TER-PETROSYAN SUFFERS DEFEAT INSIDE THE COUNTRY
BY ARMEN TSATOURYAN
Hayots Ashkhar
Published on March 01, 2008
And thus, after a week’s desperate attempts of speaking in the
language of threat and blackmail inside the country and demanding new
presidential elections, L. Ter-Petrosyan sent "messages" to the world’s
leading countries and the authoritative international organizations
on February 28, with the purpose of changing the positive assessments
on the elections.
A question arises as to what new facts L. Ter-Petrosyan discovered
during the week following the elections, that he now assumes them as
a basis for changing the previous assessments regarding the Armenian
elections? Judging by the contents of the speeches and the statements
made at the Theatrical Square, Mr. Ter-Petrosyan and his team do not
have anything new to say.
So, what makes L. Ter-Petrosyan transfer the blackmail to the "global
level"? We believe that after keeping his proponents on their feet
and exhausting them for around 10 days, Mr. Ter-Petrosyan feels that
he is suffering a defeat in the "war of nerves" waged against the
authorities. It is conditioned by three main factors.
First: although the authorities have, up to date, demonstrated
restraint for unauthorized demonstrations and speeches, having received
a "complete freedom of hands", L. Ter-Petrosyan and his team did not
manage to disorganize the government and become the de facto leaders
of the country.
Second: the demonstrators listening to Mr. Ter-Petrosyan have
noticeably got tired, and after the crowded demonstration held on
February 26, they have been gradually thinning out.
And finally, third: making consistent steps towards establishing an
atmosphere of tolerance in the country and especially, advancing
a proposal on forming a coalition government, the President-elect
has seized that initiative, consolidating around him the forces and
activists which attained successful results in the elections. And
it is not accidental that L. Ter-Petrosyan’s desperate addresses
to the international community preceded the "Agreement on Political
Cooperation" signed between the newly elected President S. Sargsyan
and "Rule of Law" leader Arthur Baghdasaryan on February 29.
Feeling that time has begun working against him, Ter-Petrosyan is now
setting deadlines for the international community, with a demand to
review the assessments made on the Armenian elections.
As a matter of fact, Mr. Ter-Petrosyan’s "pan-national movement"
consists of an "efficient army" of several thousand proponents as well
as protesting and at the same time cheated people. In order to keep
the second, more overcrowded mass at the square, all the possible
and impossible methods have already been applied. The attempts of
threatening the authorities on behalf of "Yerkrapah" and dismantling
the state machine by organizing the resignations of various officials
were no use either.
That’s to say. Mr. Ter-Petrosyan has exhausted and is still exhausting
all his resources inside the country. The only thing left to do is
"to rely on the unreliable", hoping that after reviewing its positive
assessments on the Armenian elections, the international community
will impart a new spirit to the principal mass of the demonstrators
and bring the Armenian authorities face to face with complex external
problems.
But because the international community, including the world’s leading
countries do not have new grounds for reviewing their previous
assessments, Ter-Petrosyan is trying to "explain" to them how the
assessments should be reviewed. He offers them to refrain from the
"formalist conduct" and question the legitimacy of the elections,
based on the investigation of the searches, arrests and other facts.
It turns out that the international community is offered to become
the patron of a group of people committing illegal actions and very
often arrested for carrying weapons, something that contradicts not
only the principles of the OSCE and the international structures,
but also common sense in general.
Thus, Ter-Petrosyan’s ultimatum presented to the international
community on February 28 testifies to the fact the author is now in
urgent need of an external "stimulant" in order not to disappoint
his own supporters and not to discourage the demonstrations. And this
means that L. Ter-Petrosyan has found himself in a deadlock.