WILL ELDER DASHNAKS CEDE TO YOUTHS
NANO ARGHUTYAN

LRAGIR.AM
17:58:59 – 15/06/2009

The topic of cooperation of the forces, which proclaimed
themselves opposition, is not discussed in political debates, but
like ping-pong. The serve was made by Raffi Hovhannisyan, but only
Heritage from the three oppositional forces expresses its willingness
to unite. The remaining two, the Armenian National Congress and the
ARF, do not reject the idea of cooperation, but they have not uttered
word about their willingness to cooperate yet. The feeling is that
the idea of cooperation is introduced from external field with good
or other intentions.

Whatever the reasons for introducing this idea were, obviously,
the Dashnaks have met their match. In answer to Vahan Hovhannisyan’s
question around what issues the ARF Dashnaktsutyun and the HAK may
join, Levon Ter-Petrosyan gave a clear answer – around a platform
including demands on extraordinary elections and the resignation of the
president. On this proposal, the Dashnaktsutyun has not yet responded
and it is unlikely to respond without serious internal debates.

The sources close to the ARF Dashnaktsutyun affirm that a struggle of
the two generations in the party is taking place. One may judge about
the disagreements of the members of the Dashnaktsutyun by different
statements of its members. If the representatives of the "old Guards"
rule out any possibility of cooperation with the HAK and do not issue
strict statements on the situation after the election in the country,
so the young members of the party, for example, Artsvik Minasyan,
called for leaving apart the personal disagreements and to think
about the country.

The "Old Guards", by definition, cannot resort to drastic steps. In
addition, many representatives of the Guard in ’90s were in prison
thanks to Levon Ter-Petrosyan, at a time when the Dashnaktsutyun
was in the coalition, the party leaders have managed to get family,
friendly relations with coalition partners and a good business. In
the end, the calm life of the older generation of the Dashnaks beat
out the revolutionary character from their nature, and now they cannot
abandon the stability and rush into the political battle.

Will the elder generation hinder their young comrades, or they will
prefer ceding their posts?