WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM TER-PETROSYAN’S NOMINATION?
ARMEN TSATOURYAN
Hayots Ashkharh Daily
28 July 07
First of all the authority in power
There is a `good’ tradition in our reality to discuss or rather
speculate prior to each presidential election the issue whether or not
ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan will be run for presidency. And such
tradition constitutes a component of the political protocol.
This can, somehow, be understood and even `approached with
understanding’ from the point of view of the personal interests of the
ex-President’s political proponents. After all, what does the Armenian
pan-National Movement currently have, apart from the ex-President’s
persistent silence kept in the political records?
However, the issue whether or nor Levon will run for Presidency is
becoming discussed more and more frequently, involving a broad circle
of political figures having different attitudes towards the
ex-President. Some people use it for self-advertisement purposes,
trying to attract public attention by their `genius’ predictions,
whereas others’ Levon-oriented mental trainings are more and more
making a transition from the sphere of rational judgments towards the
expectations of a `new mesea’.
Of course, this is also a political technique, since meseanism has
always been characteristic to ordinary people’s irrational perceptions.
And today their speculation is becoming an illusory opportunity of
`trying one’s luck’ and fishing in troubled waters.
To keep the issue of Mr. Ter-Petrosyan’s running for presidency in
the sphere of Kant’s `Sober reasoning’ it is necessary to answer two
principal questions.
First: What real does Mr. Ter-Petrosyan have in case running for
Presidency in 2008?
Second: Which of the real pretenders will win and which of them will
suffer losses, should the ex-President join their struggle?
It is the in-depth discussion of these issues that brings
Ter-Petrosyan’s myth from Heaven to Earth. And it is not absolutely
accidental that today they are persistently left out by the
ex-President’s proponents as well as other political figures who invent
tales around his image,.
This Damocle’s sword bearing the image of Ter-Petrosyan which, in
some people’s imagination, threatens the authorities is made of
ordinary cardboard. In case of running for Presidency L. Ter-Petrosyan
will suffer a crucial defeat, receiving no more than 3 per cent of
votes. Only his closest proponents and the ex-officials, who held posts
under the rule of the Armenian pan-National Movement, will vote in his
favor. All the rest of the pro-Opposition activists, no matter how
dissatisfied with the present-day authorities, will not, under any
circumstances, consider L. Ter-Petrosyan as their alternative.
In this respect, we believe it is the authority in power that is
more interested in L. Ter-Petrosyan’s running for presidency. `Who is
guilty?’ and `What to do’ ` while having to give an answer to these two
eternal questions during an electoral campaign, it is extremely
important to find an appropriate target in order to exhaust the
protestant electorate’s negative energy addressed to any authority.
Therefore, should L. Ter-Petrosyan appear on the arena of a political
campaign in 2008, the present-day authorities will have more powerful
advocacy tools to which they can easily direct the electorate’s
negative energy. After all, the roots of all the disadvantages existing
now are buried in the times when L. Ter-Petrosyan was in power, whereas
the achievements of the past 10 years are obvious.
Thus, in case the current political speculations around the issue of
L. Ter-Petrosyan’s running for presidency come under logical scrutiny
and are transferred to the domain of the 2008 electoral campaign, there
will be only one conclusion possible. In case of running for
Presidency, the former President will not only suffer a crucial defeat,
but will also contribute with his presence to the victory of the
pro-Governmental candidate.