CommentaryOpinion
Why my disappointment shifted to Armenia’s leadership
In recent days, Armenian audiences across social and media platforms have reacted strongly to a post on X by Lebanese American thinker, philosopher and essayist Nassim Nicholas Taleb. In that statement, Taleb declined an invitation to lecture in Azerbaijan, saying he would not set foot in the country while Ruben Vardanyan remains imprisoned there.
Taleb, the author of “The Black Swan, “Antifragile” and “Skin in the Game,” noted that he had been invited to Baku and that the organizer
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Thank you for so eloquently explaining the ongoing heartbreak that refugees experience when they have been forcibly displaced from their homeland. The vilification of the Artsakh refugees by the ruling party and their acolytes is a national disgrace and a blight on Armenian identity. I pray that the younger generation in Armenia will regain their national pride a relegate the Civil Contract Party to the dustbin of history.
Siranush Sargsyan’s immigrant plight in Armenia is the sad and terrible reality of forced immigration. But I expected to hear from her a modicum of appreciation of Armenia that accommodated, in the best ways it could, an influx of 3-4 % of its population in in matter of weeks. In that context, I found this piece to be the wrong piece, addressed to the wrong readership, at least to some of them; and at the wrong time.
It is the wrong piece because Siranush forcibly tied four unrelated events to construe a justification of her resentment of the Armenian government. Those four unrelated events she forcibly brought together were: Taleb’s refusal to lecture in Baku; the permission of Artsakh parents to have their young daughter present her Artsakh drawing at school when the students’ exhibition was about nature and monuments of Armenia, and then politicize the principal’s reaction ,which her parent’s likely had anticipated and prepared to politicize it, and they did; the young mother, a refugee from Artskah disparaging the PM of Armenia in public; and finally about the Israeli who lectured in Baku of whom she cares less, but harbors resentment towards the government of Armenia.
The piece is addressed to the wrong audience because some, if not many of us, are immigrants, such as I, having left my native country because of the devastation the civil war brought onto my parent’s livelihood, and put an end to my years of pursuit towards my future. I remain indebted to the laws and regulations of the U.S. that made room for me for the past 50 years to form a family, raise our two children and further our education. The young Artsakh mother’s public disparging the PM of Armenia, is alien to me.
The piece is also addressed at the wrong time, because the U.S. of America is polarized to the hilt about immigration. I imagine it to be the case elsewhere, including Armenia. Judicial reporting should have a balanced overview, both for immigrants and hosts to temper their emotions and not inflame it further.
I am not sure what Siranush Sargsyan expected o get out of her piece by posting it in a Diaspora Armenian newspaper, and thus presented to a mostly Diaspora audience. I wish she had elaborated instead on the generous Diaspora family in Armenia who hosted her.
You consistently comment on my articles, almost always negatively, yet continue to read them. I welcome fair and substantive criticism. What I reject is being labelled “ungrateful” for reporting on the realities faced by displaced Artsakh Armenians.
Acknowledging Armenia’s reception of displaced people does not excuse the government’s failures or require silence about them. I have repeatedly expressed my gratitude to the family who hosted me in both articles and video reports. But personal gratitude does not mean giving up the right to hold authorities accountable.
After reading that you blamed the refugee woman, rather than the Prime Minister, for the metro incident, and also misrepresented the incident involving the refugee child and her drawing, I see no point in continuing this exchange. This is not fair criticism. You defend Pashinyan’s government and reject anything that points to its failures.
You are free to disagree with my work. But you do not get to decide where I publish, what I cover, or whose experiences deserve to be heard.
Appreciation for what? Demanding performative gratitude from victims of forced displacement isn’t just wrong; It is grotesque. Assisting compatriots isn’t a philanthropic favor; it is the non-negotiable constitutional and moral duty of the Armenian state.
Equating the violent expulsion of Artsakh’s population with voluntary, peaceful immigration to the U.S. shows a complete disconnect from reality. To put it in the most polite terms possible: the comparison is fundamentally absurd.
Re: Siranush and Garo
Two comments were made in response Siranush’s article. Garo had made his before I did. Siranush chose to rebut my comment and ignored Garo’s comment, surely for having accepted that Garo’s take of her article is the reaction Siranush expected from a reader.
Obviously, Garo and I, differ in our perceptions of governance of Armenia.