The public discourse is totally controlled by the military and there is no chance to do journalism here now if you are a native journalist from Armenia. We have a new law, that if something is published and the military is not okay with it, you can be punished.
We saw what happened with Moscov journalist Ilya Azar from Novaya Gazeta. They made an example of him. The infos and quotes he gave from people he talked to? Everyone can hear these voices, opinions, facts here! This is nothing new to anyone. But you can’t read or see it in the media or on social media – there, almost everyone just repeats the military slogans.
The only hope I have is that the majority of the people stay silent. And keeping silence never means that you agree. We can’t hear the people who lost their relatives, their voices are hidden. But during everyday conversations with people in
kitchens, on the streets and in safe places, you get a very different picture. This is not what you can see on Social Media, where it is very noisy now and very unsafe if you don’t take part in it. I collected fragments of private conversations, that I participated in or witnessed:
Businessman, 42: “Our children need to become citizens of a normal country. Arsen (a well-known bank manager) took his family to the US two days after the war started.”
Doctor, 37, male: “The former defense minister speaks on television as if we do not know that he built a house with 48 rooms for himself.”
Artist (35), female: “I read Azerbaijanis. They seem to sincerely believe that Karabakh is their land.” Former soldier (32), unemployed: “I have no land at all.”
Refugee from Karabakh, mother of four, 35: “I don’t understand the noise about the bombing of the church. Isn’t it better to bomb churches than houses?”
Jeweler (42), male: “The All-Armenian Fund for the needs of the army raised $90 million despite the fact that there are a hundred people in Yerevan at the moment, for whom this amount is a tenth of their fortune.”
Former soldier, taxi driver (about 25): “I was called to the recruiting office and don’t know what to do. I didn’t live well enough to die now.”
Accountant at the Ministry of defense, female (52): “Since the beginning of the war we have been on duty 24/7 at the Ministry of Defense. In the new building, the chiefs have offices equipped with sofas and showers, ordinary employees have to sleep on chairs or, at best, on folding beds.”
Officer wounded a week ago (41): “Volunteers often interfere with the military: they do not obey, they leave positions when they please, they are capricious.”
School teacher, female (29): “My friend died eight days ago, and his name appeared on the lists of the dead only yesterday. We don’t know more than half.”
Loader at supermarket and taxi driver, male (32): “I will go to war only after the children of the oligarchs.”
Bank manager, male (51): “Yesterday, 4 Gelendvagen were sent to the front. And they are not ashamed - at an average wedding there are at least forty Geliks.”
Mother of two, former journalist (35): “Provisions are often not delivered to the soldiers, they are left for 1-2 kilometers to the posts. A friend’s son died while trying to deliver water to the soldiers.”
Shop owner, veteran of 90-th Karabakh war (60): “The most terrible thing will begin when the participants in the war return and will pretend to be heroes and demand their piece of power. We have already gone through all this.”
Schoolboy (12): “Most of all I do not like that at school every morning they make us stand up to listen to the hymn and shout at those who do not sing.”
![Translation: “Damn your love for war. My uncle’s 19-year-old nephew was wounded on the front line. He was hospitalized but all that his family is told is that he is not dead. They are told, “Don’t come, he is in intensive care. You won’t be allowed to see him anyway.” [When] his dad heard the news, he had a heart attack. Yes, tomorrow, my uncle’s son will be just another “martyred father” to you. It would mean nothing more than that to you. But he was born on the land not occupied by Armenia and raised not on the opportunities the geographical territory you call homeland has given him. His father raised his son, having worked for years in basements in Turkey as a porter for hire. That bullet that hit that young man also cut right through a life that was sacrificed for him. Those best years, lost in basements, sacrificing his health and well being, in order to raise a kid whose life can end with one bullet. Don't you understand that by calling 19 to 20-year-old soldiers thrown in masses in front of bullets, “martyrs”, turning people's deaths into statistics and then holding a victory orgasm at their expense, makes you criminal, barbaric, unscrupulous and immoral?!”](https://s3.amazonaws.com/revue/items/images/008/757/764/mail/31d4403ee4807ec3794c6a890eb796da.png?1618049567 "Translation: “Damn your love for war. My uncle’s 19-year-old nephew was wounded on the front line. He was hospitalized but all that his family is told is that he is not dead. They are told, “Don’t come, he is in intensive care. You won’t be allowed to see him anyway.” [When] his dad heard the news, he had a heart attack. Yes, tomorrow, my uncle’s son will be just another “martyred father” to you. It would mean nothing more than that to you. But he was born on the land not occupied by Armenia and raised not on the opportunities the geographical territory you call homeland has given him. His father raised his son, having worked for years in basements in Turkey as a porter for hire. That bullet that hit that young man also cut right through a life that was sacrificed for him. Those best years, lost in basements, sacrificing his health and well being, in order to raise a kid whose life can end with one bullet. Don't you understand that by calling 19 to 20-year-old soldiers thrown in masses in front of bullets, “martyrs”, turning people's deaths into statistics and then holding a victory orgasm at their expense, makes you criminal, barbaric, unscrupulous and immoral?!”")
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