THE USE OF LISTENING TO USELESS HEARINGS
Hrayr Manukyan

Octob er 6, 2009

On October 1 the parliament organized hearings on the topic of the
Protocols and the Process of Developing Relations between Armenia
and Turkey, during which many politicians, representatives of parties
and experts expressed their opinions.

However the main opposition power, the Armenian National Congress,
did not take part in these hearings. "The Armenian National Congress
did not take part in the hearings, because as it was said these were
organized for the purpose of demonstrating only," says ANC spokesman
Arman Musinyan. He says the incumbent government has agreed to sign
"the shameful protocols and they will have to sign, and the parliament
will have to ratify it and will not oppose". To our question whether it
would not be better to go and say everything there in order to deliver
their message to the audience he said that they will say everything
they want to say during an upcoming rally. He says this is more
effective. In addition, he says that if the ANC participates in such
imitation games proposed by the government, they will become a tool
in the hands of the government too. In answer to the announcements
of other political powers saying that it would be good if the ANC
participated in the discussion as well he said, "They know the opinions
of the ANC activists from the media, thus I think it did not change
too much," says PA faction secretary Aram Safaryan, "however, from the
point of view of political culture it would be better if there were
more speeches during the discussion". A. Safaryan believes the ANC is
an integral part of our political sector and our society. "Also I would
like to inform that during the hearings the concerns and worries of the
society were spoken too. Even though I have some disagreements about
the format of the hearings because 5,5 hours during one day is a very
short term for 60 speeches and it is not enough for people who want to
understand every detail of the issue. Anyway I think it was a useful
discussion," said A. Safaryan. He also says that the hearings were
useful and important not only due to the fact of the discussion and
participation of political powers but the media coverage as well. "I
think that the media owes to the political sector because they did
not cover all the aspects of concerns !

of all po tical powers," he said. We wander what the ARF officials
think about these hearings because ultimately these hearings did
not change anything in the initial protocols and they will be signed
anyway. "Every person who participated in the hearing will say that
it was a real discussion because the organizer of the hearing, the
committee on foreign relations, had invited experts, politicians,
lawyers and other specialists to express their viewpoints. It was
a real professional discussion and there were conflicts of opinions
as well," said ARF faction secretary Artyusha Shahbazyan. "Certain
powers who have interests other than the national interests are
saying that it is very important that the issue was discussed in
the parliament. We know these people, and they say they did not
participate in the discussion because it was a show. But they are
jealous with us because the ARF is a very active opposition power now,"
said A. Shahbazyan. He believes the only goal of the ANC is to help
Levon Ter-Petrosyan become president. "For these people the issue
of helping Ter-Petrosyan become president is more important than the
dangers that we see in this process of Armenian-Turkish relations. In
a word, this goal to be elected president is more important for them
than the issues of the Armenian-Turkish relations and Karabakh. This
is their nature; they have always been like that," said A. Shahbazyan
by perfectly playing his role as an oppositionist.