TO SWITCH ON THE "CLOCK" ASSESSING THE NEW AUTHORITIES
Armen Tsatouryan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
April 09, 2008

Today, by the solemn ceremony of the inauguration of the third
President of Armenia, the country is gaining a serious opportunity
of overcoming the serious political confrontations of the recent
months and initiating more consistent and profound political and
economic reforms.

The post-electoral developments, particularly the tragic events of
March 1-2, are behind. During the past month, our country and people
entered the complex and contradictory phase of trying to find the
meaning of what happened. In such conditions, the best way of healing
the wounds and restoring trust in future is the dialogue conducted
in peaceful conditions as well as the implementation of the reforms
promised by the new President and his political team.

Any attempt of repeating the post-electoral confrontations will
become the successive, more dangerous skid, no matter by whom it may
be initiated and by what facts it may be justified.

Any debate based on the "winner-loser" formula is currently
contraindicated for the native political forces, since the recent
developments came to prove that the whole country may find itself
in the role of an objective loser as a result of viewing the
post-electoral developments on such plane.

Consequently, it is necessary to take slow, but at the same time,
consistent steps for changing the plane on which the stormy debates of
the recent months were taking place. For making a transition from the
plane of confrontations to the sphere of a dialogue, it is necessary
for everyone, including the authorities, the opposition and the people,
to meditate and draw relevant conclusions.

All that has been discussed and published about the President-elect
and his political team, no matter whether positive or negative, does
not actually refer to S. Sargsyan as a president, as he will be sworn
into office today.

The same applies to the political team that’s going to be formed
by the new President. As the President of the Republic of Armenia,
Serge Sargsyan is assuming his duties today. Therefore:

FIRST: the President-elect is fully entitled to anticipate that each
person having a strong desire to address praise and "bitter words"
to him will be patient enough to wait at least for 100 days and then
publicize his/her own conclusions, based on the accomplishments and
processes achieved in that period and not on the "political assessment
of the former authorities".

SECOND: In the same period, the authorities should work without
looking back and think only about the country’s future; as to the
"opposition", it is free to "investigate" each single step of the
former in order to make its assessments in future.

THIRD: all the foreign partners of our country must make sure that
Armenia is healing its wounds and again becoming the trustworthy
partner with whom it is possible not only to proceed with the old
programs but also advance new cooperation projects.

FOURTH: the hard and complex process of healing the wounds should not
absolutely be viewed as one of the parties’ victory over the other,
as the recent events were a serious blow to the Armenian statehood
and hence – the opposition, which makes up its organic part.

It’s not accidental that the idea of giving time to the new authorities
of Armenia is even proposed by Armenia’s foreign partners. Thus:
Joseph Pennington, Chargé d’Affaires of the United States in Armenia,
announced on April 8 that his country will give Armenia’s leadership
sufficient time for resuming the cooperation with "Millennium
Challenges" corporation, since the American diplomat believes that
"it is necessary for the country to pass a difficult path of gradual
development."

The following question comes up: if the foreigners themselves confess
that the further path towards developing democracy in Armenia consists
in giving time to the new authorities and checking the sincerity of
the intentions to undertake new steps and reforms, then what is the
"political incentive" substantiating or "justifying" some people’s
desire to act otherwise?

The political clock "assessing the activities" of the new President
is to be switched on beginning April 9, thus separating the present
from the past and vesting the right of making further assessments in
the future.

–Boundary_(ID_zKlBLk/SSRyrClzZPLYhTQ)–