Editorial

Armenia’s traditional, socio-political thinking sometimes shocks me in its brevity. In many cases, brevity should be understood in its literal sense. Either because well-known figures, while interpreting developments are often unable to look ahead or back from, a given point, or the radii of these types of interpretations is unbelievably short, almost to the point of non-existence. This fact became obvious again following the recent statement made by Medvedev-Obama-Sarkozy. Known and unknown circles again and again accused the Armenian National Congress of presenting the negotiation process of the Karabakh conflict in а pessimistic light and raising alarms about the possible (disproportionate) return of the liberated territories, especially since these territories remain under the control of Armenia’s armed forces, as they were before.

It is in these types of interpretations that the shortness of Armenian traditional, socio-political thinking lays. It is not able to understand processes, its comprehension of developments is often delayed, it is not capable of noticing changes in a given situation that, albeit insignificant at the moment, become significant in time, even transformative. For instance, being familiar with a person’s psychological makeup, you insist that he is going to commit suicide. You can’t prove it. And all those who consider your assertion to be inane think so based on the argument that the man whom you deem suicidal is alive. Then you hear that the man is going up to the roof of his multistory building. You analyze the situation you insist that he is about to jump off the building. But you still can’t prove it, because those who deny your suicide version have an argument—the man is still alive. There may even be someone who will insist that the man is going up to find a location for his new TV set and antenna. He might really meet some people who are placing antennas or doing something else on the roof, and go back down with them. At that point they will really laugh at your suicide theory. And they would be “right” because they would have an argument—the argument that the man is alive—while you can’t prove that psychologically and morally he has said farewell to his life long ago. And when the potential suicide realizes that a great deal of interest is focused on him, he will go up to the roof at night and throw himself down without anyone’s knowledge. Up until the moment when he throws himself down, all those who did not want to believe in your assumption would be right, but from the moment when he jumps to the moment of his death you would be right. As a result, you would be right but only for a few seconds, because those who did not believe your assumption would have been right for hours, days, months and maybe years.

Going back to the issue of Karabakh, I cannot but notice that some literate Armenians treat the situation in a similar way—some because of self-interest, others with no self-interest. Sometimes I think that this technical problem in reality has a genetic origin. We, Armenians, do not hurry to see a doctor when we feel pain in some part of our body but we rely on the fact that the pain just keeps recurring and doesn’t last that long. Meaning that we are alive, we don’t feel bad in general and we can eat, drink, rejoice and have fun. As for the pains, well, everybody has pains and there is nothing strange in that. The logical extension here is that the average Armenian sees the doctor only when the pain has deprived him of the ability to eat, drink, hear and perceive. Meaning that there’s nothing left to do but order a coffin. It seems that many people want to disseminate this type of perception of the Karabakh conflict in the consciousness of the Armenian public; or, at the very least they themselves grasp the situation along those lines, starting with the statement made by the presidential trio and ending up with numerous documents approved by PACE, UNO and the European Parliament. Those who perceive the situation in this way are right for the moment; they were right yesterday; and they may be right tomorrow, or for a long time to come. But they will be wrong for a split-second and it is in that split-second that everything will be decided.

That abject submissiveness is a fairly prevalent aspect of relations in Armenia has been known for a long time and is hardly news. But that it could become state policy, perhaps few would have foreseen. Former Chairman of Intel Corporation Craig Barrett’s visit to Armenia definitely gave shape to this not so pleasant reality. The man had come to Armenia last year to receive the prize Serzh Sargsyan had awarded him. The prize was a diamond-studded golden medal of such size that if Barrett accidentally dropped it on his foot, he would have walked around in a plaster cast at least for several months.

