"Alone Against Fate”: exclusive details of the Pan-Armenian trip (video)

The unprecedented move by the President of Armenia, the trip to the troubled Armenian communities, was intended to explain the protocols, to clarify the reality and the legends, but there was also a deeper purpose. The pan-Armenian trip had to be a tool to show Turkey and the United States the mass discontent and rebellion of the Armenians, the price paid by Sargsyan's government, and to make clear to the involved parties that they should take advantage of the created opportunity and make the normalization of relations happen. 

The first stop was Paris. At the statue of Komitas. Symbolic, as Turks love and instantly understand. Angry French-Armenians started a commotion, confusion and stampede. French special services had to forcefully take the most hot-blooded Armenians aside.

Murad Papazyan, one of the leaders of the French-Armenian community, who was banned from entering Armenia for organizing an action against Nikol Pashinyan, was the stormiest. Later, in a room, where the atmosphere was calmer, the most authoritative representatives of the community were equally resistant. Michel Legrand welcomed the initiative to normalize the relations but asked the main question.

New York City. The demonstrators, mostly in their fifties, uttered slogans against the president with such discipline and beautiful rhymes that the delegation of the president, whom they were boycotting, was filled with sympathy for them. The meeting with the community lasted 8 hours. Sargsyan said that the protocols do not close the page of international recognition of the Genocide, on the contrary, they open a new front, and that front is the Turkish society itself. "I'm sure it was useful".

Los Angeles. The president's staff had expectations here. The schedule of the visit was made so that the day of the meeting would be Sunday. The reason was to ensure, that as many Armenians as possible could go out to protest. And from the very beginning, it was clear that everything was going to be like that. A special helicopter hovered in the air over Glendale for hours, with a flag attached to it that declared "No to Protocols" in English.

The most impressive episode was the historical retrospective. Serzh Sargsyan was reminded of the history of the former president of Egypt Anwar Sadat, who became the first leader of a Muslim country to visit, reconcile with Israel, and sign a peace treaty. But his story also had a second side: Egyptian extremists, considering Sadat's actions a betrayal of the Palestinian people, assassinated him during a military parade in Cairo.

The following day the Armenian presidential delegation was already in the Middle East, Beirut. The tension that started from the airport was indescribable. They proposed to burn Eduard Nalbandian in Burj Hamud Square. The storm was led by Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia. Serzh Sargsyan visited him twice. First, around midnight, and only then was the task of preparing the official visit the following morning.

The last stop of the pan-Armenian trip was Rostov-on-Don. Complete absence of tension and noise. The public statements from Medvedev, Putin and Lavrov were an impassable barrier for the Armenians of Russia to make any organized protest. But one thing was the same: the meeting with the Armenian community dragged on for a long time and ended at midnight. The presidential plane was making its return landing in the early morning in Yerevan.