WHEREVER YOU ARE, MY FRIEND, COME HERE FROM KARABAKH
James Hakobyan

Lragir.am
12 Sept 2007

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation made an interesting decision to
hold the General Meeting of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun in Karabakh. In
fact, that is enough to sympathize with this party. So far, no
organization, even the ethno-religious Republican Party has held a
meeting in Karabakh. Only the Ramkavar Party made a vain effort in the
early 90s of the past century. The ARF Dashnaktsutyun has a good old
tradition of holding its general meetings outside Yerevan, not only
closed but also away from the eyes of the society, in Tsaghkadzor
or Sevan. Besides, the internal tourism develops. Or besides the
problems of the party and political problems are discussed. Then they
return to Yerevan and hold a news conference. This time, however,
Dashnaktsutyun decided to go farther, to Shushi and Stepanakert.

There may be two reasons, to say nothing about the third – patriotism
and from-sea-to-seaism. By holding the General Meeting in Karabakh,
the ARF Dashnaktsutyun responds to Tigran Torosyan who dared to
disagree with the ARF Dashnaktsutyun’s stance on September 10 that
the issue of Artsakh must be resolved through unification with Armenia.

Torosyan said self-determination and independence is the right way.

And now Dashnaktsutyun, the political party that acts in the political
sphere of Armenia, goes to Karabakh for an assembly to show that it
holds its stance firmly – only unification.

However, the main reason for the ARF Dashnaktsutyun’s decision is
perhaps that the meeting precedes the upcoming Armenian presidential
election. During this meeting, the decision of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun
regarding naming president will become known, if it becomes known of
course, and the president will be named, if it is named of course. For
Dashnaktsutyun, the reason was perhaps the precedent of coming from
Karabakh and becoming president. If in 1998 the ARF Dashnaktsutyun
supported the candidate from Karabakh, now the ARF Dashnaktsutyun
will compete with the candidate from Karabakh. Perhaps therefore they
decided to go to Karabakh and come from there, perhaps expecting to
neutralize Serge Sargsyan’s advantage.

On the other hand, going so far was a ruse on behalf of the ARF
Dashnaktsutyun. The point is that Dashnaktsutyun stated with an air
of having turned Istanbul into a sea of blood that it will name a
president. Therefore, the society is longing to hear the name of
the ARF Dashnaktsutyun’s candidate. In the meantime, as the time of
revealing the candidate comes closer, opinions are expressed more
frequently that the ARF Dashnaktsutyun will support Serge Sargsyan,
especially after Alvard Petrosyan had been shocked by Serge Sargsyan’s
visit to Ashot Bleyan’s school. If the visit shocked one, it could
have shocked others from this party. And maybe this visit will impress
the ARF to the point of convincing that Serge Sargsyan is our hope.

However, the society is waiting to hear the name of the ARF
Dashnaktsutyun, and how are they going to explain there will be no
name because there is no name loftier than Serge Sargsyan’s?

Therefore, the ARF went far away, so far away that when the
society asks why no name was announced, Dashnaktsutyun will say
the name was announced but it was so far away that it was not heard
here. And Karabakh with its new president will certainly confirm that
Dashnaktsutyun announced the name but the mountainous landscape did not
let the sound reach Armenia. After all, the ARF had supported the new
president of Karabakh. It had given support to get support afterwards.