Measured against Armenian history or by the standards of their newly rebranded “history of Armenia,” the official “figures” announced yesterday, both in the content they purport to reflect and in the deeper process by which they were produced, would suggest the bringing to power of the most anti-legitimate ruler in our entire history, who “was a man of the people and who became a man of power” and “all the king’s men.”
The credibility gap and lack of legitimacy are nothing new. We have lived with it continuously in the modern period, from 1995 onwards. Whether they had the courage to take responsibility or not, successive governments have hung the stigma of rigged, unlawful and illegitimate elections over our country and people, willingly or unwillingly paving way for further stagnations and losses.
Yet whether old or new, kingdom or republic, none has seized the crown of illegitimate power through a procedure and with a character as corrupt and hypocritical as that of our former opposition “democrats,” now increasingly turning into a foul-mouthed junta.
The die has been cast, and our identity struck down. Yet the nationwide opportunity to squeeze even a drop of hope and dignity out of this “formless chaos” still remains in our hands.
Whatever today’s leading electoral contenders decide on whether to take up their mandates or reject them, it has become imperative, even if belatedly, to put forward a nationwide, comprehensive, and rights-driven alternative to the current authority: one grounded in broad political participation, rising above partisanship, and guided by a renewed and accountable collective leadership.
Parochial, self-satisfied, factional, and idol-breeding solutions are sterile and lifeless.
We have been granted both the grace and the path, by God and the Republic’s citizens, to straighten our backs, correct all our strategic, ideological, organizational, and communication mistakes, and once and for all emerge from this seemingly irreversible whirlpool of historical and contemporary failings.
We cannot endure another five years.
Raffi K. Hovannisian
15 June 2026
Yerevan
“Hayatsk Yerevanits” Journal