Editor’s Note: The following piece was sent to Crossroads with a request for publication. It is worthwhile to note that the author declares to have hailed the election of the democratic Prime Minister with sincere feelings, believing that, deprive of any material or moral “corruption,” he would become a pure champion of Truth, Justice, and the Voice of the Armenian people, as well of their just rights. The author voices his disillusionment, as well as his pain and protest.
We welcomed with rejoicing a recent speech in Parliament by the Prime Minister of Armenia, in which, in addition to touching on political, security, and other matters, he delved into serious exegetical pursuits. The starting point for his theological musings was a statement by Paul the Apostle, a champion of the Christian faith, in Romans 13:1-2:
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement.
From the heights of his received mandate, the Prime Minister reinterpreted the verse in the Pauline epistle within the context of relations between state and church, to say that “if the relations of the church with the government are not good, the church’s relations with God are not good.”
How proud would Paul the Apostle be and how enthusiastically would he welcome this secular messenger! He offers his thoughts not beneath the humble arches of churches or temples, but in the august seat of parliament before high officials.
Had the exegetic Prime Minister revealed this truth sooner, we would be prostrating before him, as if he were the statue erected by Nebuchadnezzar of our times, knowing full well that he signed the notorious declaration of Nov. 9, 2020 by the will of the Omnipotent Lord. The same night, the democratic Prime Minister, who enjoyed the honor of walking freely among his people when he assumed office, who freely showed every corner of his office on Facebook to demonstrate the transparency of his administration, now hiding in the basement of who knows which embassy was saying more or less this: “Dear citizens, you do not understand me now, but I will explain you everything within a couple of weeks.” The hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Opera Square, who were able to understand him in the past, now could not anymore. He was surely trying to explain it from behind the fog covering Mount Zion, but his words were now probably unreachable to the common folk.
It is surely with the authority conferred upon him by God that the farsighted Prime Minister turned down the ceasefire proposed on Oct. 10, 2020, so that the blood of the thousands of young Armenian martyrs would be spilled on the altar to his false gods, leaving behind even more thousands of young widows and their innocent orphans. Moreover, he would thus satiate the expansionist appetites of his now brotherly neighbors of Azerbaijan and Turkey.
It is surely with the authority conferred upon him by God that the pious Prime Minister, moved by a noble spirit, returned the enemy’s prisoners after the war ended, whereas his rancorous ally locked up our heroes in prison cells. He would then declare without blushing to mothers who had lost their children, “it’s alright, in a few weeks they will be returning to their families,” as if they had gone away on pleasant vacations, surrounded by maids. Why so much hurry for their return? Yes, in a few weeks, the truthful messenger said. The masses had to understand your message that, “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years,” sooner or later, if not on earth, family members will be embracing each other in heaven.
It is surely with the authority conferred upon him by God that our naturalist Prime Minister confidently declared the lands sanctified by the Armenian blood and sweat to be luckless and sad.
“Which of my misdeeds shall I recount, or which shall I confess?” It is with the authority conferred upon him by God that the thrice greatest Prime Minister recites his pristine words, and it is with the same authority that he acts.
We can be sure that it will be by the grace received from God that one day a child, in all their innocence, will declare: “The king is naked.”