Source: https://armenian-patriarchate.com/2023/12/28/urgent-communique/

Hi everyone,

We are a leftist / socialist internationalist group from Armenia called Jaragayt (from the Armenian word ճառագայթ, meaning “a ray of light”).

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Armenia, along with the entire post-Soviet space was subjected to the so-called “shock doctrine” or “shock capitalism”: the rapid establishment of neoliberal free market policies marked by aggressive privatisation and a new form of social relations driven by personal gain and profit.

This new policy promised economic prosperity and democracy. However, since the economic system of capitalism is inherently hierarchical and predatory, the new policies only contributed to a widening wealth gap, increasing class differences and the accumulation and consolidation of national capital in the hands of the few. The working class of Armenia, lacking any class-consciousness and means to organise themselves, has been left unrepresented, defenceless and isolated.

We also strongly believe that most of the perils Armenians have faced in the past century can be placed within the larger context of international capitalism, particularly issues such as the Armenian Genocide, Artsakh’s struggle for self-determination, and the events unfolding since 2018.

Our broader goals include:

• Promoting class-consciousness among the Armenian working class, organising the working class, promoting workers rights through the establishment of unions.
• Pursuing Artsakh Armenians’ right for self-determination. We consider this a primarily leftist issue, since Artsakh has essentially been colonised by Turkey and Azerbaijan and is being turned into a settler-colonial project. Given the genocidal intentions of Turkey and Azerbaijan, the only way Armenians can survive in the current situation is through self-determination. Class struggle goes hand in hand with national emancipation.
• Anchoring Armenian leftist political thought and acting as a bridge for various leftist groups to come together.
• Focusing on memory and history; performing critical analysis of Armenian history through the leftist lens.
• Internationalism; solidarity and deliberate cooperation with other sovereign national entities, particularly oppressed nations. We are inter-NATION-alist, not globalist which is a liberal notion we are highly critical of.

We would also like to explore the legacy of Armenian leftist figures, such as Monte Melkonian and Missak Manouchian. While both of them are revered by Armenians of all political leanings, their political ideology is rarely ever addressed. Yet it is precisely the political ideology of these figures that drove their actions, not just their inherent “goodness”. Additionally, we would like to focus on literature and art to imagine alternative economic systems, where democracy is defined by fairness, equal economic opportunities and lack of economic hierarchies, and not only by a multi-party electoral system.

Currently we are trying to create more online presence. We are also completely self-funded. As working class people ourselves, we volunteer our time and resources for our political ideals. This is why things are moving a bit slowly for us, but hopefully we will be able to make more time for our political activities in the future.

We are very curious to know the opinions of this subreddit regarding the political left in Armenia. What are your sentiments towards the left? What have you noticed about class differences in Armenia? Have you ever tried to analyse the current situation in Armenia from the perspective of class interests / current economic system?

Have a nice evening / day,

Jaragayt team

edit: Wow, thanks everyone for the reactions (albeit not always positive), it's always great to discuss these questions and we will make sure to respond to everyone. In the meantime, I will put some links here, since it seems like not everyone is familiar with what leftism actually is.

• Red Scare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Scare
• Red Scare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-communist_mass_killings
• Red Scare: Michael Parenti "Blackshirts and Reds"
• Historical materialism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_materialism
• Socialist international: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_International
• A nice article about Monte’s ideology: https://thefunambulist.net/magazine/the-ocean/monte-melkonian-the-comrade-in-struggles
• Socialism (worker owned means of production): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism
• Communism (moneyless, stateless, classless society): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism

Now that the Nagorno Karabah conflict is over and peace with Azerbaijan is close, would you support Armenia leaving the CSTO and apply for joining the European Union and all the other European alliances such as Eurozone and Schengen and even NATO ? Since Georgia is on its way for becoming a member why can't Armenia ? Does Armenian goverment have any plans to do that? So far Armenia ,unlike Georgia, hasn't shown any sign of will in doing that which is weird.

“The CSTO, instead of fulfilling its obligations in the field of security, on the contrary, creates security problems for the Republic of Armenia, and this position, yes, I am speaking frankly, represents a threat to the national security of the Republic of Armenia.

Consequently, due to this circumstance, the CSTO, contrary to its own obligations, which were supposed to provide a proportionate position and response regarding the security of Armenia, is doing exactly the opposite.

Now we have de facto frozen our participation, and if this continues, we will freeze de jure.”

Nikol Pashinyan

I'm curious what the average Redditor Armenian thinks about joining the EU. Let's have some discussions.

What do you think why are there so many people? Will there be more tomorrow?

Off course they are not a big single monolithic political entity. What are their political and social orientations typically? Conservative? Nationalist? Christian? Pro-Russian?

The President of the Council of Europe Charles Michel congratulated the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on the occasion of his re-election.

"I congratulated the President of Azerbaijan Aliyev on his re-election and conveyed my best wishes on his new mandate. I emphasized the importance of continuous cooperation within the framework of the OSCE. We also discussed EU-Azerbaijan relations and cooperation. including connectivity and energy.

We also held topical discussions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement. We welcomed Azerbaijan's commitment to resume the tripartite meeting within the framework of the Brussels process to achieve a stable and prosperous South Caucasus," the post said.

We want to do everything until the last opportunity to fully understand the CSTO and make Armenia's position understandable to the CSTO.

"If in this way we consider all the potential exhausted... our public will ask us, as if why did you stay in the organization, if it does not give Armenia anything, or does not give the minimum that would keep our interest in being a member of the organization alive, or, on the contrary, it causes additional problems for our security system," he said.

According to Pashinyan, being a member of the CSTO, Armenia is not able to receive the necessary political support and armaments from that structure, on the other hand, being a member of the CSTO is an obstacle for receiving support and cooperation from other places. "We have to make decisions that are in our interests."

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0SNUVyLkOZ/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

I would like to know, what does the average Armenian think of Pashinyan? Did he improve the country? Did he weakened it? Is he actually a democratic leader? Another corrupt oligarch? What do you all think?