Nemets Rubo Is Back

On the 40^th day of death of 33-year-old Vahe Avetyan who was beaten up to death in Harsnakar restaurant, a very interesting letter was published by Aravot daily.

The authors of the letter are a group of residents of Avan district of Yerevan who define themselves as intellectuals and say that the “revolutionaries” speculate Vahe Avetyan’s death against Ruben Hairapetyan. They ask Ruben Hairapetyan not to lay down his parliamentary mandate and not to disappoint them.

As we know after the tragedy, Ruben Hairapetyan had to announce about laying down his mandate under the pressure of the society.

But this process needs to follow the procedure. His resignation need to be read out in the parliament. The National Assembly is on leave now and the next session is scheduled in September. In other words, though he has stated about his intention to lay down the mandate, he is still an MP.

More, he does not seem to have such an intention at all. This “collective” letter proves this possibility. This letter would seem improper at the beginning when the Harsnakar tragedy had just happened, so they waited, let some time pass and before September, when the NA Session will take place and Hairapetyan will be deprived of the mandate, they have launched the public support operation.

No doubt, the Avan residents will write many more letters asking Hairapetyan not to resign. And in order to make everything more exciting and influential, they will threaten to burn themselves in front of Harsnakar or to leave Armenia with their families in case Nemeth Rubo resigns.

Ruben Hairapetyan will state that the mandate is disgusting for him, but it will be more disgusting if people burn themselves or if they leave Armenia just because he lays down his mandate.

By the way, in this case, his absence at the NA sessions will also be justified. Hairapetyan will say that he kept his mandate for the sake of the people, but he does not attend NA sessions because he does not want to remember that he has the mandate.

The situation is not funny at all, especially taking into account the fact that two months after Vahe’s beating and death, the police do not have the whole image of the crime to send the case to the court. More, as the lawyers of Vahe Avetyan’s legal successor stated the police are trying to protract time and cover up the case.

The letter to Ruben Hairapetyan reveals the logic of the process: to win time and then attack.

By the way, football could be directly involved too. We should not rule out that there will be footballers among the authors of the letter to Ruben Hairapetyan.

Anyway, in case of the system which is led by “the end justifies the means” slogan, no step should be unexpected.

The society has reached the signal at a very suggestive moment when it is going to hold a march on the 40^th day of Vahe’s death. The signal does not only relate to this case, but it is a general indicator that the ruling system, even in case of the slightest possibility, will try to regain positions.

The answer by the civil society shouldn’t be late, but it should not be aggressive against Hairapetyan and his supporters but it should be for values, thinking and culture.

After all, one of the aims of the collective letters is to shift the issue into the field of mutual aggression, putting the citizens against each other. By the way, we witnessed such tactics by Ruben Hairapetyan-Samvel Alexanyan tandem in the parliamentary elections when such collective oral requests were voiced against Nikol Pashinyan.

In this situation, it is extremely necessary to stay within the field of values and thinking, without exerting to aggressive debate on which the initiators count.