Lragir, Armenia
Nov 24 2006
WHY VAHAN HOVANISYAN DECLINES TO GIVE NAMES
Real charity is when they want nothing in return, thinks Deputy
Speaker Vahan Hovanisyan, ARF Dashnaktsutyun, who met news reporters
November 24 at the Friday Club. Vahan Hovanisyan mentioned that he
knows only two organizations which demand nothing in return for
charity. The deputy speaker of the National Assembly gives the names
of the Armenian Relief Society and the Armenian General Benevolent
Union.
`Those who do good acts, distribute food, repair yards, roofs, lifts,
and so on, expect votes, most probably. At least it is perceived so.
It is impossible to prohibit this, because charity cannot be
prohibited. And now people have to make a decision, to give what is
expected from them or not,’ Vahan Hovanisyan says. He compares the
situation in Armenia with a thing from the Russian history which was
referred to as `kormlenie’. At that time, Vahan Hovanisyan says, the
Russian king did not pay his governors called `voyevods’. They were
supposed to collect taxes, head the local government, guarantee
obedience and take the pay of their people from the taxes they
collected. `In about the 18th century the Russian kings realized that
this is a dangerous system, because every such prince wanted
independence,’ says Vahan Hovanisyan. According to him, the system
changed but the approach remained the same, and now it has reached
even Armenia.
The Dashnak deputy speaker of the National Assembly says if the state
collects all the taxes, charity will not be necessary. `In other
words, the following is happening. People do not pay all the taxes to
the state, whatever remains, which was stolen from people, in fact,
and the state could have given it to people, is distributed to people
with a different name, which is wrong. However, the state should be
able to prevent this, the state is unable to prevent this because
very often, the same people who are feudalists in economy, also
represent certain political sets,’ says Vahan Hovanisyan.
In answer to the request of the news reporters to give the names of
some Armenian `voyevod-feudalists’, Vahan Hovanisyan says their names
are known to everyone, and he would not like to utter them now. `We
do not want to pursue our struggle with scandals,’ says Vahan
Hovanisyan. However, the member of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun Bureau says
they give the names and raise the issue before the country’s supreme
government. The news reporters wanted to find out why in 1998 the ARF
Dashnaktsutyun, nevertheless, gave names in speaking about the former
government and denounced them during protests as criminals. What has
changed that you decline to give names, asked the news reporters?
Vahan Hovanisyan says when Dashnaktsutyun denounced these people,
they saw there were no results, and these people were not punished.
Therefore, they changed their approach and adopted a policy of giving
names in a narrow circle of government. In this case, can Vahan
Hovanisyan mention the result of this policy and an example of
punished name denounced by them, the news reporters asked? It became
clear that again Vahan Hovanisyan could not give names. `The problem
is that it is not right because the others, whose names have not been
given yet, start resisting more effectively,’ stated the member of
the ARF Bureau who is the deputy chair of the National Assembly.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
