MY STEP, My take

 Vahe H. Apelian

I owe my introduction to Nikol Pachinyan to Keghart.com. In fact, I can pinpoint the day. It was on November 27, 2010, when Keghart.com sent an appeal to its readers to sign a petition to “Free Journalist Nikol Pachinyan”.  The appeal read: “we are deeply concerned in the imprisonment of Nikol Pachinyan, the editor-in-chief of Haykakan Zhamank (“Armenian Time”) daily in Armenia, and his treatment in jail.  While Mr. Pachinya’s voluntary surrender to law enforcement agencies should have been duly noted by the Armenian authorities, the veteran journalist has experienced coercion behind bars. We attest that these reprehensible acts of the authorities – aimed at silencing Mr. Pachinyan and punishing him for his political views – will have the opposite outcome, making the editor’s voice heard more forcefully in Armenia and in the Diaspora.”

The appeal arose my interest and I found out that that Serzh Sargsyan government had found the thirty-five years old journalist, who had founded his popular journal at the age of 24, menacing enough to have issued an arrest warrant and the journalist, surely aided by his friends, had gone into hiding in Armenia. After almost a year and a half in hiding, he had surfaced on July 1, 2009, and voluntarily presented himself to the authorities and was convicted with imprisonment for seven years but was released from prison on May 27, 2011, after remaining in prison for a year and ten months. Keghart.con's appeal had been posted some six month's before his release.

Several years later, on April 2. 2017, the alliance he had formed named Yelk – Way Out, participated in the 2017 parliamentary election and won 9 seats out of 105-member National Assembly (NA). The Republican Party of Armenia, headed by Serzh Sargsyan had the majority seats, 58. The other two parties in the NA were the Tsarukyan alliance that had secured 31 seats with the ARF having 9 seats. Subsequently the ARF allied itself with the Republican Party and became part of the governance of Armenia. What impressed me most was the vocal and passionate deliberations Nikol Pachinyan put forth during the NA sessions. But, little one could have imagined that a year later the journalist would make history by becoming the second PM of the fourth republic, the parliamentary republic of Armenia by being elected its PM on May 8, 2018, by securing 58 votes, well beyond the 53 votes he needed, in a snap National Assembly session.

This historic change of governance came about when Nikol Pachinyan started his MY STEP protest march from Gumri on March 31, 2018, against the PM Sargyan. There was little evidence that the march of the journalist would result in change of governance.

Previously attempts to bring about change of governance had failed. On March 30, 2011, the third Armenian Republic’s first Foreign Minister, Raffi Hovannisian, who had raised the tricolor at the United Nations heralding the entry of the free and independent Republic of Armenia onto the fold of the nations, declared the end of his solo hunger protest. During the previous fifteen days long fast, seated in Yerevan’s Liberty Square, he drank only water and had remained seated there in a silent protest. His family and many of his Jarangutyun (Heritage) party attended the event. Nothing came out of the hunger strike and it was soon forgotten and governing continued as it did.

But Nikol Pachinyan’s march hit a dormant nerve in Armenia and others joined his march towards Yerevan demanding the ouster of the PM Sargsyan. The multitude protesters against Serzh Sargyan reached the Liberty square in Yerevan on April 13, after having marched for 195 Km (126 miles). The rest is history. Suffice to say that on May 1, 2018, Nikol Pachinyan presented to the National Assembly his vision should he take the helm of the nation. It was apparent that the vision he laid down was directed against internal excesses of the ruling during the previous quarter of century and that no change in foreign policy matters would be anticipated. He only received 48 votes during that session and hence was not elected but was elected during the snap National Assembly session a week later, on May 8, 2018, as was noted above after securing 58 votes when he only needed 53 votes out of the 105 members strong National Assembly.

This was not the first such grass route national movement Armenians had engaged in during our recent history and in all of them the Armenian Revolutionary Federation has played a role. I leave up to the interested reader to gauge the magnitude of the role the ARF played as on May 1, 2018, ARF broke rank from the Republican Party of Armenia and voted in favor of Nikol Pachinyan and continued supporting him during May 8, 2018, snap National Assembly session. Without the nine ARF votes in the NA in Nikol Pachinyan’s favor, he would not have been elected as the second PM of the forth republic, the parliamentary Republic of Armenia. 

The PM Pachinyan led turn of events was called the Velvet Revolution. Most likely it was Nikol Pachinyan who coined the term. Many, in a false narrative, argued that it was not a revolution but that it was a regime change. Revolution is a means and change of regime is its goal. Their comparison is much like an apple to an orange comparison.  In fact, revolution is defined as “the forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favor of a new system.” Indeed, it was a revolution that brought about a regime change in Armenia in a bloodless revolution and by constitutional order.

The My Step led Velvet Revolution became a high point in my life. But, did it fail?

Three tumultuous years have passed since April and May 2018. Those three years are way too premature to render a judgement. Lenin led Russian Communist revolution imploded and failed after seven decades. Mao Zedung led Chinese Communist revolution morphed into quasi capitalism decades later; Kim Il Sung led Korean Communist Revolution became a dynastic autocratic rule, and Fidel Castro lead Cuban revolution morphed into a family rule of sorts. Nikol Pachinyan led Velvet Revolution presented the potential of lasting change. Unlike the other revolutions, all of which subordinated the existing order in favor of revolutionary tribunals the revolutionaries set and took over the command of the armed forces, the Velvet Revolution upheld the existing institutions and the constitution although amending it through legislation was one of its goals. That to me, was the beauty and the Achilles heel of this unique Armenian brand revolution, named Velvet for being peaceful for a revolution and was bloodless.

The many the political parties vying for power in the upcoming June 20, 2021, election, and the apparent loss of influence of the former strong men presidents of Armenia, who also independently of each other are vying for power  as well, attest to me that the Velvet Revolution did not fail and that it brought about substantial social changes in Armenia by empowering the people,  although its path was hampered for reasons we know too well.

It remains up to the citizens of Armenia to make their choice for post war governance in an orderly election.