Vartan Matiossian
It has been a constant since the mid-1990s to expect an election marred by fraud in Armenia. If the fraud has not been visible (ballot
stuffing and all), it has just been of the invisible type (I pay you this
amount of money and you go and vote for me). The claims of fraud, justified or
not, have ended sometimes in violent ways; one may remember the storming of
the National Assembly building and the beating of its speaker in 1996 or, even
more unjustified, the death of 10 people (eight demonstrators and two
policemen) on March 1, 2008 in the repression after ten days of peaceful
demonstrations.
We
will not comment on the events in Armenia after the presidential election of
February 18, 2013, as they are still evolving. Suffice it to say that they
showed a very strong performance by the main opposition candidate, Raffi
Hovannisian, who officially obtained 36.75 percent of the votes, against 58.64
of the incumbent, President Serge Sargsian. Denunciations of fraud have been
made—we assume that, justified or not, there may be some grounds for them--and heavily crowded meetings at Freedom
Square have followed, including the support of some opposition forces that had
neither participated in the election not thrown their support behind
Hovannisian, namely the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and the Armenian
National Congress.
People
have started to fill mailboxes with their conspiracy-theory rants, as the
one who had sent the following morning-after pill:
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From: Arevagal <arevagal@yahoo.com>
To:
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 10:28 AM
Subject: "Raffilution begins"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 10:28 AM
Subject: "Raffilution begins"
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This
bloodthirsty individual who happens to live in the bubble of “an election process
that was unfortunately more democratic than anything we see take place in the
Western world” is an old acquaintance for the readers; we refer them to our posting
“Just Doom and Gloom?” a year ago (February 2, 2012). Hidden behind the pagan-styled
pseudonym Arevagal (“Coming of the
Sun”), Mr. “I personally
don't have a problem seeing Armenian blood spilled if it's done
for the sake of Armenia” happens to be—according to a well-informed person formerly acquainted
with him—an Armenian born in Lebanon with a most Christian first name and the American
citizenship in his pocket. He is sitting comfortably somewhere in Queens, New York while pontificating and weighing about the lives and deeds (and the blood and the right to live, it seems) of people at 10,000 miles of distance who
actually carry the burden of living through such “election processes” and may
talk first hand about them. He happens to be the one who signs Arevordi
(“Child of the Sun”; the “Sun” must be understood as Russia, indeed) while “Heralding the Rise of
Russia” in his
blog on “Western Globalism, Eurasian Geopolitics & Russian-Armenian
Relations,” where his latest piece of logorrhea is entitled:
"Raffilution begins!!! Raffi Hovannisian's turn to lead Armenia's self-destructive peasantry - February, 2013"
No self-respecting scholar or political analyst would imply that, say, because Russia, the strategic ally of Armenia, has had the same individual in power either as prime minister or president since 1999, when a prime minister, a speaker of Parliament, ministers and MPs were killed in the shootings of the Armenian National Assembly, and the Minister of Interior and National Security, e.g. Serge Sargsian, was not dismissed from his post for such a huge blunder of security, then Serge Sargsian is on the payroll of Moscow. But there may be more fact embedded in such a farfetched hypothesis than what “I would want
to see the repeat of what happened on the night of March 1” Arevagal writes in the opening paragraph of his latest “analysis,” which may serve as an appetizer for the rest of his interminable concoction:
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In an early effort to prepare one of their most important operatives in Armenia for higher office, about two years ago Raffi Hovannisian went on a drastic weight loss program. This public relations stunt was done to endear him in the eyes of the Armenian sheeple and to grant him a divine aura of a selfless/suffering servant. Therefore, it can be said that Raffi's presidential campaign actually kicked-off two years ago via a "hunger strike" that was most probably carried out in collaboration with the queen of color revolutions, Marie Yovanovitch.
