Zartong:  Oh, you who  leave, do not multiply your ugly deeds

ArmInfo.Today, Nikol Pashinyan succeeded today  in releasing  his next <Test Balloon> perhaps to test the people's tolerance or reaction.  In his article, Sevak Jakobian, editor-in-chief of the Armenian Lebanese newspaper <Zartong> (Beirut), shared his viewpoint regarding today's <mask show> staged by the authorities in Holy Etchmiadzin. He noted that a <test bubble> is a socio- psychological mechanism used in politics, as in other  fields, that is often used to test the reaction to a future action in advance.

Developing the idea, Hakobyan believes that Nikol Pashinyan, along  with his other goals, wanted to test the reaction of the Armenian  people in general and the copatriots living in Armenia in particular,  by first arresting businessman Samvel Karapetyan, who has a large  number of employees  and patrons who could take to the streets to  express their indignation or protest. <The experiment> was  successful. The wave of mass protests that were expected and that  caused concern for the authorities did not rise. The next  <experiment> was the arrest and then detention of Archbishop Bagrat  Galstanyan. 

Considering that the archbishop, having led a movement called <Sacred  Struggle>, at some point managed to unite tens of thousands of  citizens, it was expected that a significant part of them would take  to the streets to defend their leader. This did not happen either.  Pashinyan passed the third test - an attempt to arrest Archbishop  Mikael Ajapakhian, who has great merit and popularity, behind whom  there is an entire city and the opposition municipality of the second  largest city in Armenia. At this point, while waiting for the outcome  of this last experiment, we can only assume that all these tests are  aimed at achieving their ultimate goal - to overthrow His Holiness  Karekin II. Therefore, what is happening today, Hakobyan believes, is  the beginning of an operation to overthrow His Holiness, starting  with his probable arrest as the head of an institution allegedly  plotting against the state.

"Without going into analysis, we must affirm that the supreme target  of the current authorities of Armenia, including their leader, is the  Armenian Apostolic Holy Church, the only national institution that  still stands on its own two feet and, if necessary, has the ability  to resist the great conspiracy threatening the Armenian people."

Hakobyan is concerned about what the following: What will happen if  this last "experimental" balloon launch also comes out of the testing  ground unharmed, in favor of the authorities? And what will happen if  this last attempt fails? In the meantime, what is the targeted party  thinking or what is its plan? Are the tests that have taken place so  far being absorbed in an organized manner to avoid an explosion, or  has the people exhausted the potential to organize mass expressions  of protest?

Perhaps the attempt to arrest Archbishop Michael in Holy Etchmiadzin  was an important strategy for the authorities to bring the  popular  outcry to its peak, in the face of an unprecedented invasion of the  Mother See by police and masked figures? According to Hakobyan, this  "trial step" is still a double-edged sword, that could explode at any  moment, causing irreparable damage to the adventurers who test it. "  We will have to wait and see. Until then, all of this is a great  shame, and no matter how it ends, the consequences will be severe for  our homeland and people, perhaps even leading to civil conflicts,  which one can only hope is not one of the government's goals... In  all of this, however, there is one reliable certainty, which is best  expressed by a Lebanese proverb: "O you who leave, multiply your ugly  deeds"...