The sermon of hypocrisy Sargsyan accuses international organisations

Armenia’s third president, Serzh Sargsyan, has decided to don the image of a virtuous guardian of decency and morality, issuing a statement in which he accused Western and international organisations of failing to respond to what is happening in the country.

Moreover, he interpreted the silence of these Western and international bodies as “support for the current authorities.” At this point, Sargsyan would do well to recall the phrase from the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale: “Stop, little pot, stop!” However, Serzh Sargsyan chose not to stop there and went on to claim that these organisations are “guided not by principles, but by profit.”

Here we have a classic example of Molière’s Tartuffe — when a man whose name has long become synonymous with clan rule, corruption, misanthropic policies, and repression — a man for whom a seat in the dock of the Baku court is long overdue, where he would fit perfectly alongside other members of the Karabakh junta — allows himself such moralising. This is the very height of cynicism.

It should be recalled that in February 2022, the Military Prosecutor’s Office of Azerbaijan announced that Kocharyan and Sargsyan had been charged with criminal liability and placed on the wanted list. They are accused of organising illegal gatherings since February 1988 with the aim of inciting national hostility and hatred between the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples, during which they called for the dismissal of Azerbaijanis from their jobs, their forced expulsion from Karabakh, and the burning of their homes.

In violation of the Constitution of Azerbaijan, Kocharyan and Sargsyan proclaimed the creation of the so-called “NKR” and decided to suspend the enforcement of Azerbaijani laws and the Constitution in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. Their role as separatist leaders — who later became presidents of Armenia — in implementing this country’s occupation policy, as well as in committing acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Azerbaijani people, is evident.

And yet, this very figure claims that in Armenia “the judicial system is completely politicised, and everything depends on the will of a single person.” Meanwhile, it was precisely during his years in power that the courts in Armenia completely lost even the semblance of independence — all decisions, from personnel appointments to verdicts, depended entirely on the will of his administration and its security apparatus.

Under the third president, opposition figures were systematically persecuted, activists arrested, independent media outlets shut down, criminal cases brought against journalists, and protests dispersed with brutal force. In this, and not only in this, Sargsyan proved himself a worthy successor to his predecessor, Robert Kocharyan.

Serzh Azatovich, while accusing the West of “losing its moral compass,” conveniently forgets that it was he who turned corruption into a state system. Against the backdrop of widespread poverty among ordinary Armenians, his family and inner circle flaunted their ill-gotten wealth. It was Kocharyan and Sargsyan who ultimately transformed Armenia into the fiefdom of the “Karabakh clan” — a state dominated by a loyalist bureaucracy, corrupt judges, and puppet oligarchs.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the mass protests in Armenia in the spring of 2018 began precisely after Serzh Sargsyan attempted to move from the presidency to the prime ministership. This move became the last straw for a society weary of hypocrisy and deceit. At that moment, the Armenian people made their stance clear — both toward Sargsyan and toward the period of his rule. This marked the beginning of the “Velvet Revolution,” during which hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets demanding his resignation. Sargsyan was sent to a place from which there is no return — political oblivion. Today, his speeches on morality and principles are nothing more than a pathetic attempt to reclaim even a shadow of his former influence.