghartsin tree. Various websites, pages, and professional groups are all screaming, shouting, cursing, and insulting... I probably wouldn’t have even focused on this 'Armenian question' if it weren’t also a topic of discussion in our tourism groups. I want us to answer a few questions for ourselves at the very beginning:

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

Let’s start from the beginning. That dried-up stump, yes, the SPOUT, offered no value—neither cultural nor environmental. Yes, it was once a large and ancient walnut tree; yes, it was not treated well in the past, which resulted in its drying out, followed by a fire that led to its death... And today, from that ancient walnut, only a dry stump remains, which is useless to humanity and nature alike.

It definitely does not represent cultural value; otherwise, it would have been registered accordingly and would be under special protection.

Moving on to the second question of what happened: a young person unintentionally damaged the said dry SPOUT. Now, you might say, 'Didn’t he see that he was more corporeal than that passage, etc.?' Well, he didn’t think much and hence caused the damage.

So, what does this lead to? Here we come to the third question—the PROPORTIONALITY of the action and the reaction. I firmly believe that this mass psychosis is a grossly disproportionate reaction to what occurred.

I would understand your blatant outrage if we were talking about accidental damage to a cultural monument; if we were discussing a green tree that has been cut down; if we were addressing a natural monument that has had an official status. But we are talking about some SPOUT that certain groups attribute some nonsensical significance to.

By the way, let’s note that it has no relation to religion or faith. Any true believer knows well that trees cannot fulfill wishes and that only prayer is the true way to communicate with the Almighty. Atheists are also sure that no supernatural powers exist. So, what is this commotion, what is this wailing and gnashing of teeth?

Do you not understand that you are nailing someone to the pillar of shame for the sake of some dried-out tree, inflicting emotional trauma on a living human being with feelings, experiences, and emotions? Someone whom you don’t know, don’t recognize, and have no idea what they do. Who, by their existence, certainly provides far greater benefit to the world and humanity.

Can you even imagine the mental state of that guy who suddenly became the target of widespread discussion and attack, who is being cursed left and right, labeled... and for what, for accidentally breaking some stump?

What kind of aggression is this? What kind of inhumanity is this? Not to mention those political figures and so-called human rights advocates who, in the logic of the 'with the people, for the people' false agenda, try to harness the emotional waves of a large and somewhat ignorant crowd and continue to remain above water.

People, something is wrong; we are doing something wrong; think about it for a moment.

We have turned into a mad mob, looking for a dried-out board to crucify someone.
P.S. Every day, every hour, monuments are desecrated, polluted, and destroyed before our eyes; think about that.