“POOR FISH”: The aquarium with colorful fish as a metaphor for the summit venue and the isolated Europeans gathered there – Armen Ashotyan
“This event has turned into yet another act of Armenia’s geopolitical demise and regional destruction,” stated Armen Ashotyan, Vice President of the Republican Party of Armenia, describing the context of the EU summit and the ongoing developments within and around the country.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party and its supporting citizens carried out a spontaneous protest today to inform participants of the 8th Summit of the European Political Community about democratic backsliding in Armenia, the existence of more than 50 political prisoners, issues concerning Artsakh and the right of return of its people, Armenian captives held in Baku, and pressure on the Church.
“Armenia is not a democratic country. By supporting Nikol Pashinyan, you are destroying Armenia. Together, you promise to lead us to Brussels, yet instead you are taking us to Baku and Ankara,” Ashotyan declared in his address to Europeans. He emphasized that the protest was not anti-European, noting that the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), signed in 2017 by the Third President Serzh Sargsyan, had been guiding Armenia toward Europe.
“What Nikol has been doing since 2018 is the destruction of all the values that form the foundation of European civilization. No European leader or country would tolerate in their own state a government like Nikol’s—one that would sell the dignity of the state, concede territories, lose a war it initiated, and effectively cross out the future of its people,” Ashotyan stated.
The Vice President of the Republican Party also highlighted that in no country have democratic rights been restricted in the name of democracy as they are today in Armenia, where traffic and citizens’ freedom of movement have been curtailed.
However, this was not the end of the developments. By an oral decision of the police, citing the law on the National Guard, even the march of the demonstrators along a permitted route was prohibited.
Law enforcement officers prevented participants from marching on the sidewalk, even when vehicular traffic had already been reopened.
A senior police officer explained that prior arrangements had been made with Hayk Mamijanyan, citing security considerations for state officials.
Ashotyan, however, denied the existence of any such agreement, stating that they had refused to comply with the police’s proposed regulation, as it contradicted official guidelines published on the police website and had been improvised on the spot to obstruct the protest.
Ashotyan had brought a small aquarium with fish to the demonstration.
Presenting what he described as the most fitting illustration of the disgraceful nature of the 8th Summit of the European Political Community held in Armenia, he displayed the small aquarium filled with colorful fish, emphasizing:
“This aquarium symbolizes the Sports and Concert Complex, with its gathered guests—isolated, like fish in an aquarium, from the real people and real issues. They have assembled and isolated themselves from our genuine voice and concerns. They have been isolated so that Europeans do not interact with the Armenian people.
They have been placed in an artificial environment, presented with a show that contains no Armenia, no Armenian identity, no pain, no Artsakh, no political prisoners—none of the reality that surrounds us. As you saw, we tried to break through this reality, to reach our distinguished guests inside the aquarium, so they could hear our voice and understand that Armenians are a hospitable people, ready to share both bread and sorrow… but they do not wish to hear our sorrow. Poor fish.”
Zaruhi Dilanyan