------------------
This individual who has just insulted the citizens of Armenia as “peasantry” — if they are peasants, they cannot even dream of “democracy,” which is something outside of this world for people of his stature, probably an invention of “Anglo-American-Zionist-Bolshevik” interests — happens to spread his deeply-engrained cult of personality of “the living legend” (his words), a.k.a. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia (whom he probably regards as the Sun-King, see above), as in the following (the typos have been left uncorrected):
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In an early effort to prepare one of their most important operatives in Armenia for higher office, about two years ago Raffi Hovannisian went on a drastic weight loss program. This public relations stunt was done to endear him in the eyes of the Armenian sheeple and to grant him a divine aura of a selfless/suffering servant. Therefore, it can be said that Raffi's presidential campaign actually kicked-off two years ago via a "hunger strike" that was most probably carried out in collaboration with the queen of color revolutions, Marie Yovanovitch.
------------------
This individual who has just insulted the citizens of Armenia as “peasantry” — if they are peasants, they cannot even dream of “democracy,” which is something outside of this world for people of his stature, probably an invention of “Anglo-American-Zionist-Bolshevik” interests — happens to spread his deeply-engrained cult of personality of “the living legend” (his words), a.k.a. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia (whom he probably regards as the Sun-King, see above), as in the following (the typos have been left uncorrected):
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From: Arevagal <arevagal@yahoo.com>
To:
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2013 1:46 PM
Subject: Russian Lawmakers Aim at Foreign Cars, Films and Schooling in Patriotic Purge
To:
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2013 1:46 PM
Subject: Russian Lawmakers Aim at Foreign Cars, Films and Schooling in Patriotic Purge
|
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The
First Amendment also gives him the right to spit his venom about the Armenian-American
“sheeple,” the “whore[s] of Babylon” (Babylon = Washington), and every single issue that does not fill his mental
shoebox (exception made of the praise of Russia, indeed; he reminds us of the “chic Bolsheviks” that Ara Baliozian used to stigmatize in the 1980s). It also gives us the right to delete his emails from our mailbox at
(almost) first sight, not because of his pro-Russian and anti-American preaching, but just because of his black-and-white worldview. The samples that we quote here are the few casual survivors from this daily rain of unsolicited verbal garbage:
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From: Arevagal <arevagal@yahoo.com>
To:
Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2012 4:19 AM
Subject: Russia’s Armenian millionaires to arrive in Armenia
To:
Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2012 4:19 AM
Subject: Russia’s Armenian millionaires to arrive in Armenia
From: Arevagal <arevagal@yahoo.com>
To: Sent: Friday, December 7, 2012 11:13 PM Subject: Garegin Nzhdeh (revised)
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The same rant has been picked up verbatim, under the title Garegin Nzhdeh: A Brilliant Military Leader, a Fearless Warrior, a Visionary Soldier and the signature “Andy Hazarian,” by the December 14-20 issue of “USA Armenian Life/Հայ Կեանք” of California. It is not by chance, then, that Appo Jabarian, the editor of this publication, which boasts of being, “since 1985, the Diaspora’s most widely acclaimed & circulated independent Armenian weekly,” has put together another piece of conspiracy theory that passes as informed opinion, with the highly provocative (which does not mean thought-provoking) title, “Does Failed Presidential Candidate Raffi Hovannisian Seek Armenia’s Destabilization?” (February 22-28), that also decorates its cover page.
Jabarian has come to the forefront to warn us the coming of the Apocalypsis: Hovannisian, a former American citizen, “hoped to win Armenia’s Feb. 19 [sic!] presidential election effectively pulling off an ‘apricot revolution.’ He failed. But will he concede defeat?” The writer envisions “the great civil unrest and turmoil triggered by this confrontation ultimately destabilizing Armenia,” recycling the worn-out and unproven theory that, in March 2008, “innocent Armenian citizens lost their lives because of instigations by then failed presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrossyan’s backers.” And, because “Mr. Hovannisian was a supporter of Mr. Ter-Petrossyan,” then he feels entitled to do the math.
