The Real and Fake Values of Power: What to Expect from Armenia

According to the '168 Hours' newspaper, the Shiraz city council made a decision yesterday to allocate 1 million drams for organizing events to celebrate Citizen's Day. The decision was unanimously approved, with no votes against.

We should expect that similar decisions will be made in other cities and villages across the country, each allocating funds for the organization of Citizen's Day events. However, the issue is not just about the money, even though financial resources are also crucial for Armenia's impoverished communities. The issue is deeper and relates to the priorities and value system of the government.

For the current government, the revolution is the supreme value, above everything else. As many revolutionaries have proclaimed, the revolution transcends the Nagorno-Karabakh victory; it has not been formally declared, but in the perception of revolutionaries, perhaps it is also above the Constitution and, why not, above the state itself.

The fetishization of the revolution is also evident in Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's speeches during foreign visits. He almost everywhere elaborately presents the Velvet Revolution, effectively making it a brand of Armenia. This was also the case in Pashinyan's recent speech at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which was significantly dedicated to the revolution.

Even exhibitions featuring photographs from those days were organized in the PACE hall. The underlying belief of this approach or policy is that the world should be moved by the revolution that took place in Armenia and honor the revolutionaries, namely the current Armenian government.

While the world, out of politeness, admires the Armenian revolution, it expects not emotional stories about the revolution from Armenia but rather programs and proposals, which are almost absent in official speeches.

As for Citizen's Day, it will most likely be celebrated with great pomp, and government structures will do everything to ensure the events are well-attended, breathing massification into the celebration. The government will not miss the opportunity to stage yet another scene on this occasion.

For more details, see today's issue of the newspaper.