A dispute erupted ‘in the house of villager Nikol’
It’s no secret that every authority, as the core of state administration, is always responsible for ensuring internal stability in the country. We can see, however, that the current rulers of Armenia have a completely different agenda and are carriers of a completely different value system. Moreover, their main goal is to stay in power at any cost.
In Nikol Pashinyan’s team, some disagreements and tensions have recently been observed, which is related to both internal and external political decisions. If anyone has the impression that this is due to the wrong political course of the state administration and has reservations about the given issue (illegal border delimitation, distorted regulations, denial of the Genocide, etc.), I will rush to disappoint, because everything is much more primitive.
The beginning of the well-known story says, “A dispute erupted in the house of villager Hambo.” Paraphrasing the words of the great writer, I will change that sentence a little, “A dispute erupted in the house of villager Nikol.” If in the story, the reason for the “dispute” was about “taking little Gikor to the city”, then today’s Armenian “dispute” has quite serious and deep roots, and is a domineering frenzy where everyone wants to dominate the whole, not wanting to share anything with their teammates.
Against this backdrop, Nikol Pashinyan, who constantly notes that “it is pointless to look for wings within the government,”, that “there can be disagreements in any team that are settled”, etc., is just self-deception, because he personally understands that “the revolution has already devoured its children.” Before the eyes of all of us, the government representatives, who do not understand anything about “smart” and “humble” management, have become corrupt bureaucrats, losing their sense of reality. By the way, any government that is cut off from everyday reality is doomed to destruction.
The actions of Pashinyan’s government are often situational and contradict each other. Moreover, most of the theses put forward by Pashinyan regarding the challenges facing Armenia are devoid of content. We can often see how ministers and other high-ranking officials do their best to flatter Pashinyan and agree with any thought expressed by him, regardless of how rational it is. What really matters is that “the boss should be satisfied.” The rest is a matter of interpretation. Basically, this speaks of a management system that has no stance, and this is characteristic of representative authoritarian systems: the order is given from the top of the pyramid, and the subordinates carry it out without uttering a word.
The recent intra-governmental “bites”, indirect, unaddressed mutual accusations indicate that there are deep disagreements within KP, and in some cases, even significant controversies, and many well-known figures simply cannot stand each other. Let us note that the tensions between the representatives of the authorities are noticeable, even from their movements and facial expressions, when they excuse themselves and declare on air that “everything is ok.”
Now let us speak in detail. The first significant wave of disagreements within the authorities was over Grigor Minasyan’s resignation, when KP members themselves initiated the issue of removing him from the position of minister, and Arpi Davoyan, who initiated the process, later “tried” to assume that position, but her teammates didn’t allow that. The next round was the “duel” between Kyaramyan and Aghazaryan, which made it obvious that there are deep cracks in Pashinyan’s team, which Pashinyan should follow up on. A key figures in this game is Andranik Kocharyan, toward whom “young KP members”, namely Sisak Gabrielyan, Hrachya Hakobyan, Armen Pambukhchyan, have a special attitude and are trying to remove from the game (according to the information spread in the press, the KP closed session on Oct. 31 was rather difficult; Hrach Hakobyan confirmed this in a Parliament briefing, noting that he “will not provide details.”).
In his turn, in his last few interviews, Andranik Kocharyan made indirect accusations against Alen Simonyan. Before that, the press wrote that Simonyan had a tough conversation with Kocharyan in connection with the famous NA hearings regarding Anna Vardapetyan’s sitting in the NA presidency, when the Minister of Internal Affairs and the head of the National Security Service were sitting next to each other in the hall. Let us add that recently the tension between Simonyan and Kocharyan has escalated into clashes, which, according to some sources, is related to the fight for power within the faction. Basically, these conflicts are also due to the ambitions between Kocharyan and Simonyan and their desire to control the team. Andranik Kocharyan is known for his influence within the team, which often causes obstacles for Simonyan. Both Simonyan and Kocharyan have clear ambitions and aspirations for influence, which makes cooperation difficult.
It should be noted that as an individual player, Arsen Torosyan, who specifically works on targeting the topics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, is leading his own line and voicing what Pashinyan wants to say. Torosyan often criticizes the actions of the law enforcement system, calling on them to avoid certain behaviors, which, according to him, can be perceived as a “witch hunt”. In his opinion, certain investigations and actions of law enforcement officers cross the line and are excessively strict. During the discussions of the state budget in the National Assembly, Torosyan’s excessively sharp questions to Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Arpine Sargsyan testify to what was said (bad work of patrols, the issue of cars, tinted windows, etc.). Moreover, Torosyan also reprimanded Sargsyan for the fact that the latter’s driver does not even wear a seat belt.
Among these general topics, there is another wing of the government, led by Suren Papikyan. This “wing” keeps itself far away from the ongoing intrigues and shows obvious neutrality (Papikyans do not get involved in the current developments, either in the parliamentary field or in the local government sector where developments are noticeably numerous). Basically, this is due to the fact that in Papikyan’s team there are mostly unpopular and simpler people who are the “boss’s” henchmen and do not act as they wish.
Summarizing, let us add that the above-mentioned intrigues are par for the course for the ruling pyramid.
P.S. We cannot rule out the possibility that Nikol Pashinyan may “sacrifice” Alen Simonyan in order to defuse the tension within the team.
Armen Hovasapyan
