During the Soviet times the intelligentsia used to have a unique policy. The members of this group of the society used to believe in that cordially too. The most well-organized group of the intelligentsia was the representatives of the Academy of Science and Yerevan State University. These groups of the society used to think that they had a certain responsibility to the society. In 1960-80s the meetings of these groups and also political parties were very active. These groups of the society, which were considered “non-corrupt”, used to raise important issues for discussion. They used to criticize the government for inefficient government and corruption. Following such meetings the society was starting to discuss the critics and announcements on the part of different professors and intelligentsia sector representatives addressed to the government. Of course the authorities did not like this and had different tools to calm down the society and harm the reputation of the intelligentsia in the society as well. Following the active and tense discussions full of critics to the government the authorities used to instruct the police to catch university professors on bribe and report to the society. As a rule, those who were caught on bribe usually were well-known and honored people in the society. In case of such incidents the friends and groups of those intelligentsia representatives used to go to the officials and asked them to set their friend free. This helped to calm down the tension between these groups and solve the problems for a while.
The situation is different now. Intelligentsia representatives are not so critical and their reputation is not good in the society either. Of course some of them sometimes speak about corruption, but the satiation has not changed. As soon as there are public discussions about corruption, the authorities again instruct the police to catch some people to make these passions come down. This is an effective tool for such situations. Several months ago again there were discussions concerning corruption at different levels. The reason was the publication of an international organization concerning shade in the economy. Following this publication the president of Narekatsi arts union was arrested in the framework of the fight against corruption. Of course they would not arrest an oligarch for failure to pay taxes. This punishment is not for them and their oligarch parents. The future development following that arrest was as before too. The intelligentsia knocked at the doors of the government and asked them to forgive, and the government changed the punishment. If the intelligentsia representatives behave well and serve for the government during the upcoming elections, their petitions will be done. Especially when there are more reasons now to ask for favor.
For two days the media and society was discussing the issue of corruption. A professor was arrested in Gyumri. Law enforcement officers from Yerevan caught the professor on taking 150,000 drams bribe and locked the doors of the dean’s office. Now the police is busy with legal proceedings to find out the details of the relations between a 31 years old young man, who paid bribe for passing an exam, and the 70 years old professor. The president of the university has already made an announcement saying that the lecturer is an honest and fair person. This means that the intelligentsia is asking for a favor, and in answer they will again keep silence. For a while they will not speak about corruption, the wealth of officials, etc. The methods of the government are the same as during the Soviet times. Only the public perception has changed. Now the society thinks that these arrested people are really honest and were victims of the “fight against corruption”. This sentence has been taken from an official statement. This means that people are not arrested for a crime but “in the framework of fight against corruption”. This is a very strange legal consciousness. This is either a strange legal consciousness or lack of legal consciousness, which we have been able to achieve due to hard work of many years.