I Had a Friend Named Nikol: Vahe Varsyan

Founder of Vaga-Farm and former member of the Armenian National Congress, Vahe Varsyan's letter, published by Hetq.am, is presented below.

“At the 40th-day memorial of my friend Davit Vardanyan, I met Misha Chalabyan, the father of Avetik Chalabyan. He told me that the chairman of the Central Bank, Martin Galstyan, had told his younger son, Ara Chalabyan, to write a letter of resignation. The chairman said he was forced to do so by the government; otherwise, he, Martin Galstyan, would write a resignation letter himself. Considering the long-standing close relationship with Nikol Pashinyan, I wrote to him about this and awaited a response. There had been media publications on this topic, but there was no denial. The mere existence of such an issue already devalued the response. Martin Galstyan wouldn't lie about being compelled to convey such information to Ara Chalabyan.

When writing to Nikol about this issue, a significant wall fell in our human relationship. Not receiving an answer until Wednesday, I called him today. “I’ve read the letter. Let’s not discuss this issue,” Pashinyan responded. “If we’re not discussing this issue, then what other issues should we discuss? We didn’t change power in ‘18 just for this.” He continued to repeat, “Let’s not discuss this issue, let’s not discuss this issue.”

In fact, not addressing the issue has resulted in an unfair case being made against Avetik Chalabyan; it's not enough, now they’ve targeted the brother as well. This is a specific instance of political persecution. By persecuting innocent people, closing one and dismissing another, Pashinyan is trying to create an atmosphere of fear. If your governmental system is such that at any moment, an innocent person can be punished, many will begin to fear and be cautious, realizing the same could happen to anyone. If a case is being fabricated against Avetik Chalabyan, then his brother has no right to work in the government system, regardless of being a highly qualified specialist and the job being apolitical.

Ara Chalabyan has come under scrutiny, not realizing that his actions prove that the case against Avetik Chalabyan is fabricated, a political persecution. With the state failing in all sectors, we are in a process of losing the state, and every step taken by Nikol Pashinyan is aimed solely at maintaining his power. Whether it’s restoring oligarchs to their statuses before 2018, applying the law enforcement system against those who don’t think like him, or persecuting innocent people.

We changed power in 2018 to free ourselves from a greedy, ignorant, corrupt, and rotten regime, confident that we wouldn’t face such systemic problems, intending to restore what we lost step by step through daily work. That hasn’t happened; all issues have deepened, and we lost the war. Additionally, according to Shvarz, we gained an ordinary dragon.