Merchandizing a defective product

Vahe H Apelian

 

Simply said, archbishop Pagrad is merchandizing a defective product. Let us face it, we do not only buy goods, but we also buy ideas, policies, political stands as long as they are solid and make sense.

Like any other, selling ideas, policies are also packaged and presented to the public to have them purchase the product. It is common to have a slogan accompanying the selling of a product. Many may recall, “where’s the beef?” catch-phrase that made into presidential debate. The archbishop has adopted TAVUSH FOR HOMELAND catch-phrase to sell his product..

We all know that Tavush region became the start of what would be the demarcation and the delineation of the border of the Republic of Armenia. Other than stating that in this day and age, each and every country should have a well-defined, internationally recognized border. I have no further comment on the matter other than absolutely trusting the Armenian government officials who are engaged in the tense negotiations. I am driven by a simple given. It simply is against human nature to give away what one has. I have no reason to believe that is not the case with the Armenian negotiators. 

There is nothing special about Tavush as one of the marzes ((districts) of Armenia. According to Wikipedia, since 1995, the republic has been divided into 11 marzes, including YerevanIn fact, other than Yerevan, and Kotayk marzes, the remaining marzes border Azerbaijan orTurkey, and or Georgia. Tavush borders Georgia and Azerbaijan. 

. Besides Tavush all the other marzes are also for the homeland as well. Is there any doubt to that?  HOMELAND ALSO FOR TAVUSH is in fact a far better slogan, than singling Tavush over all the other marzes simply because the archbishop was the prelate of the Diocese of Tavush, but the movement he leads is meant to shake down the nation.

The other catch-phrase the archbishop has come with, in translation is the following: “ARMENIAN, ARMENIA, HOMELAND, GOD". I do not know how the citizens of Armenia view that slogan. If an American came with the following slogan: “American, America, Land of Brave, Home of the Free, and God” slogan, my response would be. That is great, man! But tell me where do you stand on abortion issue? Are you for continuing to arm Ukraine? Where do you stand on the Gaza issue? And so forth and so on. I am sure the citizens of Armenia also need to know the solutions that the leadership of the Tavush for Homeland movement is proposing for solving the many issues the nascent republic is facing.

“Armenian, Armenia, Homeland, God”.  slogan says nothing as far as the product the archbishop is driving to sell. In fact, it is a covert insult because it simply insults the Armenian public and regards them gullible enough to be taken by lofty terms the archbishop uses invoking God, Armenia, Armenian, Homeland and let go of the real issues that are affecting their daily lives such as state of the republic’s economy, education, health care, safety and security and so forth and so on.

The product, I understand, the archbishop is attempting to sell to the Armenian citizens is the following: Armenia is in a precarious state, and needs to recover Artsakh and Artsakh recovery starts from Voskeran village of Tavush marz, according to what he has said. That the demarcation and delineation of Armenia’s border are causing Armenia to cede lands to Azerbijan and that the archbishop Pagrad will put an end to it by taking over the PM’s seat or have someone appoint to the seat, who reports to him. Consequently, he claims that such necessities override law and regulations to abide by the constitution of the country and give the leaders of Tavush for Homeland movement, the right and the privilege to force the nationally elected PM resign. In Armenian we have a known phrase for it that is often quoted in classical Armenian “Հարկ լուծանէ զօրէնս” - "harg loozane zorens". It can be translated verbatim as follows: “Necessity dissolved law”.

There may have been instances that have been so. Are we in such a state in Armenia? Absolutely not. Mind you, I am not qualifying the state of Armenia I do not live there, but I am referring to have the PM and naturally his government resign. It happens more often than it should in Israel, when the government is forced to resign and the people elect a new government in a snap election. 

In Armenia, the Nikol Pashinyan government will collapse, if the two opposition coalitions, maybe even one of them, gives up the mandate it has received from his constituents and resigns from the National Assembly. If not one coalition, but surely the two coalitions that make up the opposition giving up on their mandates and resign from the National Assembly  will force the collapse of the Nikol Pashinyan government leading to snap elections that will express the will of the people.

The archbishop and the opposition coalition MPs who support him, do not want to resign from the National Assembly. They also do not want another snap election. Their MPs want to retain their seats, draw their salaries, and not risk their status by resorting to snap election because some of them may very well may not be elected. Simply said, the supporters of Tavush for Homeland movement do not want to resort to constitution when the constitution offers them an avenue to topple the Nilol Pashinyan government. That in my book, does not make sense and cannot be justified. It is a defective political goods to merchandize.

There is a call for a big demonstration this Sunday. Surely citizens of Armenia have a right for assembly. As to what will ensue, time will tell. 

As an added note, as archbishop Pagrad is carrying his campaign in the manner he has been doing and in the style he is projecting - at times in a black robe, at other times in white robe, in both instances carrying a large cross in while being in a political minefield having frozen his ecclesiastical status -  I watched the interview of Ruben Rubinyan.  At the age 34, he is the Vice President of the National Assembly of Armenian. I recalled the words of Khanasor song, “you are the hope of Armenia”. Indeed, it is the likes of him that give me hope for a bright future for Armenia but not the archbishop Pagrad and the likes of him. 

Those interested my watch Ruben Rubinya’s interview in the attached clip.