Here’s the background: Serzh Sargsyan had instituted prizes in the sphere of development of informational technologies and had awarded the first prize with а medal to Barrett. There is already something strange in the fact that the prize is instituted and awarded to Barrett. This would be the same thing if Serzh Sargsyan had instituted a prize for contributions in the sphere of the automobile industry and awarded it to the manager of the factory that produces Mercedes Benz. To the former manager, that is; because the current one wouldn’t even answer Sargsyan’s phone call. But even if he were to answer, a question arises: why does Armenia institute such a prize but award them to foreigners? The manager of Arminco, Andranik Andreasyan, had the answer, Armenian style. He more or less said this: if we want things to go well, we should interest people who have pull to our side. He said there are two ways of getting people to be interested in you: either by threats or by flattery. And because we can’t threaten Craig Barrett, we have to butter him up. The quote is obviously not verbatim; I am simply referring to the meaning and content of what he said. That is to say, we kiss up on the official level for things to go well. We do something for something to happen! Damn you, Kevorkov! Though you are dead and gone, your business and assistants are still alive. Some people think that the earth is one big Azerbaijan and only Azerbaijani rules of resolving problems work on earth. They do not even have enough brains to understand that by voicing the logic of their actions they have damned even their own brainless affairs. Now Barrett knows that he is awarded a medal because of one thing only—because Dod, Lfik, Alraghats have not yet become big enough to take him to some underground room and hit him on the head until he agrees to support the sphere of high technology in Armenia. Although, if that Barrett was smart enough he would understand that if he has accepted the medal, he has no choice but to develop the sphere of high technology in Armenia, otherwise they will hang him by the balls in Dod’s lions’ cage. But before that, before any certitude enters the issue, Barrett will have to create a separate domain in his own ass for the ruling technological elite of the Armenian Republic.

P.S. A new business for the Armenian elite has been initiated, the business of “bringing in a man”. Somebody brings Barrett to Armenia, someone else Ian Gillan, a third sees that this has become something like bringing “06” and brings German Titov and Valentina Tereshkova. Our elite grows and grows. Now bringing a stripper from the Ukraine has become a business for tramps. Now Armenia itself performs striptease in front of the figures that appeared in TV in 60s.

NIKOL PASHINYAN
www.nikol.am
From Kosh Penitentiary

The public has the right to know, and wants to know, why coalition ministers or other officials resign unexpectedly giving up their positions to other party protégés. Of course, some explanations are offered. But if we recall, for instance, all the explanations given by the Prosperous Armenia or Orinats Yerkir Parties, it will turn out that their ministers are losing their positions exclusively for having done a great job. It also turns out that those former ministers have already solved the issue of Armenia to be a superpower of the region by 2020, and the new ministers coming in will embroil Armenia, after 2020, in war with Japan and China.

This is truly a brilliant strategy of governance: if a minister has worked well, let him go and let him live quietly on his own. But if he is dim-witted and an illiterate, or if he has made a mess of things, under no circumstances should he be let go: let him stay in his leadership position, let him suffer and bear the responsibility for his mistakes with his hard ministerial work. For instance, Foreign Minister Edik Nalbandyan seems to deliver each sentence he forms. That’s what he deserves, let him suffer in his tough work, let him be tormented in airplanes for days on end, unshaven and unwashed.

People like him should not be relieved of their positions; they are not worthy of freedom. Or take, for instance, Police Chief Alik Sargsyan. Does he spread false information among the public? He does. Let him continue doing it; let him suffer under the weight of his general’s shoulder straps; let him continue losing his facility of speech and communicate with the public and journalists through yelps and through incomprehensible and erratic gestures. Why did Mkhik of the Red Cross turn in his resignation? The public would not be against knowing the answer to this question. But Mkhik has flown the coop. Although he once showed initiative and decided to call, to give an interview and make a public appearance. So, Mkhik, why did you resign? Because Gagik Tsarukyan is not human, he is divine. Why else? Serzh Sargsyan is not human either, but nor is he a god. His is many gods. Make sure you write the word “Gods” in capitals, OK? And so, Mkhik had no problem giving the reasons for his resignation to a socially vulnerable public, but he just wanted to do everything to convince his bosses yet again, that is, for the billionth-trillionth time, that he is shaven and showered and ready 24 hours a day to execute their orders, be it in relation to a swimming pool, the sauna or anything else. People, dear people of Armenia, we have already forgotten that the minister’s post is a solemn position. Despite the reality established in Armenia, the minister, by definition, is not an executor, but a decision-making institution. But in Armenia, the government of ministers had long ago turned into a spineless structure because if in his soul, his heart, his life and dreams, a person is a back-scrubber in a bathhouse, neither money nor a service car or a seal can deprive him of his personality. And in Armenia, ministers are basically turning into back-scrubbers because the important issues of the country’s governance are being solved in bathhouses and saunas.