To add insult over injury, Jabarian, whose knowledge of Armenian has not reached yet the point of knowing what “Medz Yeghern” means (he has turned it into a term of denial) and what the close relation between “Medz Yeghern” and “Armenian Genocide” is (see our article in “The Armenian Weekly,” November 27, 2012), reminds us that Raffi Hovannisian had used the expression “Great Armenian Dispossession” in 2007 when writing to newly elected Turkish president Abdullah Gul. And because he did not used the mantra “Armenian Genocide,” he hurls at Hovannisian the accusation of “pandering to Turkey” for using the “highly insulting term ‘Great Armenian Dispossession.’ ” Nothing new, indeed, as he had already done the same six years ago.
It is high time that activists self-branded as “journalists” end their instrumentalization of the Armenian Genocide and their bashing of whoever may see things differently, as long as these people are not engaged, knowingly, in any activity that may be considered as “betrayal of the Armenian Cause” by the powers to be (= thinking people). We do not doubt the good intentions of these activists-journalists, but we suspect that their one-track mindscape may have impaired their ability to see beyond their eyes. It is unbearable to read cheap and totally unjustified shots of the type, “If as a mere parliamentarian Mr. Hovannisian was willing to sell out on the Armenian Genocide and justice for his people, what would he do as President?” When talking about a public figure who has a certain record in this field, one would expect that a self-styled “independent” journalist would be more careful in his research of facts and his choice of words, and would avoid falling to such substandard levels. The reference is to a former Foreign Minister who was fired when, Los Angeles Times reported (October 17, 1992), “during a speech in Istanbul last month, Hovannisian said Turkey is accused of 'grave human rights violations' and that it 'cannot yet claim to be a model of European values,' while Armenia has embraced democracy from the start.”
“Would he be any different than his former boss Pres. Ter-Petrossyan and another operative – Vartan Oskanyan then Deputy Foreign Minister and later Foreign Minister under Pres. Kocharyan — who were all too willing to return strategic lands in liberated Armenian territory of Artsakh (Karabagh) back to Azeri yoke?,” asks Jabarian furthermore, who thus implies that Hovannisian is an “operative.” (Incidentally, a few years ago, Raffi Hovannisian introduced a draft bill to recognize the independence of the Republic of Mountainous Karabagh or Artsakh in the Armenian National Assembly, which was rejected by the RPA majority.) Operative of whom? The answer is right there:
“Patriotic Armenians in Armenia and Diaspora are sandwiched between Armenia’s oligarchs on the left and Armenian neo-Cons on the right. They are wary of their future being hijacked by either of the two fringe groups – oligarchs and their clans, Armenian political careerists, materialists, and seekers of fame and fortune at all cost who are backed by their neo-Con masters in Washington and elsewhere.”
Therefore, Jabarian implies that Hovannisian, who left the comfort of California and, reportedly, a six-figure salary more than twenty years ago (Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1992) to serve his country and, after being dismissed from his position of Foreign Minister of Armenia (1991-1992), chose to remain in the republic (and petitioned for more than ten years until he obtained its citizenship) instead of returning to a profitable life in the United States, is one of those “Armenian political careerists, materialists, and seekers of fame and fortune at all cost who are backed by their neo-Con masters in Washington and elsewhere.” (Memo to conspiracy theorists: the neo-conservative cabal that ruled over Washington in the early twenty-first century was pushed out in November 2008.) And the writer thinks of himself – as well as his occasional contributor “Arevagal”/”Andy Hazarian” – as one of those sandwiched “patriotic Armenians in Armenia and the Diaspora.”
Jabarian has come to the forefront to warn us the coming of the Apocalypsis: Hovannisian, a former American citizen, “hoped to win Armenia’s Feb. 19 [sic!] presidential election effectively pulling off an ‘apricot revolution.’ He failed. But will he concede defeat?” The writer envisions “the great civil unrest and turmoil triggered by this confrontation ultimately destabilizing Armenia,” recycling the worn-out and unproven theory that, in March 2008, “innocent Armenian citizens lost their lives because of instigations by then failed presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrossyan’s backers.” And, because “Mr. Hovannisian was a supporter of Mr. Ter-Petrossyan,” then he feels entitled to do the math.
