Aravot editor-in-chief: Neither revolution nor military coup to help Armenia

Aram Abrahamyan, editor-in-chief of the Armenian Aravot newspaper, has said that neither revolution nor military coup will help Armenia.

“Revolutions always raise hopes among the masses, and the promises of revolutionaries resonate in the hearts of citizens. For example, they say `Now we will say goodbye to the damned past, we will form a new person, a new army, a new school, new courts’. Before our eyes is the `latest example’ of the promises and expectations, formed on their basis, and this is the `failure story’ of the 2018 revolution in Armenia,” he said, Caliber.Az reports, citing his editorial.

“According to the latest revolutionary stories, the former government was corrupt, and thought only of their stomachs and posts, now they will be replaced by ideological ascetics who will live in one-room apartments with a piece of stale bread and devote themselves 24 hours a day to building a brighter future. In addition, earlier opposition activists were thrown into prisons, but now democracy will flourish, and anyone will criticize the government as they want.

“Such romantic notions are usually shattered when faced with bitter reality. That's what happened this time as well. It quickly became clear that the `new’ people want to have luxury cars and private houses in the same way, they want to travel and `shop’ at the expense of the state, just like the `old’ ones. They also have their favorite oligarchs, who get tidbits of the state order. In the same way, they cling to their posts and pursue opponents. The law-enforcement agencies remain in the pocket of political power, and the courts are headed by a unique Cheka [Soviet security agency] in the person of the Supreme Judicial Council, so that the courts do not suddenly become independent. In some places, people continue to be beaten and (as an "innovation") lawyers are also beaten.

“What is the reason that the promised reforms cannot be implemented? A simplified explanation is that under Serzh Sargsyan, there were `bad guys’ in power, and then they were replaced by the same `bad guys’. And in the case of this illusion, there is hope that `good guys,’ who are not interested in hedonistic pleasures, will finally come in their place, and these ascetics will save the country with their modesty and abstinence.

“However, these are vain hopes. The new system is not created by the heroic initiatives of fanatics, even if such selfless people miraculously appear in the political arena. This system is created by new social requirements (`from below’) and, on the other hand, by new ideas (`from above’), and `tops’ and `bottoms’ must `meet’ and interact with each other. In the case of Armenia, neither a revolution nor a palace, military, or any other coup will bring the desired changes. There will only be undesirable or, as we have seen, catastrophic consequences. This is exactly what happened in the case of the 2018 revolution,” Abrahamyan opines.