NIKOL PASHINYAN
www.nikol.am
From Kosh Penitentiary

The fact that the Armenian authorities with their current spineless condition cannot criticize the statements made by the Sarkozy-Obama-Medvedev trio was clear from the very beginning. When the legitimate authorities of the superpowers speak, the power seizer can only be under the table. But the national authorities have gotten so good at manipulating public conscious that every time a high-level statement disclosing the content of the negotiation process of the Karabakh conflict is made, they try to convince the Armenian public that the Armenian interests are fully accounted for in that document, that the negotiation process has evolved in conformity with Armenian interests.
The same thing happened after the statement made on Saturday by the Sarkozy-Medvedev-Obama trio. RA Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandyan noticed some positive nuance in that statement, which promises a future for the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. But anyone familiar with at least the majority of the alphabet, anyone who gets acquainted with the content of the statement made by the OSCE/MG state members can reach just one conclusion: there is only one definitive thing in the document, which is the demand to return the “occupied” territories to Azerbaijan. The rest, even if it contains positive nuances, is just blah, blah, blah nothing but gibberish. And the only other thing, a more or less definitive point in this blah, blah, blah document is the return of the refugees, which makes the future of Karabakh even more ambiguous. Against this background the happy whining of RA FM Edik Nalbandyan and Spokesman of the ARP parliamentary fraction Edik Sharmazanov, makes it clear that even the sharpest criticisms lodged against the authorities who act within the context of the negotiation process of the Karabakh conflict, is fair.
If we revisit the statements made by the presidential trio in Aquila last year and follow the ones made in Huntsville this year, we will realize that during the negotiation of this past year only the demand to return the liberated territories to Azerbaijan has been significantly intensified and nothing more. That is, the Serzh-Nalbandyan diplomacy has not only failed to take the contents of the negotiation process away from the exclusive issue of the liberated territories, but has irreversibly been mired in the vicious logic of the exchange of promises of the superpowers to tolerate gang-rule. It is more important that Serzh’s authorities try to assure, on various occasions, that negotiations for the return of the liberated territories are not being carried out. In this sense they are right: they do not negotiate for the return of the liberated territories. The negotiations for that theme were over long ago. That’s why the only definitive and lucid point of the Huntsville’s statement is formulated in the first line and records a clear demand to return the liberated territories to Azerbaijan. This very demand of returning the liberated territories in exchange for nothing in particular has somehow made Edik really happy. Maybe because they know that the liberated territories will be returned not in exchange for anything but for the West’s promises to extend their gang-rule.

NIKOL PASHINYAN
www.nikol.am
From Kosh Penitentiary

There was a time when asphalting was considered the best work to get abroad. But time changes the traditional way of thinking, and now every citizen of the RA knows that the best work abroad is to be a PACE co-rapporteur on Armenia. The French co-rapporteur on Armenia Georges Colombier, for instance, in the course of his work in that position should have had serious achievements, and thus fully ensured the well-being of his successors. It is said, though, that because of his recent car accident, he has had to undergo a few extremely expensive surgeries. Such is life, and all jobs carry their own share of risk. In 1993, for instance, Valer, who was asphalting in Tyumen, fell under a road roller. Because of this incident, the wedding ceremony of Valer’s sister was postponed for an indefinite time, and it is still postponed even to this day. It’s true, it has not been cancelled, but it is being postponed from September to November, then from November to February and from February to April. In May, as you know, weddings are not performed, and this summer hails hinder the performance of any weddings. The PACE resolutions on Armenia have actually reached the state of Valer’s sister situation. Their marriage (through implementation) is being postponed from January to April, then from April to June, from June to September and from September to January. But what is important is that there is a respectable reason for that postponement. Co-rapporteur Colombier was in a car accident and as a result both of his legs were broken: it is exactly the same story with Valer’s sister. But recently it is being said that the wedding of Valer’s sister is being postponed not because of Valer’s legs and his resultant disability, but because her fiancé has learned that Valer’s sister is in intimate relations with several others. In fact, I am putting mildly. What we’re really talking about here is prostitution. But Valer surely cannot admit that his sister is a whore. It is almost the same as if PACE were to declare that the Co- Rapporteur on Armenia is a whore. How can something like that happen? It can’t, as there is no provision for anything like that in the PACE legislation. But now when Valer is being asked what has happened with his sister’s wedding, he says, “I’ve gotta’ just quickly solve this problem with my legs, and then I’ll get on with the wedding.” And recently in order to get rid of the extra headache caused by all of this, Valer says that he will definitely hold the wedding next spring. But it is said that Valer regrets that he didn’t figure out beforehand that the best work abroad is not asphalting, but being the PACE co-rapporteur on Armenia or as a last resort, an OSCE/ODIHR observer in Armenian elections or even the head of the Yerevan office of any international organization. If Valer had picked up any job like that, he would have gotten his whoring sister married off a long time ago.

