ALL THE STEPS ARE PROGRESSIVE AFTER 1996
Hayots Ashkhar
Published on February 22, 2008
GEVORG HARUTYUNYAN
Interview with the Chairman of the National Democratic Party Shavarsh
Kocharyan.
`Mr. Kocharyan the presidential elections were estimated by all the
foreign observers as an evident progress in the path of democracy. Do
you agree with this estimation?’
` The brief evaluations of the observers were impartial and actual,
because progress is really visible. But the political powers of
Armenia, the parties and each citizen must be more demanding about the
organization and process of the elections, than any international
observer.
The positive estimation of the four European delegations and CIS
observers, conducting an observation mission in Armenia, as a step
towards democracy, is really acceptable and comprehensible.
After 1996, in every new election we are trying to make another step
towards democracy but people are fairly disapproved of the election
returns.
The reason is quite clear. The thing is, after 1996 the level of the
elections had such an unprecedented crash that every election following
it leaves far from the level of democracy that we really deserve,
though we have recorded progress during those elections.’
`The observation mission was also concerned about the mistrust of the
people towards the elections. Who do you think the voters don’t trust,
themselves or the candidate they vote for?’
`The thing is, in 1990-ies people considered themselves the owners of
their country and used to freely express their will. But later, they
became more and more disappointed, because the President and the
Parliament they elected deeply disappointed them. And it was not a
matter of one two days. The culmination was the Presidential elections
of 1996, when they simply violated and ignored people’s will. The tanks
confirmed the falsification of the election returns. Seeing all this,
the people lost their confidence, but now they are trying to recover it
step by step.’
`To what extent are the speculations of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s
supporters justified?’
`The process of cheating and exploiting the people continues. If they
possess any facts regarding falsifications they can appeal to the
Constitutional Court or other court instances. But they never do it,
thus closing the path to the European Court. If they really have facts
why they don’t use these opportunities?
They have chosen the method of street rallies. It is their right. But
they must understand one thing – we are not on the level of 1996. And
the progress of the previous years allows everyone to freely express
his or her disagreement. And they are not afraid that the tanks will
close their way.
Anyhow the political powers can continue their struggle up to the
moment they breach the law or the constitutional order.
At the moment the government in power faces a really serious test. Will
they manage to overcome it in a civilized way? There are all the
pre-conditions for it. Because as we see the authorities are rather
reserved towards the provocations. If they try to infringe the law, the
constitutional order must be maintained by all the legal methods.
The struggle must be unlimited when they take the power by force. This
happened in 1996 and everyone knows about it, the people, the
government in power, and international community. At the moment the
picture is different, they are trying to come to power, but not by
means of elections, which, in my opinion, is intolerable.’