«They torture me, humiliate me with the most filthy labels»: Anna Hakobyan's statement

Nikol Pashinyan's wife, Anna Hakobyan, has once again addressed her presence at command posts and other defensive areas during the 44-day war and the discussions surrounding this topic.

In a post on her Facebook page, she wrote: “What was the wife of the Prime Minister doing at command posts (in bunkers), in trenches, military units, and firing ranges, in the same places as generals, sergeants, and soldiers? For two years, various people both inside and outside Armenia have been subjecting me to torture, humiliating me with the most disgusting labels within the limits of their intellect and moral perceptions.

I honestly don't know which is preferable—whether after death animals should devour your lifeless body, or your compatriots should tear your soul apart while you are still alive, defiling your name. Is there a protocol regarding the location, meetings, attire, and actions of the Prime Minister's wife during wartime? Perhaps there is, and perhaps according to that protocol, the Prime Minister's wife should have been limited to rear-area work exclusively. That would be logical. Simply put, there was no room at the rear at that time; a major congestion had occurred as 10 million people were supporting the 100-200 thousand who were under fire.

It can be understandable the confusion of our grandmothers living in villages, who wonder, 'How can a woman be in the same room as the soldiers?' But I cannot understand the widespread complacency in the Armenian community that has provided a convenient environment for this filthy campaign against me to proceed uncontested for two years now. Where have the beliefs ‘the Armenian family is sacred, the Armenian woman/mother is a sanctity’ gone? Who and for which days were these proclamations made? Ah, I apologize, I remembered; the childless Armenian women are the sacred ones who gave birth to and donated heroes to the homeland. And we must always have such women in our lives, exactly like that—living monuments in black, so that when we say ‘the Armenian woman is sacred’, we know whom we are referring to. Our mothers are also sanctified if they have reached the age of 70. After being persecuted their entire lives, they may have such luck—before dying, to be worthy of this high title.

All other women—neighbor's wife, relative's wife, friend's wife, deceased friend's wife, official's wife, non-official's wife, women with human beings, without human beings, established women, unestablished women, beautiful women, ugly women, pleasant women, unpleasant women, rich women, poor women, educated women, uneducated women, women who rent, women who do not rent, pregnant women, and non-pregnant women—they are all, indiscriminately, either confirmed or potential immoralities as needed. The important thing is that there will always be heroic Armenian mothers who elevate the sacred image of the Armenian woman—a woman who has given birth to heroes for centuries and has lost the homeland for centuries.

But if these mothers, too, dare to step outside their reserved 'protocol of meetings', express an opinion, engage in public activism, or simply live—not merely as living monuments—they too will not be spared the most filthy insults. Moreover, they will not spare each other either.

This does not, however, concern Armenian women who have emigrated from Armenia and live in the diaspora, who lead their lives through a different culture. They fulfill their piece of sanctity by speaking Armenian to their children at home and teaching them to read and write in Armenian—thus heroically contributing to the sacred cause of preserving Armenian heritage. After all, when the homeland is at war and in need of its children, those children will not type their Facebook posts in Latin letters, but rather in Armenian letters.

By the way, there are people in Armenia and the Armenian world today who, after the entire calamity, are still able to voice public opinions against peace and in favor of war. Of course, if there is no war, there will also be no women in black, meaning that only established or potential moralities will remain. And we will be deprived of our source of inspiration, our forgiveness of sins, and our refuge from all spiritual miseries and weaknesses—the sacred figure of the Armenian woman.

And nevertheless, choosing war, which today still expresses itself in the thesis 'those who reconcile with the Turks are traitors,' is also a viewpoint that any person is free to express. Simply, if that person does not knock on the Ministry of Defense's door within 24 hours after expressing such a viewpoint and enlist in the army, then, how should I say, at the very least, it is immoral. And during wartime, someone who ‘ignores the call to battle’ is not even immoral.

In the picture: I don’t know what nationality the woman in the photo is, but we are all certainly confident that she is not Armenian. She is clearly not sacred, nor does she appear to be immoral or born of heroes, and nor is she an eagle; it is not said of her that 'the lion is a lion, whether female or male.' She is simply a human being. Let us allow ourselves to assume that she is the daughter of her country, a woman whose husband is on the battlefield, and a mother who demonstrates her determination to protect her child, her home, and her country. Wherever she may be, this woman is confident that she will not be devoured by her compatriots.”