NIKOL PASHINYAN
www.nikolpashinyan.com
From “Kosh” penitentiary

Many people feel consoled that the number of the foreign language schools is limited by the same package of amendments that allows their opening, which stipulates that there will be 11 foreign language schools in Armenia, in the 2 plus 9 format. The law, however, does not limit the number of potential schoolchildren who could attend those schools nor does it limit the breadth of the buildings. This means that theoretically the number of schoolchildren attending foreign language schools could be unlimited. At the same time, those schools could have branches in the regions and cities all over Armenia, which legally will not have the status of an autonomous (unit) school. That is, scores of schools can enter the formal limit of 11 schools set by the law. Even as we consider—or try not to—the ashotyan package a crime against the self-awareness of Armenians, we can’t help but observe that those 11 schools set by the law will very soon be labeled as elite schools. Some tens of qualified teachers, who still exist in Armenia, will, in their search of a higher salary, relocate to those elite schools where the descendents of narrow-minded wealthy individuals obsessed with the mania of forgetting their origins, will gather.

Regular schools thus deprived of average and higher level pedagogues will immediately be considered second-rate schools, where the educational level will drop below today’s zero level, reaching likkayan levels (schools for illiterates in the Soviet Union). It is here that average Armenian parents will be faced with a difficult choice: Should they take their children to second-rate schools where they can’t even achieve basic literacy or give in to the snobbish, narrow-minded game and throw their children into the disgusting environment of insolence?

The majority of Armenians will be faced with this choice. If we consider the ashotyan draft resolution in this context, it becomes evident that most Armenians will be deprived of the right to be educated; especially if we take into consideration the fact that the tuition of elitist schools would also be elitist. And so, most Armenians will have to choose between not being educated and staying human and not being educated and not staying human. It is obvious that the neo-elite schools will not provide normal education, but will just make inter-elite communication and marriage easier, as well as help form a generation for whom fatherland will signify urbane and not Armenia. Moreover, American, European, Russian urbanites will have equal opportunity in this “Joint Stock Company.” While non-elite, regular schools will be contented with teaching letters, i.e. producing potential servants for the elite. In brief, we stand before new challenges because of the ashotyan hirelings: close down both elite or soviet-inherited schools as soon as possible and finally create a truly Armenian school which will be able to imbue their graduates with the spirit of citizenship in the Armenian Republic.

NIKOL PASHINYAN
www.nikol.am
From Kosh Penitentiary

Is it true that the Armenian army is the strongest in the region? If by region we mean the South Caucasus, i.e. Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, it is. However, if we also mean Turkey and Iran, that same statement becomes doubtful. The fact that at the present time the Armenian army is stronger than the Azerbaijani and Georgian armies can be confirmed by analysis. The Georgian army was demoralized after the scandalous Georgian-Russian war of August 2008; before that, in the early nineties, Georgia had again lost the Abkhazian and South Ossetian wars. Then, in 2003, Mikheil Saakashvili came to power and wasted billions of dollars to rearm and reform the army, all the while combining the process with martial rhetoric. In August 2008, Saakashvili believed that the wasted billions and martial rhetoric had improved the fighting ability of his army, but the Georgian army got its ass kicked in South Ossetia. While it’s true that the kicker was the Russian army, one of the strongest in the world, the immediate demoralization of the Georgian army and the shameful chaos that seized them came to prove that the Georgian army, having military hardware, weapons and uniforms, was weak and helpless—above all, morally.

This is a good indicator for Ilham Aliyev and the best proof for the fact that billions never guarantee the fighting ability of an army. After the victorious war of Karabakh by the Armenian army, the Azerbaijani army has been psychologically depressed. Ilham Aliyev understands this and the diversionary activities carried out time after time are aimed at weakening the psychological advantage the Armenian army has.

