Revanchism in Armenia goes up in smoke
Dashnak rage and public indifference

ANALYTICS  29 August 2022 - 18:33

Dashnaks in Armenia and abroad are still restless: despite the holiday season and hot weather, they are again trying to rake up the fire in the Armenian society. If not for confrontation, at least for some kind of movement. And if they succeed, they can even provoke a reaction from the power structures. All this looks so impulsive and clumsy that it is more than clear: the "Armenian revolutionary opposition" will finally find itself outside the political life, the law, and society.

Ishkhan Saghatelyan, a representative of the supreme body of ARFD, trying to draw attention to his party, once again decided to show off with a loud statement. He accused the high military officials of betraying the national interests and surrendering the city of Lachin, and the villages of Zabukh and Sus. He also expressed his dissatisfaction over the amendments and additions to the law "On Military Service and Status of Servicemen".

"You were and still are the only pillar that maintains Nikol Pashinyan's power. You serve this anti-Armenian power and contribute to the establishment of a dictatorship in the country. But it's not too late. Don't behave like Edmond Marukyan and Alain Simonyan... You will be responsible to the generations," Saghatelian pathetically called out online.

That is, it is obvious that the leader of the Dashnaks is clearly trying to squeeze the maximum political dividends for himself and his associates from the situation with the return of these settlements to Azerbaijani control. He is trying in the most vulgar way to motivate the Armenian public to sympathise with the opposition. Well, at least this way, if it doesn't work out any other way…

However, the revanchists' adventures do not end there. On September 2, the Dashnaks are calling on Armenians to gather for a big rally. Undoubtedly, in order to continue its offensive against the official authorities. It is more than obvious that with their accusations, Saghatelyan and others are trying to split the state mechanism, stir up the law enforcement agencies and provoke the masses to change their priorities. Moreover, one of the Dashnak leaders is putting pressure on the most vulnerable points of the Armenian self: father-mother, honour, conscience, homeland, and even "responsibility to the generations". And if the authorities try to disperse the rally, the Dashnaks will raise stink against the "corrupt military leaders of the country".

Thus, the situation of political impotence, when Armenian society is not responding to the lures of the Dashnaks, leads the latter to radical appeals and actions. Meanwhile, such a blatant desire to create confusion in the public mind and mayhem in the streets of cities, gathering for the hundredth time in the unfortunate France Square in Yerevan and elsewhere, with the intention to stage another comedy show of accusations against the government, may provoke Pashinyan to quite concrete actions. The restless opposition figures can even reach for it. Then a full breakup of ARFD may follow, at least in Armenia. This has already happened in Armenian history, for example, during Ter-Petrosyan's presidency, when the activities of Dashnaks in the country were officially banned. Until they were brought back to the political Olympus by Kocharyan.

The most amusing feature of today's Armenian revanchists, particularly the Dashnaks, is that they almost never feel the signals and signs of the time and situation. They did not catch the sharp activity of the pro-Pashinyan members of the parliament, and they were roughly flogged as instigators of sedition and deprived of their parliamentary positions and mandates. It was quite a fair retaliation: the opposition had been trying for several months to provoke Armenians to revolt against Pashinyan. Then they wimped out, proving that revanchist slogans and appeals do not find the support of the masses and do not resonate with them.

Those same Dashnaks also failed to comprehend the obvious choice of the Armenian people when even the Dashnaktsutyun and Kocharyan parties failed to collect more than 21 per cent of the votes in the 2021 early parliamentary elections. And what revolution with such a shameful asset are the militant Dashnaks going to?

By the way, in the disastrous three-month confrontation on France Square, it was the Dashnaks who demonstrated their worthlessness together with Kocharyan, because the speech of the united opposition in the Armenian capital with a lively entertainment program was led by Ishkhan Saghatelyan.

But neither the group rallies, nor the concerts, nor the hot food tents worked. It turned out that the residents of Yerevan are not at all interested in starting another aggravation with Azerbaijan and Türkiye, much less do they want a new war. The senseless and ridiculous calls for Armenia to isolate itself from the outside world "for protection from enemies" no longer have any effect on ordinary Armenians - the majority of ordinary Armenians are fed up with living locked up for thirty years of confrontation.

All this proves that organisations such as Dashnaktsutyun, with their long history of terrorism and misanthropy and their far-fetched pseudo-patriotic agenda, based not on a desire for peace and prosperity but on rabid chauvinism, are no longer relevant to Armenian society and are becoming a political anachronism or a mere meme.

Caliber.Az