The Sad State of a Traumatized Nation

Vahe H. Apelian

 

I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist but it is fairly commonly understood by the laity at large that rape victims experience psychological trauma that include disruption of their normal physical activities and in their interpersonal relations due to the emotional damage they incur. Clinicians even have coined a term for it, Rape Trauma Syndrome.

The unprovoked attack on Armenia by the Turkabaijan forces on September 27, 2020 was no less a recent rape of the Armenian nation on the verge of recovery from the devastating genocide it experienced in 1915. Many members of the 3rd or 4th post genocide generation claim on social media that it is now that they are appreciating the trauma their surviving forefathers experienced and what they had to go through.

It is not uncommon that the immediate social entourage of the victim, maybe even family members, blame the victim for the rape, alleging that the victim was reckless or had not taken precautions that would have prevented or avoided the person from being raped.  To this day it is not uncommon to read about countries that tend to blame, if not also punish, the victim of a rape, no less than punishing the perpetrator, 

It appears the Armenian nation is experiencing the same. The dictates for ending the war that were brokered by the Russians and were signed a month ago, on November 9 or 10, have traumatized the nation in a way and in a magnitude the nation had not experienced since 1915. But the nation has turned upon itself in an emotionally charged blame game and finger pointing. The rage the Armenians display are more directed at its government, under whose watch the unprovoked TurkaBaijan attack took place. Those who supported the Nikol Pachinyan led Velvet Revolution are no less blamed for having  supported the current Nikol Pachinyan led government and allege that it was the incompetence of the government that brought the catastrophe upon Armenia. Social media is abounded with comments and commentaries blaming the commander-in-chief PM Pachinyan for having signed the dictates of the victor which were mediated by the Russians and accuse him for being a traitor or for having engaged in a treasonous act.

The forces that opposed the PM Pachinyan government from the get-go, see their opposition validated. A coalition of 17 organizations is demanding PM Pachinyan's resignation and even are threatening to have him resign by forceful widespread civil disobedience. While those who support the PM and its government, see in the opposition a political revenge that transcends the war the country lost because the PM has accepted the responsibility of the war but claims that his government's priority is to address the aftermath of the war and has put forth an agenda that does include a national election in  six months.

In short, the nation is in a turmoil, ready to “devour” (յօշոտել) each other.

Recently a friend from Armenia reported that these days people attend the  Saint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral in Yerevan more than usual where they offer a prayer, at times remain seated in it for many hours hearing the mass to console themselves through the tragedy that befell upon them. Naturally, it is expected the church be the avenue for the traumatized nation to find comfort and renewal and expect to find similar comforting message and encouragement from its ecclesiastical fathers as honest brokers between the emotionally charged sides,

But, yesterday I heard Catholicos Aram I of the Catholicosate of Cilicia read  from his throne a pontifical letter addressed to the nation and presented to the nation a political route that is verbatim to what the opposition is advocating for the nationally elected PM to resign and be replaced by a candidate the opposition presents, who in turn will then hold a national election in the near future but himself will not take part in the election. 

I felt aghast. I had never imagined to hear from Catholicos Aram I, the kind of the pontifical letter he read to the nation in a tone befitting a catholicos . I wonder if there have been precedents tor such letters, the crux of which pertains to advocating a politicalfaction among the sons and daughters of the nation, his flock, who are pitted against each other in the free and independent Armenia we aspired. I understand the Karekin II of Etchmiadzin has also called for the PM to resign. The Armenian Apostolic church thus ceased to be a mediator in the ongoing sad state, saddening it more. The Apostolic church also ceased to be an instrument to quell emotions bordering to enmity and is now a partisan in favor of the opposition. In short, the shepherd ceased shepherding the whole flock and attending to their individual needs equally to bring cohesion in the flock.

Regrettably, there seems to be no one, and no institution is left to mediate in the ongoing inflammatory political process in Armenia. At least temper the language. If the Armenians are going to look for spiritual guidance that transcends politics, they may have to turn to their pagan gods Aramazt, Vahakn, Anahid, who truly transcend politics in their beloved Armenia; or find solace and wisdom in their Christian faith to temper venting on the streets in Yerevan, their frustrations and anger towards each  and to their nationally elected government humiliated by Armenia's arch enemies the Turks and the Azeris. .