“Presumption of Betrayal”

By Hakob Badalyan

The Armenian political field seems to be absorbed with a feeling of betrayal. Opponents of the Armenian National Congress accuse the Congress leaders of betraying the society and making a deal with the power, Congress’s supporters accuse those, who criticize Raffi Hovhannisian and the Congress leaders of betraying the movement and concluding a deal with the power, the authorities, when necessary, accuse the opposition of betraying the state and making a deal with foreign forces. There are plenty of betrayals and betraying combinations in Armenia, which first of all, prove the absence of faith.
Despite being the first nation to have adopted Christianity as religion of state, despite considering us a fully Christian nation, in reality, during the whole history of the Armenian nation, we have always violated one of the axis urges of the Christianity – not to create idols. Armenians turned into an idolater nation believing more in idols than in God. This is the reason why the declared heroes of the Armenian nation do not serve the people, but the people became servants of the heroes.
Believing in idols, people stopped believing in anything else, and afterwards, treacherous schemes were born, which put down their roots in the conscience and sub-conscience of the various layers and groups of the society. Nobody seems to believe in themselves. The phenomenon of looking at life through the prism of idols became widespread in Armenia. Whoever tries to resist to the idolatry and not idolize this or another figure, not being led by the presumption of betrayal trying to discuss and understand everything, faces the threat to be declared traitors.
Idolatry, unfortunately, is a feature of almost all socio-political formats of Armenia. There are also individuals free of idolatry, who perceive the leaders having a clear idea of the total system of public interests and their and the leader’s role in serving that system. But, such individuals seem few.
For changing this situation, heroes are necessary, people, who will not be afraid of accusations of betrayal and will try to break all the schemes of betrayals, trying to form a society, which does not render leaders idols, but servants or tools. Leaders will benefit too, because they come down of the pedestal of idols as instantly as they are put up on it.