Banana Parliament of the banana Country

You read the news from Armenia, and it feels like something straight out of a YouTube show. The prime minister of the country asks a member of parliament from the ruling party to resign over a scandal, then sends the parliamentary speaker to persuade him only for the deputy to refuse and send the speaker away in return!

To recap, all this fuss started a couple of weeks ago. Armenian parliamentarian Hovik Aghazaryan launched a verbal attack on the head of the Investigative Committee, Karamyan, from the rostrum. Aghazaryan accused the official of pressuring businesses, protecting a network of extortionists, and so on.

What a touching concern for Armenian entrepreneurs! Especially one in particular Aghazaryan's own son, who had recently run into trouble with the authorities.

Karamyan didn’t stay silent, and the scandal quickly escalated. Armenian politicians were burning up with outrage, much like they did back in 2020.

By the way, Karamyan was fired after all that. But now, for the third day in a row, Ovik Aghazaryan is being persuaded by the entire Armenian political world to resign. First, Pashinyan directly called on Aghazaryan to step down during a conversation with the media. Then Speaker Alain Simonyan, Pashinyan’s loyal mouthpiece, echoed the same message. Simonyan even arranged a face-to-face meeting with Aghazaryan.

But... of course, Ovik didn’t attend that meeting. When journalists asked him when he would finally hand in his mandate, Aghazaryan gave a vague response along the lines of, "I need to think a little more."

It’s clear that Hovik will keep stalling for time, and he couldn’t care less about Pashinyan and Simonyan combined. But here’s the question:

Can you imagine this happening in a normal country? Unlikely. But for the "banana republic" of Armenia, this is just another day. It’s a perfect example of the absurdity that’s become routine.