Eleven years ago, on the 9th May 2007, before a group protesting the jailing of a political prisoner, the impassioned speaker told the assembled crowd, “Victory is not achieved at once. Victory is achieved step by step.”
The speaker was Nikol Pashinyan, then a persecuted journalist and a vociferous protestor of the corruption he saw in the establishment.
Justice may be slow, but it is sure. The victory he prophesied came on the 23rd April 2018 when Serzh Sargsyan, who broke his earlier promise and attempted to further extend his rule by moving from the position of President to the position of Prime Minister, abruptly resigned.
Fifteen days later, after a misstep by the parliament on May 1st when it failed to elect him on the first vote, Nikol Pashinyan was elected as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia on the 8th May. 
The wheel had come full circle. Serzh had met his nemesis in Nikol. The unjustly incarcerated political opponent had ousted his persecutor from power. The boot was now on the other foot. The Velvet Revolution of Armenia, as it came to be called, came to a victorious and euphoric ending.
But the victory truly belonged to the people. For weeks, all of Armenia had thronged the streets and public places in peaceful anti-government protests. The protests, named MerzhirSerzhin (Reject Serzh), had spontaneously spread across the nation and burgeoned to such an extent that there could only be one solution to the crisis—the stepping down from power of the corrupt Serzh Sargsyan. The only question that remained was how the ouster would take place—peacefully or through a violent conflagration.
It was Nikol’s leadership that saved the nation from catastrophe. Despite extreme provocation in the form of an iron-fisted clampdown, reminiscent of previous instances, by the Serzh regime, Nikol continued to stand for peace and prevented the movement from taking a violent turn. He stood his ground and did not call off the protests even in the face of threats and personal danger.
National upheavals of this nature rarely end gently, as the French Revolution and others teach us. Closer in time, one does not have to look too far from Armenia to see the results of the attempts at regime change in other countries. Syria, Libya, and Iraq are prime examples of the present time, and Lebanon of four decades ago. Violent internal conflicts in recent times have occurred in the Balkans, and in several South American and African nations with disastrous consequences. Civil wars have decimated and almost destroyed some nations.
It is not that Armenia has been immune to violence. From time immemorial enemies have sought to annihilate Armenians. As recently as a century ago, the Turks massacred 2.5 million Armenians in the Genocide. (To get a sense of the enormity of the Armenian Genocide, one has only to visualize one’s grandparents, uncles, and aunts being assaulted and murdered or driven out of their homes into the desert to die of hunger and thirst.) Armenia is surrounded for much of its boundary by foes. Azerbaijan (and Turkey by proxy) have continued their war into the current decade over Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh).
Internally too, post-independence power struggles have resulted in violence, though not of a magnitude seen in other countries. The most notable instance was the assassination of the Prime Minister, the Parliament Speaker, and six other officials in the National Assembly on the 27th October 1999. a crime still unsolved today, although there are many conspiracy theories involving the then president Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, who was the National Security Minister at that time.
Nine years later, following the elections, brutal police action on peaceful protestors alleging electoral fraud, led to the death of ten persons on the 1st March 2008. The President was still Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan was now the Prime Minister. When the President declared a twenty-day national emergency, the leader of the protests called off the agitation.
It is against this background that Nikol Pashinyan’s leadership of the peaceful Velvet Revolution, assumes tremendous significance. Whichever way one looks at it, it is nothing short of phenomenal. One can only imagine the personal courage, fortitude, and perseverance, to say nothing of his faith in himself and in the people of Armenia, that impelled him to continue the agitation till its final resolution and not give up in the face of threats.
To his credit, Serzh Sarkisyan saw the writing on the wall. When he threw in the towel and resigned, prolonged conflict and the violent eruption of the pent-up anger and frustration of the people were avoided. It could be said of Serzh that nothing became him like his leaving.
It is unclear if the catchphrase of the Velvet Revolution, ‘Dukhov,’ was coined by Mr. Pashinyan himself, but that one word energized and emboldened the whole nation of Armenia. ‘Dukhov’ was emblazoned on millions of T-shirts, caps, and other items of clothing and displayed on posters and signboards. The term ‘dukhov’ is an adjective that encompasses the meanings of being resolute, courageous, determined, etc., all of which exemplifies the determination of the people for regime change after ten years of being trodden down and marginalized under a criminal-oligarchic nexus. The people had had enough of corruption, bribes, fears, threats, and monopolies.
