Dreams of Armenian revanchists, or 100,000 people to oust Pashinyan

On September 24, another protest against the Armenian government took place in Yerevan. I will immediately note that similar rallies took place earlier, before the elections to the Council of Elders of Yerevan. They are still taking place now, after the successful and rapid completion of anti-terrorism measures by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in the Garabagh economic region.

The current authorities dispersed these protests extremely, if not prohibitively, violently. This is understandable: Armenia as a state is bursting at the seams. It is shaken by an internal conflict that has no end in sight. But at the same time, the revanchists, including the Garabagh clan, still have no real chance of achieving Pashinyan’s resignation.

September 24 protest rally of the entire Armenian opposition, in which Garabagh Armenians who fled to Yerevan also took part, attracted at most 5,000-6,000 people. And this despite the howls and calls of the singer Sirusho, who is the daughter-in-law of the second Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, the attempts of the oligarch Ruben Vardanyan, the unfulfilled plans of the Armenian rich man, the bearer of the “Stupid Gago” drive, the head of the party with the funny name “Prosperous Armenia” Tsarukyan.

All attempts by the opposition to play on the collapse of the Miatsum myth ended in a predictable fiasco. Their “victories” are limited to a number of closed streets in Yerevan. Which, I note, forces residents of the Armenian capital, indifferent to the opposition’s attempts, to compete in an untranslatable word game using local idiomatic expressions. But the funniest thing is that the revanchists still dream of turning a fiasco into a triumph.

One of these dreamers is the former vice-speaker of parliament, the talking head of Serzhik’s Republican Party of Armenia, Eduard Sharmazanov. According to him, not enough people take part in actions called by the opposition National Committee, because otherwise, law enforcement officers would not even think about bringing them in. And then Sharmazanov voiced his main dream.

“If 100,000 people gather, law enforcement officers will also join and reject Nikol,” he added.

Let me remind you that this is said by the one who has always been and remains the mouthpiece of the third President of the Republic of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, who was overthrown in 2018 by the Armenian people. Then 100,000 and 150,000 people came out to protest. So great was the hatred towards Sargsyan and the entire Karabakh clan. It is still great today. This explains the reluctance of Armenian citizens to participate in the show staged by the revanchists. Sharmazanov understands all this perfectly well, but he is openly fooling around, voicing dreams of a crowd of 100,000 that will overthrow the current government. The unpopularity of which among the Armenian citizens, apparently, is much inferior to the contempt on his part for the Dashnaks.

And in this regard, taking into account Sharmazanov’s words that “if 100,000 people gather,” a legend comes to mind. When Philip of Macedon (Alexander's father) approached the walls of Sparta, he sent a message to the Spartans that said: “I have conquered all of Greece, I have the best army in the world. Surrender, because if I capture Sparta by force, if I break its gates, if I break through its walls with battering rams, I will mercilessly destroy the entire population and raze the city to the ground!” To which the Spartans/Laconians sent the shortest known reply: “If...”

As it is known, they in Armenia also love to live in myths rather than in reality. But it’s one thing to invent myths and believe in them yourself, and quite another thing to sign your own death warrant by trying to take arms into the Garabagh region of Azerbaijan, as revanchists in general, and Sharmazanov in particular, are calling for this, who prefer to think in categories like “if". Not understanding in reality or pretending that they do not understand that their ship has finally sailed.

Accordingly, even a change of power in Armenia will not change anything in the fate of the Garabagh economic region of Azerbaijan. It finally returned to its native harbour, where peace and prosperity are waiting it.