HOW TO ACHIEVE A "HEATED AUTUMN"?
Kima Yeghiazaryan
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
10 Oct 2008
Armenia
As they say, the futile attempts of setting the old and new Republicans
against each other come "from the dawn of times".
When, at the successive critical stage, the media supporting the
Armenian Pan-National Movement, takes an active initiative of delving
into the activities of the Republicans and, looking through the
keyhole for several days and weeks, assures us that there is some
"growing scandal" or at least "discontent" inside party, you just
cannot help watching the amusing soap opera.
As we already mentioned, the advocates of the Armenian Pan-National
Movement have started performing this kind of strictly important task
"since time immemorial".
Following the 1998 "palace coup", they started targeting the
Republicans periodically, in an attempt to push their way through
some space "between the ring and the finger" and reveal some "sharp
controversies" that have allegedly arisen inside the party.
Hardly a month after Vazgen Sargsyan’s being elected as the Head of the
Republican Party, these people got anxious and started disseminating
statements that the new leader allegedly oppressed and ignored the
old Republicans and left them in the shadow. After Mr. Sargsyan’s
becoming a Prime Minister, they continued20the same practice, saying
that he didn’t appreciate the potential of the "old residents", and
none of the old members of the party was represented in the Government.
After the "October 27" tragedy, V. Sargsyan already became an "old"
Republican, so the activists started accusing the "new members" of not
showing any interest in the disclosure of the case. In this period,
it was particularly ridiculous to hear them announcing that the old
Republicans, together with the "Yerkrapah" members, were about to
make a joint demand for impeaching the President. And that happened
during the first year of the trial.
And the information was quite reliable since it had been "reported"
to the correspondents of the Armenian Pan-National Movement by some
of the "old" RPA members who didn’t want to disclose their names. At
the same time, they had announced that they were not going to tolerate
the existing situation inside the party and would do their utmost for
returning the RPA to its origins, since the it had deviated from the
ideas preached by Ashot Navasardyan.
Let’s note that a "new" Republican in that period was Andranik
Margaryan who, in his turn, ruthlessly ignored even the opinion of
the dissidents of the 1960’s, i.e. the former activists of the United
National Party.
And thus, the developments around20the conflict between the old and new
members continued till the moment when the "oldest members" who didn’t
want to disclose their names "stopped" making the alleged complaints to
the correspondents. And it doesn’t even make sense to say that all this
story was nothing more than the product of the fantasy of the latter.
Anyway, this fantasy was fading away for the successive time in
view of the great disappointment of those correspondents who were
eventually making sure that the prospect of splitting the Republican
Party of Armenia and exacerbating the internal political situation
in the aftermath was not realistic. Alas! The "sharp debates" they
had invented were "dying out" even in such situations when, having
thoroughly studied the pre-election list of the Republican Party of
Armenia, they announced that none of the old members was to be found
in the top ten horizons. And becoming offended, they would state that
the names of the old members had appeared on such horizons that were
unlikely to secure for them seats in the Parliament.
And finding ourselves in a state of terror, we would wait for some
fight between those who had won seats in the Parliament and those
who hadn’t, and thought we would no longer be able to prevent the
dangerous developments. Because the correspondents who had received
information from their own sources of the Republican P arty of Armenia
were persisting in their statements that the old members whose names
had appeared in the final horizons of the pre-election list had
threatened to quit the party. The extremely tense atmosphere observed
during the sessions of the RPA Council and the nervous strides in the
corridors promised a vigorous confrontation. And that, in its turn,
would automatically lead to an internal political crisis.
And we have followed quite a lot of similar virtual developments
that were assiduously invented by the selfless correspondents just
in front of our eyes.
And the recent attempt of stirring up the "ambitions" of the old
and new members and making every possible effort to split them fall
flat again.
We believe you still remember what "compassion" they displayed
for Tigran Torosyan when the latter submitted his two resignation
letters. They announced that following Tigran Torosyan’s example,
the ideological old members would very soon quit the Republican Party
and join the ex-Speaker.
And even if there is no new "splitting", the old members will go on
walking in low spirits. Besides, there are hopes that Tigran Torosyan
who displayed an unprecedentedly "bold posture" will appear in the
Northern Avenue.
However, the recent attempt of the activists appeared to be the most
"amusing". And maybe these people will not get a wink of sleep till
Octo ber 20 when the name of the new RPA leader is announced during
the NA four-day session which is going start on that day. And before
that, they still have 10 days to continue the practice of sowing
dissention between the old and new members. Circulating the names
of the two candidates, they now say that the passions inside the
Republican Party are running high since the old members are against
Edward Sharmazanov’s candidacy and the new members are against Galoust
Sahakyan’s candidacy and they "predict" terrible developments in case
of the election of the former.
And there’s no one telling them, "You know that’s none of your
business. Does it matter to you who will become the leader of the RPA
faction, the largest political group in the parliament?" It isn’t
as though the LTP and the activists of his new movement demanded
extraordinary parliamentary elections.
There’s no one saying, "If your demand still remains in force, why
are you making such a fuss and suffering so much if the new leaders,
no matter who he is, will not manage to enjoy his new status as the
revolutionaries are going to hold their exclusive rally on October 17,
till the start of the NA four-day session?" And then, God knows what
will happen.
So, do away with your sufferings. You will still have a lot of
occasions for inciting new clashes between the old and20new Republicans
after the extraordinary session.
So, this is a subject of "endless discussions" that cannot be exhausted
in any way.