Serzh Sargsyan’s visit to Germany registered record indicators. What did he see when he went to Germany? Some millions of Turks and Azerbaijanis who live there, and only a few thousand Armenians. What’s more, the Turkish-Azerbaijani lobby is very active there; it even entered the University of Potsdam and suggested that Sevan is an old Azerbaijani lake and that the trout is an Azerbaijani national, which is why Armenians committed genocide against the trout. Getting acquainted with the situation, Serzh Sargsyan realized the gravity of the situation and understood that the small German-Armenian lobby will not be able to face up to the big German-Turkish-Azerbaijani lobby, and realized that failures in Armenian foreign policy originate from here. He then slammed his hand on the table and decided to strengthen the German-Armenian lobby so that it will be able to face up to the German-Turkish lobby and crush it. They say that Sargsyan Tiko and Yeritsyan Nerso have already drawn up “a strategy of complex events aimed at strengthening the German-Armenian lobby” and have even begun implementing a pilot plan. That is, they have assigned a group of pilots who drive their airplanes only to Germany. Yes, sure! They got an external loan from the World Bank, wrote “a strategy of complex events aimed at strengthening the German-Armenian lobby.” At that point, the group of intellectual grade-grublers working on it came to the conclusion that there is only one way to make the Armenian lobby in Germany stronger: to make the Armenian community in Germany bigger. So, according to this strategy, by the year 2013 the Armenian community in Germany should reach at least two million. And so, the groups of pilots take Armenians to Germany and bring back beer to sell it in Sadakhlu. This strategy contributed to the unprecedented growth of the economy. Official statistics show that from the very first hours of implementation of the pilot plan, the quantity of beans (bean in Armenian sounds like lobby) being exported from Armenia increased sharply, ensuring double-digit economic growth. The statistics don’t specify that the reference is about string or kidney beans, but that’s not important at the moment. The economic effect of the pilot plan is not limited by it; the RA citizens exported to Germany very quickly “work hard” in German shops and send a lot of Euros to their relatives in Armenia, mainly through transfers. In brief, as a result of Serzh Sargsyan’s visit, Germany has now become the first line of our national struggle for freedom and so as not to be short of soldiers at this battlefront, he decided to make life conditions in Armenia even more unbearable. The Dashnaks in the Diaspora are impressed with Serzh Sargsyan’s national thinking, “Let’s go to Munich, then to Bonn, let’s turn Berlin into the New Zeytun.”

NIKOL PASHINYAN
www.nikol.am
From “Kosh” penitentiary

In describing gang ethics, in referring to the situation that has been created in the country, we often focus on the role of the primary figures among the authorities and judge their contribution to the disruption of constitutional order in Armenia. But I think from time to time it is necessary to allude to the figures in the middle ranks, which shamelessly and continuously, carry out the obviously illegal commands of the higher-ranking officials in flux. They realize that their actions, which they perform openly, are illegal, but feel no compunction whatsoever.

While walking on the sidewalks of central Yerevan one can often come across an individual with the outward appearance of a national celebrity, with a moustache that has been curled by hair rollers and who walks with an air that suggests that the residents of Yerevan are indebted to him for all issues, large and small. He strides with such geometric precision that his nose remains at least at a 90 degree from the asphalt beneath; even when he moves his head left and right he makes sure the aquiline goniometry is not disturbed. I would like to see that man in Chorni Gago’s office: will he still guard the customary goniometry of his nose while there? Will his moustache remain as thick when reporting Chorni Gago? Will his appearance exude the characteristic features of a national celebrity? I’m convinced not, because only the deep desire to please a higher-ranking official, to be worthy of his official caress would make that individual engage in the illegalities he executes with surprising frequency. The reference is to Gagik Baghdasaryan, the head of the Organization and Inspections Department of the Municipality of Yerevan, who at least for three years, from what I know, has actively been participating in the banning of demonstrations and other public events through illegitimate and bogus excuses.

In any given environment the appearance of new forms of life and new methods may mean two things equally: development and rebirth, or regress and decay. For instance, when a new form of life appears in water, as a rule it indicates that the water is putrefied or that it is not potable. On the other hand, new forms of life on the bare branches of a tree may be the signs of awakening and fertility. For a long time now, I have been watching а new form of life, or rather a new occupation which has appeared in our public life, and whose symbolism I have failed to understand. I discovered it quite accidentally: people usually uninterested in journalism or politics, begin to show active interest when a new political or public figure appears among them, and sometimes even try to get answers to the questions that interests them. Those questions are at times too simplistic, but sometimes it is really hard to answer them. Let’s say a TV station broadcasts a press conference held in this or that press club. In such cases, for instance, I am often asked who this or that person is to have merited the interest of our national television, who holds a press conference which is being broadcasted on all the TV stations. If the person holding the press conference is a parliament member, then he is a parliament member; if he is a party figure, then he is a party figure; a representative of some organization, that’s also ok. Introducing these sorts of speakers does not pose any difficulties. But nowadays in Armenia, instances when it is impossible to understand who is holding the press conference, where is he from and what occupation he has, have increased. And so, I realized one day that a group of twenty or so people has been formed in Armenia whose occupation or business is to invite and hold press conferences.

