PM Pashinyan & The New Enemies Of The State

 

On December 11, 2021 PM Pashinyan declared from the pages of his Facebook account that Armenia has a new category of traitors ready and willing to undermine the institutions of The State, and determined to threaten the national interests of Armenia, to protect masters operating without any restraints from the Diaspora.

What are the key features of the internal political forces designated by PM Pashinyan as the pest gradually destroying the key foundations of The State?

a) They rely on the rhetoric of accusing him as the head of a cabal of"traitorous authorities" who sold Artsakh to the enemy.

b) The internal forces cooperate with external forces that often waive the flag of corruption and treason in The Armenian Government, mixed with a “Patriotic Sauce”.

c) The “internal Patriots” are constantly mobilized against Pashinyan’s government because their “Foreign Partners” have a mission that hasn’t been fully accomplished yet.

Pashinyan does not openly state the name of the “Foreign Partners” helping the internal enemies of Armenia (all opposition parties), but any observer who followed closely his election campaign in May and June 2021 knows that he is referring to an Armenian political party with a very heavy clout in the diaspora-The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). 

During his election campaign, Pashinyan exhorted and reassured his followers that the day will come, when Armenians in Armenia will burn the flag of The ARF instead of trampling on the flag of Turkey. Watch his speech (video), between 5.20 and 5.57 minutes Pashinyan starts spitting his poisonous venom on The ARF.

It seems that Pashinyan’s obsession with destroying the ARF in Armenia is not empty election campaign rhetoric. For the last few weeks his hatred picked up momentum with the overtures he is making to Erdogan, and preparing the Armenian nation for a possible “normalization” of ties with Turkey, and eventually a “peace treaty” with Azerbaijan via Turkish mediation.

The irony of all ironies is the fact that Aliyev is doing the propaganda work for him in the diaspora. While caviar diplomacy and the Azeri media was mobilized in the past decade to argue that a war is a must to capture Azeri lands occupied by Armenia since 1994, this time the Azeri media is peddling to foreign governments the notion that “normalization” will not succeed without completely silencing the diaspora.

On Dec. 16, 2021 Rufiz Hafizoglu, an Azeri journalist who is the Head of the Foreign Projects Directorate of Trend News Agency, an Azeri media outlet with a corporate ownership tied to the Aliyev’s family, published an article titled: Yerevan’s choice between Turkey’s "carrot" and Armenian diaspora’s "stick" to praise the efforts of Pashinyan’s government and tarnish the image of the Armenian diaspora. 

What are the key contentions and questions addressed by Hafizoglu?

1) The Diaspora turned the “Fictitious Genocide of 1915” into a business to generate profit, and justify the “raison d'être” of Armenian political parties active in the diaspora.

2) According to Hafizoglu, Armenians from Armenia without any reservations based on historical animosities, select Turkey as a tourism destination. According to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism 1,280 Armenians visited Turkey in October 2021, in the midst of a COVID19 pandemic.

3) Again, based on figures published in the Turkish media, “...every month at least 200 Armenian citizens stay in Turkey, illegally work there, and this is nothing more than a way to settle in the country.” So, if Armenians are at ease and feel very safe while engaging in tourism related activities, and are not afraid to work illegally in Turkey and be exploited in menial jobs Turks refuse to perform, why do Turkey and Azerbaijan have to assign any credibility to the barking dogs of the Armenian Diaspora? In essence Armenian political parties in the diaspora can bark well, but are clearly impotent in turning the bark into a bite. Conclusion: Armenia should proceed with taking advantage of the “Olive Branch” extended by Turkey.

4) The $10,000 questions Hafizoglu asks at the end of his article: “Will Armenia be able to escape from the Armenian diaspora amid rapprochement with Turkey? Will it be able to renounce its claims of a fictitious "genocide"? Renouncing the Genocide of 1915 as a “Figment of Imagination” means Tsitsernakaberd, The Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex, must be dismantled. After all, how can we celebrate and honour the memory of 1.5 million Armenian victims, who perished under the watchful eyes of The Young Turks, when a Prime Minister, acting as the agent of The State of Armenia, accepts the Turkish and Azeri narrative that it was nothing short of a fictional bed time story Armenians in the Diaspora fed their children for generations.

5) Hafizoglu concludes his article with the following advice clearly directed to the citizens and government of Armenia: “...the sooner Yerevan escapes from the Armenian diaspora, the better for Armenia and its citizens.” 

As diasporan Armenians, can we sit by idly and watch a myopic Prime Minister sell out to the highest bidder, every sacred value we defended with the blood of 30,000 martyrs in the First Artsakh War, and 6,000 martyrs in The Second Artsakh War, in the name of a projected “Economic Prosperity” that will benefit more the enemy rather than the average citizen on the streets of Yerevan?

Do we have the courage to take a serious “Soul Searching Trip” and concentrate on the words of the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, who boldly stated that "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ? 

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