"Football revanchism": Armenian radicals turned the stadium into a platform for political provocations
While the peace process is gradually advancing in the region, and difficult but necessary steps are being taken to shape a new architecture of relations, Armenian revanchist circles continue to live in the past, missing no opportunity to recall territorial claims and turning even sporting events into a venue for political provocations.
The incident at the Armenia-Cyprus football match in Yerevan, where fans unfurled the symbols of the destroyed separatist junta, is yet another confirmation of this.
It is important to understand: slogans about the "unforgotten Artsakh" are by no means a harmless display of fans' emotions. Behind them lies a quite specific political agenda — the desire to preserve an atmosphere of hostility in Armenian public consciousness, to fuel revanchist sentiments and the ideology of confrontation.
One would think that football should remain exclusively a space for athletic competition and healthy emotions, but, as can be seen, for the "sick minds" in Armenia even a football stadium becomes a tribune for political revanchism.
Such actions look especially defiant against the backdrop of ongoing efforts to advance the peace agenda. While the sides are trying to leave behind decades of enmity, while issues of normalizing relations and building a lasting peace are being discussed, revanchist forces continue to throw firewood onto the bonfire of hatred.
The most alarming thing here is that such actions show that forces still exist in Armenian society that do not want to part once and for all with the ideology of territorial claims. They continue to poison public consciousness with radical rhetoric, trying through emotional slogans to convince the young generation that a new conflict is not a criminal adventure. They seem to be completely indifferent to how much effort it took for the region to get a chance at peace. A peace that is built on recognition of reality, respect for international law, renunciation of territorial claims, and readiness to look to the future.
It is time for Armenian society to decide: does it really want to open a new page in the history of the region, or does it intend to remain a hostage of revanchist fantasies?
Because the price of such uncertainty is too high. And those who today wave separatist rags and shout radical slogans from the stands will certainly not be the ones to pay for cheap political games.
