THE INTELLIGENT BECOMING IMPORTANT
Lilit Poghosyan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on April 19, 2008
Armenia

Spokesman for ARFD Armenian Supreme Body Spartak Seyranyan responds
to our questions.

"How would you assess the "tough" resolution regarding the "Democratic
Institutions in Armenia" passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe?"

"The resolution gave rise to different commentaries among the society.

On the one hand there is malevolence that Europe, in the person of
authoritative international structures, gave tough assessment to
the post-election developments in Armenia and is making demands to
the state and the authorities, in the language of an ultimatum. On
the other hand there are viewpoints saying that nothing special has
happened – a regular resolution has been passed.

I think we must refuse similar extremist approaches. If we try to
assess the internal political situation not by the evaluations and
resolutions of the Europeans but ourselves, then we must record that
regrettably the terrible events that took place in the country had
a really bad impact on the international rating and authority of
the state.

This means all the subjects of the political life, all the political
powers; no matter they are pro-governmental or pro-oppositional, they
are in the parliament or not, must realize that they can struggle
against the authorities but never – against the state. The struggle
against, or for the sake of the authorities should never turn into a
struggle against the state. In my view all the political powers must
learn this lesson.

Some people think that the authorities suffered a defeat. I don’t
share this viewpoint. In my opinion it was our defeat – the crush
of the state and the society. Because due to the initiative of
some adventurous people the state was thrown backward, in terms of
democratic achievements and the international rating and authority.

After all everything is mutually linked in the world: politics,
economy, etc. Each political assessment given to the state, as a rule,
has economic responses, which will definitely have an impact on the
simple citizens. This must one more time remind all the political
powers that in their actions they must take into account the blow
given to the state as a consequence of this or that step.

We must also draw a very important conclusion from what happened:
the state system and society must become stronger and have immunity
towards similar situations; we must also find mechanisms to solve
similar problems without concussions. In this sense I think we must
have a balanced attitude towards this resolution. What is done cannot
be undone. A resolution has been adopted, which dictates certain
conditions to us, but the implementation of those conditions, in any
case derives from the interests of our state."

"If the authorities express willingness to have dialogue with
the pro-oppositional powers, including the radical society, and
Levon Ter-Petrosyan announces that his goal is to achieve the "non
recognition of the power", do you see any opportunities to alleviate
tension in such circumstances?"

"The possibility of the alleviation of the existing tension depends
not only upon the parties to the dialogue but also the general mood
of the society. If society sees one party calling for a dialogue,
and taking concrete steps, and another party refusing any dialogue,
people will draw their own conclusion. I don’t think the opening of
the new demonstration season will change anything in this term. The
most important thing is, what these demonstrations are aimed at.

The same PACE resolution exhorts the opposition to accept the
decision of the Constitutional Court on the election returns. If
their demonstrations are on other topics, then I don’t see anything
bad in it, it is their constitutional right. But if during their
demonstrations they over again announce that their candidate won the
elections, then they will appear in a very illogical situation."

"The government staff is not yet complete, but anyway do the
appointments in the key positions, give reasons to think that the
authority has adopted a new human resource policy?"

"The human resource policy, adopted after the elections is not
important only in terms of the personnel, anyhow, the cadres, by their
quality and their methods to solve problems, decide many issues. After
these elections people have positive expectations, because everyone
realizes the importance of changes in our life.

The first appointments, no matter they were new figures or re-appointed
Ministers, derive to rather interesting tendencies. The government
is accomplished with intellectuals having a dynamic working style:
people whose activity is aimed at advancing ambitious programs,
and foreseeing the possible challenges faced by the country.

The first steps of the newly appointed Prime Minister, his approaches
and proposals heard during the government session, his commitment to
work transparently, inspires hope that intellectuals are becoming
important in our country. If on the highest level they set a task
to produce ideas and govern the country with that "product", this
means we realize that intellectuals are our greatest wealth and human
capital is the main resource to develop the country.

You can feel the spirit of changes in the President’s speeches,
as well.

In essence, a very important task is being set; if the government
doesn’t take radical steps from the beginning, it will never gain
people’s trust. The newly formed government has got two deficiencies:
time and trust. Which means, the government must gain the people’s
trust in a very short period of time.

I don’t mean they must take populist steps in a short period of time.

People don’t need populism; they need concrete steps, which will
inspire trust towards the better future of our country. The
presidential elections made ground for motivating ideas and
programs. The only thing left to do is to collect and implement them."