Opposition leader sees revolution as way out of Armenian political
deadlock
Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
10 Mar 06
Text of Naira Zograbyan’s report in Armenian newspaper Haykakan
Zhamanak on 10 March headlined “Kocharyan’s game is over”
An interview with the leader of the Anrapetutyun Party, Aram
Sarkisyan.
[Haykakan Zhamanak correspondent] Mr Sarkisyan, today foreign and
domestic political problems are becoming more serious and against this
background the opposition’s position of an onlooker is becoming more
noticeable. Has the opposition chosen this position as a strategy or
can it really not find a way to fulfil itself?
[Aram Sarkisyan] If you were more attentive, you would say for sure
that not the opposition but the ruling parties have a status of
onlooker because in this country one person decides who should become
an ombudsman, how Zorakap village should join another district, how
the parliament should vote and so on.
An evident process has been taking place in that camp since the
interests of the ruling parties started moving away from one another
because the authorities do not have a general plan for resolving
serious geopolitical problems.
Our political partner [Russian President Vladimir Putin] said on the
territory of another state [Azerbaijan] that he would invite the
Armenian president for consultations [over Nagornyy Karabakh
settlement]. That is to say, [Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev’s
words were confirmed that he would negotiate not with Armenia but its
owners. The Russian defence minister said that nothing could prevent
them from selling weapon to Azerbaijan as well as to Armenia. This
brings up the following question: where is the [CIS] Collective
Security Treaty? Are they going to write on the weapons: do not shoot
at Armenians.
As a result of the unclear policy of complementarity Armenia has found
itself in a “cracked” situation as it has turned its own
complementarity into a game. Every game has an end, and time has come
for [Armenian President Robert] Kocharyan’s game to be over.
Moreover, different power wings have taken uncoordinated steps. After
Karabakh President [Arkadiy Gukasyan]’s statement [on Karabakh’s
involvement in the talks], [Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan] Oskanyan
explained that they did not understand correctly what Gukasyan had
said. But as far as I know, Arkadiy Gukasyan knows Armenian better
than Oskanyan. Furthermore, a rally [dedicated to the anniversary of
the Sumqayit events] was organized at the state le vel, which was
nonsense from the political point of view. The authorities guided by
national populism cannot be democrats because fascism is the future of
an ideology like this.
Against this background comes a US Department of State report on drug
business, which the Armenian authorities have not yet replied. That is
to say, the Armenian authorities were directly told that they have a
drug business. Thus, these authorities’ game is really over.
[Correspondent] If the authorities’ game is over, why is serious
redistribution taking place within the authorities but not within the
opposition?
[Sarkisyan] New ruling parties are being intensively set up. This
shows that they believe that their journey with Kocharyan has ended
and they think about staying in power after Kocharyan. I do not take
it seriously when today somebody speaks about redistribution and
negotiations between different political forces because nobody can say
what will happen in Armenia before the [parliamentary] election in
2007. Therefore, I think that drastic steps by the opposition will be
useless. One should choose the time for drastic steps. I am sure that
at a crucial moment the opposition will unite to stage a democratic
revolution as the problems of Armenia and Karabakh can be settled only
by means of a revolution.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs
Matthew Bryza, whom I met in the USA and who was presented by the
Armenian mass media as Bush’s hairdresser, said that democracy should
be built “from the bottom to the top”, and this is the way of the
revolution. That is to say, today the world understands that Armenia
is in a political crisis. While speaking about democracy and
evolution, the authorities are implementing counter-evolution. This
situation is explosive.
[Correspondent] What is the way out from the current foreign and
domestic political deadlock?
[Sarkisyan] A democratic revolution is the way out and it will happen
soon.
Armenia will pass two stages: a democratic revolution in which the
whole of the opposition will take part, and democratic
elections. These are the two stages which the opposition will
undoubtedly fulfil soon.