The New Year started off with the accident that took place which had to do with the workers at the “Armenia Electric Networks” company. The person that caused all the commotion was Minister of Culture of the Republic of Armenia, poet Hovik Hoveyan and his son, who if I am not mistaken, plays the cello. Society has already been informed about what happened, and judging from that, we can conclude that the “AEN” workers have not only shut down the electricity of the Minister’s building, but they have also attacked his cellist son. This left no choice for the Minister but to rely on self-defense.
The people are truly shocked by this event. They did not expect this from the Minister of Culture, the former secretary of the Writers’ Union of Armenia and finally, the poet. If another minister, an MP, a soldier or, let’s say one of the president’s bodyguards, were to do that just days before Armenian Christmas, society would understand because every child among us Armenians knows that there are certain people that are known for doing crazy things.
Society was shocked by mistake because it only sees the surface of the event taken place and never goes deep into the contents. Once again, the people did not try to go deeper into the event and try to understand that what happened was a minor hooligan act and there were only “physical injuries” as a result.
People did not ask themselves what was so horrible about turning off the lights for a couple of hours or from time to time that could force an average citizen (each minister or MP sitting around the New Years’ Eve table is considered an average citizen) to get his weapons, march over to the electric networks station and solve the problem by using the end of a pistol. People did not go deep into all this because each member of society knows that if he or she had a high-paying job or some weapons, that person would do the same so that the neighbors or acquaintances wouldn’t say: “What kind of dumb minister this guy is; they cut off his electricity on New Years’.”
There is one other thing that society did not think about and understand-the minister of our democratic, social, legal and I don’t know what kind of country goes along with the recently (un)accepted constitution and attacks the workers of a private company; workers who are fulfilling their duties during the holiday season. People did not go deep into this because each person knows very well that the recently (un) accepted constitution talks a little too much about human rights but any minister’s official position is more valuable than private ownership or the security of an average worker.
Society was not surprised as to why the minister and government member did not appeal to the committee on public services of Armenia and did not find out if there had been other shut downs besides the building on 58 Mashtots street and teaching the private company workers a lesson during the holidays (or not only during the holidays) instead of getting involved in a “yard fight”.
Society was not surprised because in order to do something like that, the minister of culture had to first be a citizen, then a poet. If the minister of culture were to be a citizen first and then a poet, while being a secretary at the Writers’ Union or speaking out about the status of the present day writers, he had to know that instead of picking on the authorities, he had to condemn the event that took place at “Poplavok” café or speak out against the “shaved-heads” beating the journalists at “Nairi” cinema.
Society was not surprised because it knew very well that nobody can not obtain a position in this country by being a citizen first and then a poet, much less become a minister.
The society is mostly affected by the possibility of Hoveyan leaving office. Everyone, with the anticipation of the crowd that was curious to see what happened after the Roman gladiator scene, was anxious to see him collapse. The collapse, in contrast to the gladiator field and many phenomena in our lives, was extremely civilized. A bust with a costume and tie appears on our television screens talking about the behavior of a political party which does not allow any forms of abuse and society accepts this “resignation” as a punishment, of course, forgetting that there has only been an event with “physical injuries”.
The people accept this resignation as a punishment because a position-much less the position of being a minister-is good, a very good thing and depriving someone from that good thing is already a big punishment. But the planned out punishments in the criminal code are not for people with high-paying jobs; they are for members of the same society or their children who, God forbid, commit an error and deal with our “professional” police officers.
When the vice-speaker of the National Assembly does something at a café, that is a political event for us; but when police find a bullet in an average citizen’s home, that is considered a crime. When the son of the minister of foreign affairs runs over a pedestrian with the ministry service car, that is a political event, but when an average citizen does the same, that is considered an accident which doesn’t end with being behind prison bars. When newspaper journalists are attacked, that is considered an insignificant political event, but when those people go to court with the “HyeLur” reporter, then we have a very good occasion to talk about moral ethics.
That’s just the way it is and it will continue to be this way as long as we still get shocked for the wrong reason by seeing all the events going on.