Beyond rationality and reasonableness, or Artsakh is the target
Over the past couple of months, the rhetoric about the Artsakh issue, particularly the rhetoric of Armenia’s pro-government personalities and media outlets has sharply changed, and this unequivocally sparks serious concerns. They regularly make calls and accusatory statements that will lead to a deadlock.
The recent observations by political scientist Styopa Safaryan represent an overtly anti-Artsakh stance and are a fact that a wedge is being thrust once again. Safaryan made groundless and manipulative allegations against the policy of the authorities of Artsakh and made some calls that are fanciful and allege that the authorities of Artsakh are conspiratorial. He talked about the statements made during the military exercises held in the Azerbaijani city of Gabala and directly blamed the official Stepanakert for those statements.
Let us try to understand what really happened, and it will become clear that, in this sense, there is a serious clash of geopolitical interests in the region.
Recently, during its 73rd session, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution on the status of the refugees of Abkhazia and South Ossetia once again (the resolution was initiated by Georgia in 2008). This year, Armenia, which had been voting against the resolution every year, didn’t participate in the voting for the first time ever.
As a matter of fact, 79 countries voted in favor, 15 voted against and 57 abstained from voting. It is clear that this resolution itself is anti-Russian, and this voting is quite ambiguous and contains deep messages.
There is serious doubt that Georgia will understand the message that the Republic of Armenia conveyed. It is almost impossible to see Georgia not sign under anti-Armenian resolutions during any international conference, say, the anti-Armenian policy and diplomacy of Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Brilliant evidence of this is the statement that Minister of Defense of Georgia Levan Izoria made during the joint military exercises held recently in Gabala, stating that Georgia supports application of the principle of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
It is a clear fact that no matter what policy Armenia leads or how it votes, it is impossible to pull Georgia away from the “claws” of the Turkey-Azerbaijan tandem.
It seems as though the “shooting” between Armenia and Artsakh is over, but alongside that, for instance, Styopa Safaryan is regularly making statements and, as a matter of fact, he is targeting Artsakh very intensively and at any opportune or inopportune moment.
Amid this, what is also interesting is the fact that news pieces and interviews focusing on the authorities of Artsakh continue to be posted on the website pertaining to Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan.
There is really nothing on the outside, at least this is the case for Artsakh, but in Armenia, we see that various pro-government analysts and political scientists are regularly assaulting the military and political leadership of Artsakh.
In this case, we must stress the fact that it is strange that all this is happening in a time when the situation on the border has clearly become tense (Azerbaijan is even organizing aerial flights along the length of the borderline and even by crossing the border), but it seems as though this is nothing, nothing has happened in Armenia, and the government continues to keep Artsakh in the range of offense consistently and intensively, not taking into consideration the fact that there is a totally different agenda on the table.
Summing up, let us state the following: the most dangerous consequence of worthlessness is that public opinion starts to be formed by people who are far from having standards of morality and rationality, and they make the public acclimatized to assessment of what is good and bad, right and wrong, without having their personal opinions, principles and convictions. It is easy to insinuate in people without personal opinions that what is right today, will be wrong tomorrow because this is what revolutionary appropriateness requires. It is easier to manipulate those without opinions, and that which is sensual is thrown into the arena instead of that which is rational, and that which is sensual is not always subjective.
ARMAN GALSTYAN
