LEVON TER-PETROSYAN’S SPEECH AT JUNE 12 RALLY
LRAGIR.AM
23:30:06 – 12/06/2009
Dear compatriots,
The Yerevan Mayor Election on May 31 again proved the anti-democratic,
dictatorial essence of the Armenian government. If there were
people, who hoped that the current government may reform and be led
by state thinking, all the hopes disappeared. Serge Sargsyan showed
with this election that he does not have any aim to unite the nation
through democratic methods and he intends to continue governing with
dictatorial methods.
If Robert Kocharyan, during his office, set hopes on the law
enforcement bodies, corrupt officials or oligarchs, so Serge Sargsyan
weakens the role of the above-mentioned elements and sets hopes only
on criminal elements.
In order to give you a complete idea of Serge Sargsyan’s thinking, I
would like to bring into your attention a part of his speech made on
the occasion of Sardarapat battle published on May 27. "As a nation,
we are able to pose serious questions for the solution of which joint
efforts, inner concord, generosity and forgiveness are needed.
…the March 1 events are enough for us to affirm that we have much
to learn from our past. The events, which are sorrowful for every one
of us, proved that a situation when everyone loses, when the unity
and kindness fails, when the intolerance reigns is possible in our
present days".
A person, who seized the post of the president by violating people’s
votes dwells on inner concord, mutual respect, generosity, tolerance
and kindness. And four days after the above-cited speech, Serge
Sargsyan held the most outrageous elections in the Armenian history.
Let us pass to the Serge Sargsyan’s powerful sponsor, the West. Once,
in a private conversation, one of the European diplomats told me that
his country really wishes to help Armenia. When I wondered whether he
meant the Armenian government or the Armenian people, he answered very
diplomatically, reiterating that his country wants to help Armenia.
The problem is that the West takes into consideration not the interests
of the peoples of the countries of the third world, but the West is
led by the behavior of the regimes established in those countries. In
spite of the empty statements, the notions such as nation, people, and
justice do not exist for the West. Everything is based on geopolitical
and economic interests; the governments get the assistance of the West,
despite the fact what crimes they commit in their countries. And when
the regimes break this logic, the West punishes them roughly.
All this goes for Armenia too. The West is not a friend of the
Armenian nation, but of the Armenian criminal regime, in other words
of assassins, bandits and electoral frauds and it has its direct
participation in the cases of violation of democratic values and
human rights in our country. The best proof of which is the complete
indifference of the West towards the illegal elections in Armenia of
the latest years.
This was proved at the Yerevan Mayor Election as well. The mission of
15 people to observe the Yerevan election was partying on the day of
the election, after which they assessed the election as corresponding
to European measurements. Unlike them, the representatives of the
Western embassies to Armenia observed the election more attentively,
but they have not expressed their opinion yet.
Sometimes, some Western diplomats and political figures criticize
us stating that we never say a bad word to Russia. There is only one
simple reason. We never criticize Russia become the latter does not
try to get involved in the Armenian internal affairs, it never states
that Armenia is worth such a president like Serge Sargsyan, because
there is no difference between the words and the actions of Russia.
I would propose not to have any expectations from the West and not
to be offended of it, but to accept the way it is and even to treat
it with humor.
After the Yerevan Mayor election, conversations that the Armenian
National Congress has to broaden the circle of its allies became
very modern. The idea is true and cannot not be disputed. However,
it needs some clarifications.
First of all, the HAK has never had any intention to establish
monopoly within the oppositional field or to involve all the other
political forces in it. The HAK has never refuted cooperating with
any oppositional political force. Moreover, as a rule, it has always
been the Congress to initiate such cooperation. Let us remember
our dialogues with the ARF Dashnaktsutyun, OYP, National Unity,
Heritage, Nor Zhamanakner, and with other political forces before
the presidential elections in 2008.
Two of the above-mentioned forces joined the Armenian National Congress
and the others decided to leave the oppositional field.
What can be said about the Yerevan Mayor Election? First of all, there
was no election. The election is not an event but the free expression
of people’s will. The Armenia National congress does not have may need
to change its methods or the way of action because of failed election.
I would like to reiterate the importance of a cooperation with the
political forces and I propose the opposition to join around the
following points:
1. To destroy the realization of the idea of creating the committee
of Armenian and Turkish historians that puts under suspicion the fact
of the Armenian genocide.
2. Not to let the government make concessions in the Nagorno-Karabakh
issue settlement
3. To restore the previous format of the negotiations, where
in accordance with the status set by the OSCE Budapest summit
Nagorno-Karabakh was a full side of the negotiations.
4. To set free all the political prisoners and the enterprisers,
which are victims of tax terror.
5. To set an independent international commission to study the March
1 issue, to restore the activities of the fact-finding group including
in it international experts.
6. To reveal and to punish the March 1 wrongdoers
7. To reform the electoral system radically, in particular, to
eliminate the electoral commission composed of numerous parties and
to put the responsibility of holding the election on the Police and
Minister of Justice. To use the practice of fingerprints, in order
to exclude any possibility of double voting.
8. To eliminate the economic monopolies and to bring into the tax
field the major enterprises.
9. To implement the demands of the European Court and the PACE
resolutions and to reopen the A1+ TV channel.
10. To stop the criminal practice of hindering the rallies, marches
and protests.
11. To hold extraordinary parliamentary end presidential elections
12. To demand Serge Sargsyan’s resignation.
This is the platform, around which, the Armenian National Congress is
ready to cooperate with any political force. In other to prevent any
misunderstanding, I would like to stress that the point is about unity
around the political platform and not the Congress. It is superfluous
to mention that this platform is a preliminary and working one, and
in result of discussions with forced in interested in it, it may be
changed. I think that the whole summer is enough for fulfilling the
necessary work.
See you soon