When they say that the RA Police has developed a strategic plan to raise citizen confidence in them, I take it to mean that the authorities have caught yet another large loan to feed their faces. That conclusion becomes unavoidable when officers of the police begin to talk about the steps they will take as part of that strategy. The largest, the most expansive and central one being legislative reforms. Yes, to be sure, with their imagination of two and a half centimeters, our authorities have again failed to overcome the vision of legislative reforms: no matter the question any one raises, regardless of the subject, urgency or importance, our authorities have just one solution to offer - legislative reform, improvement in the legal system.

The reaction from the authorities was the same — legislative reform — even after the events of March 1. They carried out the reform and removed from the police armory the special resource known as “Cheryomukha-7” with which on March 1, 2008 police killed three citizens of the Armenian Republic. By the same logic, Makarov’s pistol, Kalashnikov’s machinegun, also used by the police to kill and injure numerous citizens on March 1, should be removed from the police armory. But in reality, legislation and the legal system have nothing to do with the events of March 1, 2008. March 1 did not happen because of the existence of “Cheryomukha-7” in the police arsenal, but because of the total falsification of elections, violence and threats, and of trampling over the constitution and the law. In this sense, the Armenian citizen is the least interested to know whether he will be killed with a “Cheryomukha-7”, or a“Kalashnikov.” What’s the difference? If he is a victim, then he is a victim. And should we pass a law prohibiting the existence of bread knives in police stations after the murder of Vahan Khalafyan? Oh, let’s get back to the point: how to raise police authority. I’ll tell you how: without unnecessary strategies. Do not bring false charges against people; do not kill people; do not loot citizens who happen to fall into your hands; do not feed cursed bread to your children; when you build your houses and buy your jeeps be aware that people passing by your house or meeting you remember your parents, silently or aloud, because people know that you own all those things because you curse the bread of others, you make money by the misfortune of others, you take away the property of others. And you can do it all because of your “legislative” morals and manners. And finally, Masters Policemen, change the expression on you faces and those of your sons: your bestial faces beg to be corrected by a brick.

P.S. The “Human Rights Watch” organization has sent a letter to Serzh Sargsyan calling on him not to sign the amendments to the Law on “TV and radio,” because they do not guarantee diversity of opinion on Armenian television. Serzh Sargsyan’s reply to this letter is predictable. Despite the international human rights organization, he will sign the draft resolution and, to allay the concerns of “Human Rights Watch” he will immediately announce his intention to form a commission and charge them with the task of preparing legislative reforms.

NIKOL PASHINYAN
www. nikol.am
From “Kosh” penitentiary

A QUESTION FROM HARUTYUN: Nikol, I’m very interested to know when the Congress will at last win.

NIKOL PASHINYAN’S ANSWER: Dear Harutyun, your question reminded me of Josef Svejk who made a date to meet one of his associates at the “U Kalicha” hotel at 3 pm following the war. I don’t want to put myself in Svejk’s position; and let’s not put ourselves in Svejk’s position. I had mentioned in one of my earlier answers that victory is not a period of time but the will power and the determination to follow through. I am certain we have that will power and that we will struggle until we triumph. All those who set deadlines before them in the first place reveal their weaknesses and hesitation. Hesitation is the most significant precondition for defeat. Strong people do not hesitate or set deadlines; they rely on their will power to realize the goal, to be consistent in their struggle to reach their goal, no matter when. For me, a deadline is not a specific date but the realization of the goal itself. In my view, time does not separate the goal from its realization; the goal cannot be estranged from the one who has the will to realize it by time. Time cannot stand between us and our goal; time cannot create a conflict between us and our goal. After all, our slogan provides the answer to your question, Struggle, Struggle to the End. Many people ask when that end might be. I answer: “the end” is the realization of the goal, after which begins the struggle for a higher goal. My best wishes to you, dear Harutyun.