To add insult over injury, Jabarian, whose knowledge of Armenian has not reached yet the point of knowing what “Medz Yeghern” means (he has turned it into a term of denial) and what the close relation between “Medz Yeghern” and “Armenian Genocide” is (see our article in “The Armenian Weekly,” November 27, 2012), reminds us that Raffi Hovannisian had used the expression “Great Armenian Dispossession” in 2007 when writing to newly elected Turkish president Abdullah Gul. And because he did not used the mantra “Armenian Genocide,” he hurls at Hovannisian the accusation of “pandering to Turkey” for using the “highly insulting term ‘Great Armenian Dispossession.’ ” Nothing new, indeed, as he had already done the same six years ago.
It is high time that activists self-branded as “journalists” end their instrumentalization of the Armenian Genocide and their bashing of whoever may see things differently, as long as these people are not engaged, knowingly, in any activity that may be considered as “betrayal of the Armenian Cause” by the powers to be (= thinking people). We do not doubt the good intentions of these activists-journalists, but we suspect that their one-track mindscape may have impaired their ability to see beyond their eyes. It is unbearable to read cheap and totally unjustified shots of the type, “If as a mere parliamentarian Mr. Hovannisian was willing to sell out on the Armenian Genocide and justice for his people, what would he do as President?” When talking about a public figure who has a certain record in this field, one would expect that a self-styled “independent” journalist would be more careful in his research of facts and his choice of words, and would avoid falling to such substandard levels. The reference is to a former Foreign Minister who was fired when, Los Angeles Times reported (October 17, 1992), “during a speech in Istanbul last month, Hovannisian said Turkey is accused of 'grave human rights violations' and that it 'cannot yet claim to be a model of European values,' while Armenia has embraced democracy from the start.”
“Would he be any different than his former boss Pres. Ter-Petrossyan and another operative – Vartan Oskanyan then Deputy Foreign Minister and later Foreign Minister under Pres. Kocharyan — who were all too willing to return strategic lands in liberated Armenian territory of Artsakh (Karabagh) back to Azeri yoke?,” asks Jabarian furthermore, who thus implies that Hovannisian is an “operative.” (Incidentally, a few years ago, Raffi Hovannisian introduced a draft bill to recognize the independence of the Republic of Mountainous Karabagh or Artsakh in the Armenian National Assembly, which was rejected by the RPA majority.) Operative of whom? The answer is right there:
“Patriotic Armenians in Armenia and Diaspora are sandwiched between Armenia’s oligarchs on the left and Armenian neo-Cons on the right. They are wary of their future being hijacked by either of the two fringe groups – oligarchs and their clans, Armenian political careerists, materialists, and seekers of fame and fortune at all cost who are backed by their neo-Con masters in Washington and elsewhere.”
Therefore, Jabarian implies that Hovannisian, who left the comfort of California and, reportedly, a six-figure salary more than twenty years ago (Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1992) to serve his country and, after being dismissed from his position of Foreign Minister of Armenia (1991-1992), chose to remain in the republic (and petitioned for more than ten years until he obtained its citizenship) instead of returning to a profitable life in the United States, is one of those “Armenian political careerists, materialists, and seekers of fame and fortune at all cost who are backed by their neo-Con masters in Washington and elsewhere.” (Memo to conspiracy theorists: the neo-conservative cabal that ruled over Washington in the early twenty-first century was pushed out in November 2008.) And the writer thinks of himself – as well as his occasional contributor “Arevagal”/”Andy Hazarian” – as one of those sandwiched “patriotic Armenians in Armenia and the Diaspora.”
We live in a perilous world, where all great and not-so-great powers are engaged in political games for which they expect smaller nations to be pawns. But, until one can prove his/her farfetched theories with plausible and sounding facts, it is better that self-named “patriotic Armenians” put the cart back behind the horses rather than trying the patience of people who are tired of having their intelligence insulted and, even worse, brainwashing other people who are not able to discern between hardcore facts and softcore fantasy.
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