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Nikol Pashinyan did not find Komitas, Siamanto or Ruben Sevak of our times... The number of the arrests ordered by him has not yet reached 235. But Pashinyan found a way different from that of the Young Turks.

His plans look different, including a “bloody deluge” and white terror.

During the 2020 war, Armenia and Artsakh stood up to fight: the army, volunteers, the Diaspora, aid...

The assistance was stopped at the borders or in warehouses. It remains unclear what happened to the bulletproof vests and other items, which the senders did not announce in line with military secrecy. How many young men were killed by bullets and shells because they did not wear body armor or high-quality helmets on the frontline!

Do you remember how bewildered [Artsakh President] Arayik Harutyunyan was when he went to a combat position wearing a helmet and a bulletproof vest and asked an elderly man why he wasn't wearing body armor. The man shrugged his shoulders shyly, what was there to say? How was he supposed to answer to a stupid question? He didn't have one, so he didn't wear one.

The issue of the volunteers was "solved" in roughly the same way. I know a volunteer who had hardly recovered from his injuries before being taken back to the frontline in poor health condition, and his brothers, who had signed up as volunteers and were waiting for their turn, were never called up.

What was it that Artsrun [Hovhannisyan, the Defense Ministry spokesman in 2020] used to say? There was no need for them, that’s why they were not called into service, right?

I also know a volunteer who tried to lead the trenching work to protect his team against shelling, but came under attack for it after the war.

I know volunteers who were fined for distorted or lost flasks. Strangely, the authorities were "not fined" for our lost homeland.

I know a volunteer who came from abroad to fight for Artsakh and Armenia, and when he was to go back, he went to the Military Registration and Enlistment Office, where he was told, "What payment or a military ticket are you talking about? How do we know, maybe you fought for the enemy...”

The army was no different from volunteers, an army without leadership. Meanwhile, we had a heroic army and selfless soldiers who gave their lives not only for their friends, but also while recovering their bodies from the battlefield. They were 18-year-old soldiers who refused to surrender and sacrificed their lives for it.

Soldiers fighting for days under siege who still believed that the government would send special forces to rescue them. So they died in the blockade, eating only grass and drinking spring water...

And their parents: there were cases when they received last calls for help, and there were hundreds of them. There were parents who dreamed of their sons’ painless death…

Parents who, having lost their sons, dreamt of burying their bodies...

I don't know, it's hard to find the right words. Maybe it’s not “dreamed of”, another word would be better, not “sieged”, but abandoned, not “sacrificed their lives”, but “gained immortality”.

And then Nikol announced that the war outcome would have been the same: the lands would have been ceded to Azerbaijan anyway, just without casualties.

"So, why did you sacrifice an entire generation if you would have handed them over anyway...," people asked him angrily.

Why? So that when ceding more territories to Azerbaijan after the war, he could justify himself, saying, “It’s you who told me to surrender lands without casualties.”

And, so that afterwards there would not be those bright young men who would demand answers from him and make him pay.

So that women without children would be ashamed of those who have them and would not demand fighting for victory. After all, rallies don't matter to Nikol.

So that after the homeland is sprinkled with the blood of thousands of young Armenian soldiers, he would spread white terror all around and there will be no one who would stop him.

And Nikol's list, which includes the dead, missing and disabled servicemen and the prisoners of war...remained unpublished, as he didn’t need names at all.

By Anahit Voskanyan