A QUESTION FROM HAYK: Greetings, dear Nikol. I am happy that you try to be productive. You know better than me that the most interesting ideas are born when one is free of various responsibilities and not distracted by various circumstances as much (for instance, Adolf Hitler wrote his main work in prison), although I certainly do not compare you to him. New ideas always seem to be strange and incompatible but I am convinced that if there is no new idea and the objective of realizing a new point of view, everything would seem hollow; we would live just to have lived, we would say that we are Armenian just to remain Armenian. But that should not be the only basis of our unity; we should have a dream, shouldn’t we? What will be the basis of the unity of a new Armenia? What do you wish to create and what is your dream? Thank you in advance.

NIKOL PASHINYAN’S ANSWER:

The gatherings of the parents and relatives of applicants in front of examination centers, and the hysterical and nervous atmosphere dominating those gatherings, are proof of the fact that the Armenian citizen lives in his country just as wild animals live in their homeland, the jungles. Like the inhabitants of the jungles, the inhabitants of Armenia are also separated into predators and herbivores. The first of them tear the second to pieces, while the carrion-eaters scavenge and live off of the leftovers of the first, the leftovers of the seconds’ lives. Yesterday, the shouts of the parents, discontent at some incident related to the mathematics examination, were like the shouts of deer that appear in the middle of the wolf pack and try to save their babies from the predators’ jaws. It is not important whether the examinations are passing fairly or not, whether the shouting parents were right or not, what is important is their perception of the simple, usual entrance examinations. They consider their children who are taking the entrance examinations to be in the role of the lambs who are in the wolf pack, and this instinctive perception is based on experience. Every time the examinations in Armenia become more and more “fair,” and as a result every year the number of hyena-bearers who earn diplomas increases. And they continue the work initiated by their carrion-eating parents at the courts, police, taxation and customs departments. Their parents do not need to create hysteria at the examination centers, or even to appear there; they know the price of Armenian examination justice with mathematical precision.

Nikol Pashinyan, political prisoner and editor-in-chief of “Haykakan Zhamanak” daily was yesterday moved from the “Nubarashen” to the “Kosh” penitentiary. Before the move, however, on Saturday, representatives of the “Nubarashen” penitentiary administration confiscated his computer. The penitentiary officers did not cite any laws to legally justify their actions for the simple reason that no such law exists that would foresee the act. All that is known is that the confiscation was carried out by the personal order of Hayk Harutyunyan, Chief of the RA Criminal Correctional Service of the Justice Ministry. Such attention to Pashinyan’s modest computer comes as no surprise, because it is on that very computer that he writes his articles, and answers questions and letters addressed to him. Pashinyan was doing so even before October, when he had been allowed to keep a computer in the penitentiary. However, the authorities had been anxious about that computer for quite some time. Former Chief of RA Criminal Correctional Service, Ashot Giziryan had long been looking for ways of doing away with the computer and had enlisted the support of deputy chief of the 6th division of the RA Police, the well-known Karen Babakekhyan to perform this operation. But since it concerned a laptop that Nikol always kept at his side, the titans of the operation failed. Then, the authorities received “operational information” that Pashinyan connected to the internet circuitously, deduced from the fact that Nikol continued to answer the questions of visitors to his website www.nikol.am.

And so, one Friday night, when penitentiary detainees did not expect any checks, the representatives of the RA Criminal Correctional Service entered Pashinyan’s cell and ordered him to follow them with his computer. Press secretary of the Chief of Criminal Correctional Service Arsen Babayan, who sat in the executive office with a solemn face, explained to Nikol that the computer could be confiscated for having connected with the internet illegally. Despite agonizing attempts Babayan was not able to come up with any evidence that the computer had been connected to the internet from the penitentiary, and took his leave, to report to his chief. But Babayan did not leave the raid empty-handed: he confiscated about ten avenues of connecting with the internet, the so-called flashes, from other detainees. Having realized that political prisoner Nikol Pashinyan had provided them with no legal basis by which they could confiscate his computer, the Criminal Correctional Service decided to do so through illegal means. The officials who confiscated the computer promised they would return it on Monday. But this raises the question: what was the point of confiscating it on Saturday evening in the first place? One cannot exclude the possibility that Serzhik Sargsyan and Hayk Harutyunyan decided to take the computer to a fortune-teller on Sunday and have an evil curse put on it.

