ANOTHER SHOOTING INCIDENT OCCURRED IN YEREVAN, IT MEANS PEOPLE WERE SAVED
James Hakobyan

Largir, Armenia
Nov 29 2007

Another shooting incident occurred in Yerevan, and this time it was
not caused by the political views of the sides, the difference of their
visions of development of the country or devotion to their idea but by
pure business interests. In other words, this time we deal with the
self-interested aspirations of the minor bourgeoisie. In this sense,
the incidence which occurred in Silikyan district, as the TV channels
reported, involved the company offering services and the consumers is
not essential to the development of the country, the peace settlement
of the Karabakh conflict or the battle against corruption. Moreover,
in the context of shooting incidents, intimidation and assassinations
of the past few months the incident of Silikyan is not even worth
the attention of the law enforcers.

Moreover, it is possible that such minor incidents are meant to
distract the law enforcers from major ones. For instance, they
know that the Office of Prosecutor General is investigating the
self-denying deed of the son of the mayor of Gyumri when he was
involved in an unequal battle against the foes of the state in the
streets of the second city of the country. And now a minor incident
occurs somewhere, which has nothing to do with statehood, to split the
Office of Prosecutor General and distract it from the investigation of
the case of the son of the mayor of Gyumri. This is enough to overlook
the incident in Silikyan, to consider that nothing has happened. It
is necessary to be alert and not to focus on minor cases because they
may be intended to distract attention, and may be followed by fatal
cases right away.

Certainly, there might be citizens who may think differently. For
instance, they may think that in order to avoid fatal attempts and
intimidation it is necessary to prevent minor cases first because the
weapon used in minor incidents are later used for major crimes. It is
possible but it needs to be proved. And as long as no major crime has
been committed, it is impossible to prove that it was committed with
the weapon and participants of the minor crime. Therefore, if there
is need to prove, and there is always the need, it is necessary to
be patient and to wait until a fatal attempt or intimidation occurs.

That is why the law enforcers allow anyone to wear a gun and to shoot
any time they want. It is not accidental that some of our ancestors
sang in the beginning of the 20th century that only a weapon can
save Armenians. It is notable that they did not specify from whom the
weapon should save the Armenians. Perhaps it means global salvation.

If you have no weapon, you are thinking about salvation in vain
because at any moment an Armenian will emerge who will make you face
a choice: either you agree your neighbor is right and you love him,
despite the rights and laws, or the native land embraces you. In
our times, it is difficult to realize what salvation is, especially
when the church has stopped performing its main function of helping
people realize and has become an ethno-religious preacher. Perhaps
already the church does not realize what salvation is. Who knows,
someone may think that 40 drams for a candle is too expensive and
threaten with a gun to sell candles at an 85 percent discount and get
6 for free in case of buying three. Hence, the church is also facing
a choice: to buy weapon or to preach ethno-religion. Or two in one,
one in the streets of Yerevan – my faith is my weapon. Only the rest
of the citizens remain to get armed – armed with patience.