Wild Western-style fights in Yerevan streets

Hamid Hamidov
Day.Az writer

The times of the Wild West when men could sort things out with weapons in the streets, cafes, their homes or other places seem to have sunk into oblivion long ago. It is already the 21st century. People are imprisoned for years only for fighting or acts of hooliganism.

Of course, this is not the case in all countries around the world. For example, people still live by the laws of the Wild West in Somalia, Sudan and other troubled countries, and frankly... in Armenia. Our neighbors seem to consider their country European claiming the title “one of the most ancient and cultural countries in the world,” while the laws are the same. Unwritten, of course. Only the strongest in the world can live under these laws.

The examples are not hard to find. It recently became known that another incident occurred between Ruben Hayrapetyan, the president of the Armenian Football Federation, an MP and a major businessman, and Gagik Tsarukyan, the head of Armenian National Olympic Committee, an MP, and a businessman and head of the Prosperous Armenia pro-governmental party.

The former friends who became enemies after choosing their respective bosses (Tsarukyan is an associate to Robert Kocharian and Hayrapetyan to Serzh Sargsyan) exchanged sharp remarks not long ago about Tsarukian’s failure to go to Turkey to watch the match of the Olympic (U-21) teams between the two countries. They did this through the media, not observing rules of etiquette and human culture.

This time everything was much rougher. There was a real skirmish between the two in the style of American Westerns. Armenian media do not report where exactly the fight occurred, although it is known that it happened at night. It has been reported that initially a fight broke out between the individuals who were accompanying the MPs, which soon grew into a shooting. Bodyguards and persons close to the two MPs hardly sort things out willfully. Most likely, the clash began between their bosses.

The situation became so bad that Yerevan Police Department head Nerses Nazaryan, a big fan of giving a licking to Armenian oppositionists and journalists, had to intervene to prevent possible hostilities right in the heart of the city.

It is known that fish rot from the head. This means if persons close to former and current presidents use such methods in Armenia, Kocharyan and Sargsyan will not ignore them either.  So, I will not be surprised if tomorrow Armenian media will excitingly describe the outdoor shooting of their guards, tactfully saying nothing about the places where it all happened.

In such a situation, I am deeply sorry for (I say this without sarcasm) the Armenian people, who, of course, also have  highly cultured representatives, while they also have rulers like Sargsyan, Kocharyan, Tsarukyan and Hayrapetyan, who still use gang warfare to sort out things. Neither expensive suits nor bureaucratic chairs have changed their frame of mind and level of culture. How can such people have a governmental post and rule the country?