P.S. Yesterday, before being transferred to “Kosh”, Pashinyan wrote the “Nubarashen” penitentiary chief demanding that his confiscated laptop be returned to him, or, sent to “Kosh”. By yesterday evening the computer had not been returned. Press secretary of the RA Criminal Correctional Service Arsen Babayan had earlier promised our reporter that he would shed light on the confiscation, but has not yet done so. Such conduct is quite understandable since neither Babayan nor anybody else can cite any legal basis for the confiscation of the computer. It is obvious that the computer was confiscated with the intention of impeding Pashinyan’s journalistic, editorial and political activities. In Serzh Sargsyan’s panic-stricken soul, prison walls don’t seem to be enough to resolve the issue.

A QUESTION FROM SOS:
Dear Nikol, I regret to say that a considerable portion of my acquaintances keep escaping from Armenia, using the judicial and socio-economic injustices in the country as a reason. Most people are of the opinion that there is no future in this country; that it is futile to combat against injustice; that a power change would simply change individuals and not the situation. Don’t you think it is necessary to form small groups of lawyers and authoritative political figures who would travel all over Armenia, even to the smallest villages, and explain the seriousness of the moment to the people, their rights and responsibilities to participate in the country’s political and economic developments? To explain to them that each of them represents a power and is therefore needed by the country.

NIKOL PASHINYAN'S ANSWER:
Dear Sos, that, in effect, is the significance of the activities of the Armenian National Congress. As you know, representatives of Congress headquarters visit marzes and meet with local activists. The latter, in turn should disseminate the ideas that you raise in their towns, villages, districts, houses and environments. Some people may argue that this process is not rigorous enough. But I have always believed that ideas, political ideas, will really take root in the country when every individual who endorses them becomes their advocate in his or her environment. There is no question that political field workers and the territorial structures and offices of the Congress should work rigorously. But I don’t think citizens concerned with the country’s future and who do not consider themselves political field workers but are simply engaged in some other business, should leave the propagation of ideas or teaching to field workers alone, or sit and wait for the political field workers to enter each house and village. That won’t work: I gather from your question that you understand the gravity of the moment and ways of overcoming it. You can therefore illuminate the people around you. The latter, in turn, would become the bearers of your ideas and should do the same. There is no need to organize special events for this. In Armenia today, each conversation, each discussion, birthday, or christening turns into a political debate. It is in these debates that we should spread our ideas, our civic doctrine. Needless to say, this is not an easy task because one must have the necessary data, arguments and explanations. And for this it is necessary to read, to be informed, and to develop one’s own knowledge, awareness. Any one who understands the depth of the challenges of today and tomorrow also understands the responsibility he, she or others have for the future of the country.

If a person, let’s say during a debate at some party, is unable to adequately share the ideas of the All-Armenian Movement and the Armenian National Congress with others, he in effect serves the authorities and gang-rule because in my view, our ideas are so strong, our arguments are so substantial that if we lose or fail to score a crushing victory in any given debate, it would be only because of lack of knowledge and indolence. While we’re on the subject, I wish to emphasize that sometimes, while watching TV, listening to radio or reading a newspaper, I am amazed at how Congress sympathizers or representatives fail to answer questions properly, even, at times, seemingly primitive ones. This is irresponsible. In my view, each representative of the All-Armenian Movement should be able to provide lucid and compelling answers to any question regardless of where he or she is—around a table, at a pergola, at the office, on TV, radio or press conference — because there is no question on the internal or foreign policy of Armenia or any other sphere, to which the Congress lacks an answer. And it pains me that it is not always that the available answers are articulated, or are articulated adequately.

In this sense, I specifically wish to address the youth, the brilliant sympathizers of the Armenian National Congress, who achieve political exploits on each passing day. However, each young man who sympathizes with the Congress should also be aware that he stops being a bearer of Congress’s ideas if he is not more competent today than he was yesterday. If a young man sympathizing with the Congress does not improve his knowledge, does not develop his intellect, he, in some ways, betrays the all-Armenian movement, the Liberty Square of 2008, the sacred memory of the victims of March 1. The number one guarantee of the success of any political movement is the ideological, intellectual and why not, professional, qualifications of its activists. A bad economist, however much I might like him, and regardless of his sincere sympathy for the Armenian National Congress, will have served gang rule if he does not improve himself, does not evolve. The same is true for the journalist who does not improve his professional competence, or for the poor lawyer, or the poor attorney, etc., etc.