IS THE SHUSHI MAYOR ABLE TO NATIONALIZE THE PROPERTY
Nano Arghutyan

LRAGIR.AM
17:46:51 – 06/04/2009

On March 29, the Shushi Mayor elections took place. 2 candidates
were struggling for this office: school director Karen Avagimyan,
whom judging by undercover rumours, supported the authorities, and
director of the Humanitarian technical school Albert Khachatryan, who
has been in the governmental camp for all his life. Karen Avagimyan
won with 5 votes of advantage (779-774).

During the elections, the authorities struggled against the
authorities. In essence, the government has no one else to struggle
against, as there has been no opposition in the Nagorno-Karabakh for
many years. The principle, implemented by the government in the 2007
presidential elections- who is not with us, is a national enemy,
does not work in this case. Here, not the ideological difference
but the personal ambitions play their role. And in this case another
principle functions – you are not with us, move apart.

The bad thing is that such election is held in a city which has not
only a sacral but also a strategical meaning for the Armenians. The
city liberated 17 years ago, goes on living in the post soviet reality:
ruins, poverty, humanitarian help. The government takes up some steps
but they are far to be enough, the only hope is the Diaspora. And
what can the poor Diaspora do? The "Sushi renascence" fund carried
out a TV marathon "Wilhelm-Yerevan-Shushi" and collected 5, 8 million
dollars, and then someone sank into oblivion suddenly. Where this
money disappeared, who leads the fund now, what the fund is engaged
in is unknown. The fund on the restoration of the Real College and
other organizations do not operate either. A number of Armenians,
who are ready to invest money in the city’s reconstruction, meet
the situation when all the destroyed or half destroyed buildings are
privatized by someone and are sold at a fabulous price.

Everyone understands that before starting massive reconstructions
in Shushi, a denationalization of the city property is needed to be
carried out. But, since everything belongs to people who are in power
now, this comes out to be impossible. There is no one to speak about
this because there is no opposition. So, it is not so important who
won in the Shushi Mayor election. Even if we assume that the government
without opposition is engaged self-destruction.