It Is Not Too Late To Dismiss Serge Sargsyan

IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO DISMISS SERGE SARGSYAN

Lragir.am
24 July 06

Immediately after the extraordinary assembly of the Republican Party
the wish to leave the hall occurred. Not only because it was hot
in the hall but also to go out to the street to see what changed
in the country after the extraordinary gathering of the Republican
Party. It turned out that nothing had changed. The same heat. If
the assembly changed anything, it changed only for the Republican
or at best the government. And their behavior shows that something
did change for these two subjects. For the public, the Republican
Party and government are the same. However, this is not very close
to being true and this is the reason for holding an assembly when
it is 40 degrees outside. The Republicans have never made so much
effort, and it means that they have appeared in a new situation,
for throughout the gathering Andranik Margaryan and Tigran Torosyan
assured their fellow party members that the Republican will go on,
that there are no controversies between the old (Andranik Margaryan
and administrative-criminal community) and new (Serge Sargsyan +
a new "consignment" of the administrative-criminal community) members.

All this shows the contrary. In fact, there are no controversies,
but there are concerns that they will occur. Moreover, Andranik
Margaryan and Tigran Torosyan are worried that their controversies
as such may not manage to occur and something may happen to the party
that the wife of the founder of the Republican Party of Armenia Ashot
Navasardyan does not expect – Andranik Margaryan may be ousted from the
leadership of the party. And there are all the preconditions. After
the expansion of the council of the Republican Party the pro-Serge
Sargsyan members of the council are equal. In number, whereas by their
influence they exceed the team of Andranik Margaryan. For instance,
Karen Karapetyan and Harutiun Pambukyan officially lead the sphere of
economic and political activities of the Republican. And they became
Republicans only several days ago, they came with Serge Sargsyan.

Could Andranik Margaryan and Tigran Torosyan prevent the fast
expansion of influence of the defense minister? Maybe they could,
but it would require sacrifices in power. Whereas in the perception
of these people the political party is a means to remain in power and
they would not dream even in their nightmares that they can sacrifice
power for the party. Meanwhile, they are ready to sacrifice the party
for power. However, Margaryan and Torosyan now understand that by
losing the party they lose power. In other words, in this case they
do not sacrifice their status in the party for the sake of power,
the political party is taken away from them. There are no guarantees
that in this case Margaryan and Torosyan may benefit in 2007 more
than an ordinary Republican who wonders for what merits a two-day-old
Republican becomes a party leader. It is natural that the old leaders
of the Republican Party must assure their ordinary members that the
Republican will remain faithful to the tradition. There is nothing
else they can do, like a man who travels at night and shouts out of
fear not to be afraid. Andranik Margaryan and Tigran Torosyan are
now busy shouting.

And they have every reason to shout, in other words, to be afraid.
After all the Republican elite realizes that it is not realistic to
rely on their team any more. The prime minister and the speaker of the
National Assembly must remember how Hakob Hakobyan named Republican
Galust Sahakyan as an opponent to Republican Tigran Torosyan. By the
way, Hakob Hakobyan became Republican after Serge Sargsyan. For Galust
Sahakyan, for instance, it does not matter who will guarantee the
post of deputy mayor of his son, Andranik Margaryan or Serge Sargsyan.

On top of all, Andranik Margaryan cannot rely on Tigran Torosyan either
when on the very first day Torosyan hurried to assure Serge Sargsyan,
the newly elected chair of the Council of the Republican Party that
they do not have controversies, and such rumors are nonsense. He
hurried because there is no time, Serge Sargsyan announces that he
ahs launched a process which will produce its first fruits in three
or four months. And it can be seen with the naked eye that Tigran
Torosyan needs these fruits more than Andranik Margaryan. Therefore,
he needs to find a place in this process. There is no time for the
political party. The Republican Party is neither the first nor the
last. Loyalty has never done good to anyone in Armenia. Moreover,
"Betraying in time is not betrayal but far-sightedness," the personage
of Garage said. The heroes of our time are not worse. Besides, once
Andranik Margaryan found a common language with Serge Sargsyan six
months ago and did not regret. Why shouldn’t Tigran Torosyan try as
well? Simply, there is a nuance. If six years ago the "language"
Andranik Margaryan found decided the fate of the Republican Party,
six years later the "language" found by Torosyan will decide the fate
of Margaryan. Especially that Serge Sargsyan is good at languages,
after all he is a philologist.

HAKOB BADALYAN