ARMENIAN SOCIETY DEMONSTRATES EXTREME INDIFFERENCE

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.06.2009 GMT+04:00

Brief review of basic domestic events of the week.

Basic political events of the dying week in Armenia were the work of
the Council of Elders in Yerevan, sluggish protests of the opposition,
break-up of the fact-gathering group of March 1 events, review of the
tax bill in the RA Parliament, and suspension of funding provided to
Armenia by the program "Millennium Challenges".

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The week began with publishing the final results
of Yerevan Municipal Elections by the Central Election Commission
of Armenia. According to these data, the 7% barrier was overcome by
three political parties: the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), the
"Prosperous Armenia" and the Armenian National Congress (ANC). Mandates
in the Council of Elders were distributed as follows: RPA-35 mandates,
"Prosperous Armenia"-17 mandates and ANC-13 mandates.

However, members of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Zoya
Tadevosyan (Heritage party) and Hamlet Abrahamyan (ARF Dashnaktsutyun)
did not sign the final protocol. As Zoya Tadevosyan declared,
considering mass falsifications, Yerevan City Council Elections
should have been declared null and void, but that wasn’t what RA CEC
did, arguing that there wasn’t convincing evidence for making such
a decision. "When several pro-opposition representatives refuse to
put their signature under the protocol, it already testifies serious
wrongdoings and falsifications," she stressed.

The same evening Leader of the oppositional movement ANC Levon
Ter-Petrosyan held a rally near the Matenadaran, Depository of Ancient
Manuscripts. He voiced the opposition’s intention to waive all the
mandates obtained in the Elections to Yerevan Elder’s Council. However,
in spite of ANC’s repeated statements on mandate renunciation, the CEC
press office reported that ANC representatives had not sent mandate
renunciation statements to the Central Electoral Committee.

Different estimation to the Municipal Elections was given by Head
of "Orinats Yerkir" parliamentary faction Heghine Bisharyan, who
considers that, "In spite of wrongdoings, bribery and falsifications,
the elections can be estimated as "satisfactory". "Coalition parties
signed a document on not distributing bribes, but the agreement was
breached," Bisharyan said. Refusing to give the name of any party,
she also noted that pro-opposition factions had also engaged themselves
in such ill practices.

His point of view on the election results expressed also RA Ombudsman
Armen Harutyunyan, who stated that the electoral system in Armenia
completely corresponds to the political and economic systems. This
opinion was expressed during the discussion devoted to electoral
rights in Armenia organized by "Civilitas" Foundation. "The RPA should
assume greater responsibility while the opposition should not feel
suppressed. I am convinced that over half of those people who did
not vote are supporters of the opposition," stated Armen Harutyunyan,
warning the public against growing indifferent.

On the whole, the attempts of the Armenian National Congress to dispute
the resolution of the Central Election Commission first in the Central
Election Commission itself and then in the RA Court of Appeal did
not receive a special response in the capital; neither did the press
conferences of a number of political parties with the estimations
of results of elections and also the arrest of several members of
election commissions. The sluggish protests of the opposition parties
rapidly came to naught.

On Monday in rather a quiet atmosphere passed the first session of
the City Council and on Wednesday in the presence of a number of
high-ranking officials newly-elected Mayor of Yerevan Gagik Beglaryan
took an oath. Shortly, the attention of parties and civic community
was drawn to RA President Serzh Sargsyan’s Decree signed on June
6 under which the President declared null and void the October 23,
2008 Presidential Decree on "Setting up a Fact-finding Expert Group
and Establishing the Procedure of its Activities."

The Armenian National Congress was among the first to condemn
this decree. In its statements the Congress threatened that "This
extraordinary move will receive a proper response from the Armenian
society and the international community, particularly the PACE and
the CE Commissioner of Human Rights." This was followed by a number
of statements made by the fact-finding group members themselves,
who blamed each other for creating conditions, which led to the
"impossibility of team-work". In particular, such a statement was made
by Chairman of the group Vahe Stepanyan, who tried to shift the blame
on representative of the Armenian National Congress Andranik Kocharyan.

In a reply press conference Andranik Kocharyan noted that the rumors
on tense relations among group members were ungrounded and emphasized
that tensions rose after true circumstances of policeman Hamlet
Tadevosyan’s death were disclosed. He underlined that the mechanism
of dissolving the fact-finding group was started by Vahe Stepanyan
himself, who took a short leave without a permit, after which the
presidential decree followed.

An analogous opinion was expressed by Larisa Alaverdyan, Speaker for
the Parliamentary Faction "Heritage". She emphasized that "There were
no professional or political reasons for terminating the activities
of the fact-finding group investigating March 1, 2008 events." The
group will not resume its activities if authorities find themselves
only under internal pressure, Alaverdyan is convinced.. But even if
that happens under external pressure, group format will anyway be
changed. Larisa Alaverdyan also assured that dissolution of Evidence
Collection Group will have negative consequences for country’s and
society’s development.

>From this point of view, liquidation of the fact-finding group was
a well planned action, and was realized only with the intention
that members of the group would not get to the true picture of what
occurred. This view is shared by Leader of the "New times" political
party, member of NA committee examining March 1, 2008 events Aram
Karapetyan.

Anyway, at present all the facts and documents on March 1 events
are with Chairman of the temporary parliamentary commission Samvel
Nikoyan and will be open for investigation on Monday.

The week also marked the public considerations of the possibility of
declaration of amnesty by the President, the suspension of funding
provided to Armenia by the program "Millennium Challenges", the Russian
credit in size of $500 mln. provided to Armenia and the rally of the
Armenian National Congress, at which leader of the ANC called for
constitutional struggle against the authorities until Serzh Sargsyan
leaves Armenia. As for Levon Ter-Petrosyan, he fixed the date for
another meeting – September 18.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress