The evolution of Hayk Konjoryan

Vaհe H Apelian

Hayk Konjoryan given his iron ladle speech on January 1, 2017

Hayk Konjorian, is an outspoken member of the Civil Contract coalition that governs the Republic of Armenia led by the PM Nikol Pashinyan. He portrays to me the generation who came of age after Armenia restated its course as a free, independent republic on September 21,1991. At times they are referred to as the Independence Generation.  His Facebook account notes that he is the leader of the Civil Contract faction in the National Assembly of Armenia. 

The Armenian Wikipedia notes the following about him:

Hayk Konjoryan was born in 1987 in the city of Charentsavan, Soviet Armenia. In 2008, he graduated from the Faculty of History of Yerevan State University, and in 2010, he completed his master's degree at the Faculty of History of Yerevan State University. In 2013, he completed his postgraduate studies in world history.

He has been civic minded and has been politically active in Nikol Pashinyan led “Yelq”, “Civic Contract” political parties.  After the last general election on June 20, 2021, he was elected a deputy of the National Assembly of Armenia on the national electoral list of the "Civil Contract" party. He was subsequently elected the head of the "Civil Contract" faction of the 8th convocation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, a position he maintains. 

Hayk Konjoryan is married. The couple has a daughter.

Hayk Konjoryan

I came across Hayk Konjoryan for the first time eight years ago when he was a candidate for National Assembly deputy from Arabkir, Ajapnyak, Davitashen communities on behalf of the “They Way Out-Yelk” party. My records indicate that it was on January 1, 2017 when he presented his candidacy to an audience of around 600 people in a town hall filled to capacity. The theme of his speech was the famous speech Khrimian Hayrig gave after he returned from the Berlin Conference as the head of the Armenian delegation. Hayk Konjoryan had adopted the theme noting that “139 years have passed but the Armenian ladle still is not of iron”. 

As I look at that speech, he appears to be younger than his 30 years old age. What struck me was his young man’s interpretation of the ladle (paper?) speech. The common message that has been carried from Khrimian Hayrig is to resort to gun as the most assured way for the Armenians to have their rightful national grievances heard and their rightful goals achieved. But this young man’s interpretation of the Khrimian Hayrig’s message was far more in depth than what I was accustomed and expected to hear. That is why I opted to archive the speech in my Facebook account (see the link below).

The argument Hayk Konjoryan put forth was his view as to why the Armenian ladle is still not of iron after 139 years. He went on arguing that the answer is not a strong army alone, because a strong army without a strong a government is self-defeating.  Nor, he argued the answer is a strong government when its army is weak.  Neither the answer, he claimed, is a strong army and a strong government, Both cannot long endure when the economy is weak. He went on noting to his audience that 2000 of such capacity filled audience, totaling 1.2 million citizens have left the country arguing that they did not want to leave their homeland but they turned their backs to their unjust and corrupt government. 

One year after his speech, he also took his step as junior to with Ararat Mirzoyan (born in 1979), Araiik Haroutiunya (born in 1979), led by Nikol Pashinyan (born in 1975) that brought about the 2018 peaceful revolution in Armenia, known as the Velvet Revolution. It has always been the young and idealists that have changed the course of their nation as this Independence Generation did in Armenia. It should be noted that there is a generation gap between the principals of the Civic Contract party governing Armenia and the opposition led by Levon Ter Petrosyan (born in 1946), Robert Kocharyan (born in 1954), Serzh Sargsyan (born in 1954).

Hayk Konjoryan is now a mature, experienced, seasoned member of the National Assembly of Armenia and he is a forceful proponent of the ruling Civil Contract party that has proven to be an ideologically cohesive group thus far.  No Armenian leader and political party in the very recent history has been so tested as Nikol Pashinyan and his Civil Contract party did since they brought the change in 2018. 

I liken the inexperienced young men they were - Nikol Pashinyan, Ararat Mirzoyan, Araik Haroutiunyan, Vahagn Alexanyan and others - to the young civic activists and revolutionaries that became statesmen overnight as the founders of the First Republic of Armenia. I draw a parallel between the two in their political and foreign policy pragmatism to assure the longevity of the Republic of Armenia. 

When I was a young member of ARF badanegan associations, there was a song we used to sing dedicated to the Khanasor Expedition There is a line in that song that has remained etched in my memory. It read, referring to the young idealists in the expedition: “you are the hope of Armenia – Դուք էք յոյսը Հայաստանի»։ A century later it is the Armenia’s Independence Generation that is the best hope for sovereign Republic of  Armenia.

 I trust them and I wish them well.