Same Stage, Same Actors: Nikol-Serzh Political Theater
The continued presence of Nikol Pashinyan and Serzh Sargsyan in Armenia’s political life unfortunately, shows that Armenian society remains highly tolerant of lies and hypocrisy.
Following Nikol Pashinyan’s campaign, one can see that despite the large number of people dissatisfied with him, there are still many who support him.
Serzh Sargsyan, in turn, does not enjoy the support of large masses. In this regard, he even trails newly established political forces. However, another obvious fact remains: society has no clear and unified demand that a dishonest and incompetent person should be removed from the political field.
Serzh Sargsyan, besides being an ordinary liar, is also incompetent both in politics and in geopolitical processes. Nevertheless, his circles have been trying for years to present him as an experienced politician and even a great “chess player.”
In reality, the situation is quite different. These two political images, built on lies, have caused not only economic damage to the country. As a result of their policies, the country lost thousands of human lives and a significant part of its territory. All this was accompanied by lies, incompetence, and irresponsibility.
Yet society has not demanded that such people withdraw from public life. They continue to exist: one in power, the other as a fake opposition.
This phenomenon is not new. The danger of lies and political acting in Armenian public life was once observed by the prominent writer Hovhannes Tumanyan, who reflected on the developments of his own time.
Tumanyan wrote:
“Never before has the need and longing for sincerity been as great as today, and never before has the lie reached such terrifying proportions… Everyone moves, everyone speaks… and suddenly you see - he is playing, he is acting.”
He warned that such acting is especially dangerous in public life, since politics and public service are not a stage on which to perform roles.
“Acting is great when it happens on a stage, where people perform, but it is disgusting in life, where people live. It is because talented people act on the stage, whereas mean and hypocritical people act in life.”
Tumanyan described how, in public life, people assume different roles, trying to appear different from who they truly are.
“Trying different roles, they come and perform in different fields: one acts as an ideological figure, another as a hero, the third as a publicist, the fourth as a philanthropist…”
According to the writer, the greatest deception is that such individuals always speak on behalf of the people.
“To win the hearts of the spectators - the people - they constantly speak about the ‘people.’ Look, the people are with us!”
The hardest task in such circumstances is to distinguish the real from the false.
“Just try to separate the genuine from the false… A people burdened with so much falsehood and hypocrisy- no matter how civilized they believe themselves to be - will see their deeds remain earthbound.”
These words were written by Tumanyan more than a century ago, yet they still sound strikingly relevant today.
Some circles continue to speak about Serzh Sargsyan as an “experienced,” “competent,” and “thirty-year chess player” in politics. Of course, a significant part of these circles simply receives rewards for praising him.
However, even leaving aside the question of whether he deliberately led the country to its current state, it is enough to recall the events of recent years to understand how frequently he made mistakes.
For instance, he stated that Artsakh would never be part of Azerbaijan. This statement was made when Nikol Pashinyan was already in power. Meanwhile, it was widely known that Pashinyan had never concealed throughout his political career that he considered Artsakh to be part of Azerbaijan. Under such circumstances, such a statement could be made either by someone detached from reality or by someone deliberately misleading the public.
Similarly, two years ago Serzh Sargsyan insisted that no war was expected in the region in the foreseeable future. This was at a time when the external threat was being used in the political struggle as one of the key arguments against Pashinyan’s rule. Nevertheless, Sargsyan assured the public that no war was possible in the near future.
Two conclusions can be drawn from this: either Serzh Sargsyan truly has no understanding of the ongoing processes, or he deliberately tried to reduce the vigilance of the people.
In other words, it is difficult to say that he is neither a traitor nor incompetent.
Perhaps some do not believe that he deliberately misled society. Yet even in that case, it is difficult to claim that he merely misjudged the situation. Anyone who followed geopolitical developments even to a limited extent could see that large-scale changes were brewing in the Middle East that would inevitably affect our region.
In other words, regardless of whether Serzh Sargsyan is a traitor or simply an incompetent individual, in both cases, such a person has no right to continue engaging in politics.
A society with a sense of dignity cannot take seriously a person who systematically makes mistakes even on obvious matters.
In Yerevan, one can often hear about doctors who offer unnecessary surgeries simply to earn money. Sometimes surgeries are performed due to incompetence. However, once it is discovered that a doctor has operated on a patient without necessity, no one will ever turn to that doctor again.
Yet the same society, for some unknown reason, remains indifferent when such incompetent or traitorous figures as Serzh Sargsyan continue to express opinions and influence political life.
Unfortunately, this reveals an important problem: we tend to react only when the damage affects us personally. When the damage is collective, we often think it has nothing to do with us.
At the same time, there is another important circumstance to understand. The lies and political acting of Nikol Pashinyan and Serzh Sargsyan pursue only one goal - to divide society. When society is split into the “former” and the “current,” the “black” and the “white,” it becomes much easier for those in power to retain control.
At the same time, there is another important circumstance to understand. The lies and political acting of Nikol Pashinyan and Serzh Sargsyan pursue only one goal - to divide society. When society is split into the “former” and the “current,” the “black” and the “white,” it becomes much easier for those in power to retain control.
It is no coincidence that the change of power occurred in such a way that Serzh Sargsyan effectively handed power to Nikol Pashinyan on a platter. This is how the political system Armenia lives under today was formed.
The only way out of this situation is to break away from Nikol Pashinyan and Serzh Sargsyan. This will be possible only if society rejects this system as a whole in the upcoming elections.
Only then may the hopes of the Armenian people come true. As the prominent writer Gevorg Emin wrote:
«Let our dissected Masis be the witness,
Let our half, slaughtered in Deir ez-Zor, be the witness,
And that other half,
Which is you, and me, and him,
We shall reunite,
We shall become whole,
One day, we will find
The impossible path
To become a single whole again…”
Only then will Armenia be able to break the vicious circle of lies, falsehood, and political acting.