The love of the Homeland runs deep in the Armenian psyche. As every Armenian knows, the nation was won and preserved by blood. Very few Armenians would be unwilling to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect their Homeland. One can imagine then, how painful it would be for an Armenian to say, “There are no jobs or opportunities here. I cannot live here. I must go to Russia to earn a living.” Due to the lack of employment opportunities in Armenia, many thousands of Armenians go to Russia as migrant labor every year. This seasonal migration has inevitably caused social and familial issues.
Maybe the time has come for the oligarchs and their cronies who looted the nation to leave their ill-gotten wealth behind and exile themselves voluntarily. Maybe it is time for them to earn a honest living by the sweat of their brows and by hard toil in some foreign land, far from the beautiful landscape of Armenia. Maybe it is their turn now to pine for their Homeland and feel the pangs of separation from some distant, foreign soil in the same manner as they forced thousands of others to endure all these years.
There is much to be undone and much more to be done. The nation has very high expectations and Varchapet (Prime Minister) Pashinyan and his team have a daunting task ahead. The new regime has just completed the first hundred days in office. The celebrations were reminiscent of the national joy when Nikol Pashinyan was elected to power.
It remains to be seen how much change Nikol would be able to achieve, though there are no doubts at all that he will try his utmost. But irrespective of that, Nikol Pashinyan has a secure place in the annals of peaceful, nonviolent protests the world over. Unlike his political predecessors, the only blood on his hands was his own when he hurt himself on a barbed wire fence during the Velvet Revolution and appeared in videos and photos with a bandaged hand.
A disclaimer is probably warranted here. I am neither a citizen of Armenia nor do I belong to the Armenian Diaspora. Also, I have not met Varchapet Pashinyan in person, though meeting him would be wonderful good fortune and a great honor.
The only reason for writing this piece is my love of peace and harmony and my admiration for Thoreau’s tenets of civil disobedience. Nikol Pashinyan has accomplished something not merely remarkable but truly phenomenal. I have no knowledge of his study of the lives and works of Thoreau, Gandhi, and King, but he has, without the shadow of a doubt, single-handedly translated all their principles of civil disobedience into practiceno mean feat.
Gandhi and King not only witnessed conflict first-hand but also, regretfully, fell victims to the very violence they opposed and did not have the good fortune to see the fruits of their labor. Viewed against this backdrop, the courage it took to set in motion a high-risk, nationwide protest against an authoritarian regime and bring the movement to a peaceful conclusion, without violence and bloodshed, is truly extraordinary.
In spite of this colossal achievement, recognition has been tardy. One would have expected world leaders to laud Nikol Pashinyan’s superhuman achievement and to hold the Velvet Revolution up to the whole world as the finest example of civil disobedience. That has not happened—at least not to the degree expected or deserved. There has been some lip service, no doubt, but hardly commensurate with the accomplishment.
In the troubled and violent world that we are living in today, Nikol’s achievement of nonviolence has also raised, several fold, the happiness and hopes of an entire nation, and, in the process, removed or reduced the desperation and frustration that was welling up in the people. One cannot help wondering whether the superpowers (in reality, arms merchants) would prefer civil wars and armed conflicts overseas to peace and tranquility. Alas, there is not much money to be had for peace.
Not only has Nikol Pashinyan not been honored by governments, even international non-governmental institutions and agencies have been wanting in their recognition of his achievement. Peaceniks and nonprofits (NGOs) in the peace-building arena have continued to run around holding seminars on extremism and violence instead of holding up the example of the Velvet Revolution for the rest of the world to emulate. This is nothing but a crying shame. But, again, there are no donors to be found for peace.
One can only hope that governments and international organizations would accord Nikol Pashinyan the honor he deserves by bestowing on him national and international awards in recognition of his service and achievement. No one deserves the highest honor for peace—the Nobel Peace Prize—more than Nikol Pashinyan. Pacifists and peace lovers around the world are encouraged to support Nikol Pashinyan’s candidature for the Nobel Peace Prize. May he be conferred this award at the earliest opportunity, hopefully this year itself.
Greatness does not always show up in robes and crowns and with much fanfare. Sometimes it comes, speaking softly, wearing fatigues and a cap—and with a bandaged hand.
#NikolfortheNobel
Abie Alexander
Text © Abie Alexander 2018 Photos courtesy Nikol Pashinyanfan Facebook page