HMAYAK HOVHANNISIAN: SOCIETY’S INTERNAL SPLIT IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN BEING DEPRIVED OF VOTE IN PACE

Noyan Tapan

Jan 22, 2009

YEREVAN, JANUARY 22, NOYAN TAPAN. "The prospect of being deprived
of the vote in PACE is indeed serious, but country’s internal split
is more dangerous," Hmayak Hovhannisian, the Chairman of the Union
of Political Scientists of Armenia, said at the January 22 press
conference. According to him, today Karabakh is no longer a supreme
moral value for all Armenians as it was in 1988. "At that time Karabakh
could not be a target of criticism: even the worst and most dubious
views of Karabakh residents were perceived with tolerance in Armenia,"
the political scientist reminded. While at present, according to him,
opinions are voiced in the opposition sphere that the Nagorno Karabakh
settlement should be left to the Karabakh residents.

The way out of the formed situation, as H. Hovhannisian stated,
is holding of special parliamentary elections. According to him,
the people should be given a possibility to express its political
position, as indeed the people is the third force of the home political
sphere. H. Hovhannisian added that it is very important to disclose
and to call for liability those indeed guilty of the March 1 murders to
weaken the current tension. He drew parallels between the March 1 and
1999 October 27 crimes emphasizing that after the incident of "27" the
immediate executors of the crime at least appeared before the court.

Touching upon opinions on Council of Europe’s using double standards to
Armenia and Azerbaijan, H. Hovhannisian said that such standards should
be used. He explained it by saying that Armenia is the first Christian
state, to which democratic values should be peculiar. And Azerbaijan
and other Mohammedan countries, as he classed it, hardly perceive
those values, and the approaches to them can be milder. "Privileges
are always given to a disabled, a weak," H. Hovhannisian said.
From: Baghdasarian