Nikol Pashinyan on his Journey Behind-the-Scenes of Life

On Apr. 27, Epress.am sent a letter containing 6 questions to chief editor of local daily Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”), imprisoned journalist Nikol Pashinyan, as part of a campaign initiated by local news outlets. On May 10, we received Pashinyan’s response to us. We will publish his response to each of our questions incrementally throughout the week. This is the fifth response in this series.

Question: How much has being in prison changed your vision of reality? What new experiences and knowledge have you acquired?

Response: Being in prison has not so much changed as it has enriched my ideas of Armenian reality. There are very few people who have been able or will be able take the sort of trip I am taking: Yerevan-Kentron penitentiary, Nubarashen penitentiary, Kosh penitentiary, Artik penitentiary. The punishment cell with the most severe possible method: solitary confinement. This is a behind-the-scenes trip, a journey that is closed to 99% of Armenians. And not only have I been in all these places, but I have lived in them for some time. Imagine, how much my knowledge of Armenian reality has become enriched during this time. During this time, a number of phenomena of life “outside” has become known, which I could not have known while outside. Prison also helps a person to understand who is he really, what is he worth really?

And by the way, however many are the articles, reports, official statements, youthful and roundtable discussions on prisons, very few in the outside world have a true picture of this behind-the-scenes life in Armenia. Ninety-nine percent of the ideas disseminated can be considered ridiculous. In any case, being in prison is an important stage in my life because I wouldn’t be able to know the answers to a number of important questions through another way. I have already spoken about a number of these answers with my readers. I think, there will be other occasions.