SENSELESS DISCUSSIONS IN THE POLITICAL DOMAIN
Armen Tsaturyan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
11 Nov 08
Armenia

Though Karabakh topic has temporarily captured the attention of the
entire Armenian political domain, neither the opposition that has
taken a decision to discontinue the tactics of demonstrations, nor
the ruling political coalition have represented any new or perceptible
idea regarding the prospect of the settlement.

In such circumstances it becomes more evident that the actualization
of Karabakh issue was a means for Ter-Petrosyan to leave in a gorgeous
manner.

Even if this version is not confirmed and the opposition restarts
demonstration-based policy, the only thing they can do is to find
justification for their illogical actions.

The situation is far not consoling also in the pro-government camp,
the representatives of which split between the supporters of "mild"
and "tough" stances towards Karabakh issue.

The first ones expressed trust towards the ruling power’s
infallibility, which anyhow didn’t contribute to the consolidation
of the latter’s positions, as for the second ones, these people want
to veil the absence of their own course of action by certain arrogant
but empty warnings addressed to the ruling power.

A question arises here – to what extent does the before mentioned
contribute to the consolidation of Armenia’s positions in the
international arena, when the entire political domain in Azerbaijan
had firmly determined to refuse any type of mutual concession and
intensify pressure on Armenia.

It turns out that the firmness in Azerbaijani political domain
regarding Karabakh issue has collided with the unclearness towards
the same issue existing in Armenian political domain, creating the
false impression that Karabakh is more important for Azerbaijan than
for Armenia.

Of course there were certain fresh ideas, exclusions by this common
tendency. For example, Davit Babayan from the presidential staff of
the NKR President, in his book "The Water Problem in the Context of
the Settlement of Karabakh Conflict" substantiates the vital importance
for Armenia to maintain Kelbajar region. But these things don’ t have
anything to do with Armenia’s political domain, devoid of principles
and ideas.

This demonstrates that in future as well we will deal with "attitudes"
rather than stances, because the palette of the political forces
functioning in the political domain has already exhausted itself,
because of playing "infallible ruling power" and "unyielding"
opposition.

On the first plane, at the moment they lack any desire to show positive
impact on their policy, neither do they have intellectual potential
to represent a sensible project.

On the second plane the negative inertia of the sharp confrontation
appeared due to the last presidential elections, which evidently
displays tendencies of regress rather than progress.

Thus the pro-oppositional and pro-government forces waste their time,
which they have between the previous, and the coming presidential
elections.

In this "transitional period" the fact of the lack of moderate and
constructive opposition is quite regular and logical. But there are
lots of questions in this issue as well, because the posture of the
Armenian National Congress is not yet clear.

The existence of Karabakh topic gives opportunity to the opposition
to remain as allegedly the only "alternative force" for the
ruling power. But the expected new freezing of Karabakh issue makes
unavoidable the attempt of the Armenian National Congress to smoothly
turn into a liberal party with oppositional trend, which will get
prepared for the coming parliamentary elections. It will lead to the
split of the pro-oppositional forces, because its radical sector,
in essence will have nothing to do.

In our view the "borderline" of the political processes taking
place in Armenia, will be clear only in spring, when both the
pro-oppositional and pro-government forces which have, in essence,
exhausted themselves and haven’t said anything regarding Karabakh,
face the issue of clarifying their fate. In the context of similar
clarifications the formation of new political forces is also possible,
which separately or together can meet the demand for positive and
project-based policy that Armenia lacks.