Politics

It has been a while since the opposition in Armenia has turned into a ministry. Don’t be amazed at once because if you think about it, you will see that one is not born to be a member of the opposition, but rather, becomes one, or better yet, gets appointed as one throughout the course of time.

As all ministers, the president appoints and removes members of the opposition. Of course, they don’t take part in the government sessions, but they get the first hand orders and decisions. The situation at hand is so mixed up that those “ministers” do not even have the right to resign by their own will. I should not mention the fact that nobody wants to do that. Who would want to resign from being a member of the opposition with all its benefits and move on to another job?

Can you imagine that? Let’s take for example a member of the “Artarutyun” (Justice) union who meets with the president: “Honorable President, even though you were not elected legitimately, I ask you to please fire me since I have a new job now.” The president signs the document: “Accounting. Complete the final calculations, pay the paid vacations.” There is something which does not exist in our country: we are not grateful for the work done for us and we don’t give a parting gift, such as a “Polyot” or better yet, a “Rolex” watch.

Still have no idea? Of course you don’t. For example, let’s say you are a seller in the store. While you are working, you realize that you and the client don’t get along. You are offering the customer mustard when he wants marmalade. To make a long story short, it just doesn’t work out between the two of you. But can you picture yourself going up to your boss and asking him to fire you? I understand, it is hard to find a job out there, especially if you are not between the ages of 18-30, long legged, blonde, and a pretty girl. That is why you don’t write the statement to leave. All of a sudden you get this feeling that you hate the workers from the other stores, the ones that are able to sell the mustard and marmalade. You do not want to accept the fact that they have understood that you have to sell mustard to the customers who want meat, and marmalade to customers who want to buy coffee or tea.

After all that, can you imagine Arshak Sadoyan get up and announce that he no longer wants to play a role in politics. (Let’s leave things that may bring terrible consequences aside). I am just asking if you can imagine that. Allow me to state the question in a different way. Can you imagine Arshak Sadoyan, let’s say, working at a tourist agency? He can not explain the delay of a flight in the following way: “Some people have robbed the plane’s kerosene, that is why the plane did not fly.” As you can see, that doesn't work out. The passengers will complain, moan and groan and demand to get their money back. That is why Arshak Sadoyan does not resign from his job.

How about Stepan Demirchyan as an officer controlling the streets like the Kievyan-Kochar-Kasyan-Baghramyan intersections at 9.a.m. in the morning? ( I must say beforehand that I pass that intersection every morning and very often all the traffic lights are turned off). Now do you see how much we demand “rules and regulations”. The police officer keeps saying “rules and regulations”, but drivers try to find a way out of the situation.

Let's try and picture Aram Gasparich as a reporter for the “Karabagh is ours” independent weekly. He writes every day, gets interviewed by morning show journalists sometimes and replies “yes” to the question “Do you like your profession?”.

I must say that despite Shavarsh Kocharyan's appearance, I can't imagine him working on an experiment in a scientific library. Some experiment based on proving the fact that an independent television network can close due to a law defended by the opposition. I can not imagine Albert Bazeyan as a boxing trainer. I don’t imagine that because he can do away with the country’s Olympic reserve for one reason: “Nobody cares about boxing in school”. I picture Hrant Khachaturyan reading the continuation of the “Count of Monsieur” by Alexander Dumas while he was imprisoned in 1989 for mixing up the superintendence hours at the Sovetashen jailhouse.

After viewing the debut film produced by Artashes Geghamyan, I tried to imagine that he would be filmed in a movie called “They were fighting for the Homeland” where Geghamyan would be Superman and fight to the end. But he wouldn’t die so that he could bring politics to a HAPPY END.

Can you picture Vazgen Manukyan as a mathematics professor? Of course you do. Everything is simple, except for one problem which can not be solved. If we subtract 2 from 1998, we get 1996,but add another five and we get 2003. Now go and explain to students that mathematics is an exact science. I don’t know why, but I picture Aram Sargsyan lecturing history and the topic is “How History Develops”. However, this is a sad story, better yet, extremely boring.

Now we can ask what the title of this article has to do with all of this, who Abo is that doesn’t like Bobo, or who is Bobo that Abo doesn’t like. I know that you are interested in knowing, but to be honest, even I can not give a straight answer because neither Abo nor Bobo is one person for me to point out and show you. In general, no matter how sad and boring this story is, we must find the answer by reading how history develops.

P.S. I dedicate this article to the Armenian National Movement-the only political party in its kind which I have been a member of for a short while.