ELECTION IN IRAN REVEALED THAT "VERY SERIOUS DOMESTIC CONTRADICTIONS
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
25.06.2009 21:24 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian Center for National and International
Studies (ACNIS) convened a roundtable discussion today, entitled
"Crisis in Iran: Lessons for Armenia," assessing the recent
post-election crisis in Iran and examining the lessons for Armenia,
the ACNIS press office reported.
ACNIS Director Richard Giragosian then presented an assessment of
recent developments in Armenia’s southern neighbor Iran, which has
been gripped by a powerful, and at times, even violent post-election
crisis that has seen the largest anti-government demonstrations since
the 1979 Iranian revolution, with hundreds of thousands of Iranian
citizens protesting a disputed presidential election. He argued
that the "post-election unrest poses the most serious challenge to
the Iranian authorities since they came to power in the wake of the
Iranian revolution twenty years ago." In addition, he noted that "the
current wave of unrest is largely directed against the ruling elite,
although it is not, at least yet, targeting the system itself."
After providing a focused analysis of the Iranian crisis, Giragosian
also presented several important lessons for Armenia, including the
fact that "Iran is now facing its own March 1st post-election crisis,
similar to the events in Armenia last year" and, in both cases,
"led to the tragic deaths of civilian demonstrators after the use,
and misuse, of force, with police and security forces applying an
excessive and repressive response to the demonstrations." He went on to
say that "in Armenia’s case, the March 2008 crisis remains unresolved,
as the authorities have been unable or unwilling to fully and fairly
investigate the events of March 2008" and warned that "Armenia, like
Iran, is plagued by a failure to adequately resolve the underlying
tension and demands emanating from that crisis."
Giragosian explained that another lesson for Armenia from the
current crisis in Iran was the fact that the election revealed that
"very serious domestic contradictions quickly developed into a highly
volatile and explosive internal situation that no ideology, no mater
how powerful, could contain." And, "for the Armenian authorities, this
lesson also includes a warning: that there can be no political panacea
or substitute for not addressing concrete socio-economic problems. And
with Iran, it is also clear that the recent crisis has shown that no
country in this modern world can remain truly isolated," he added.
He concluded by noting that the third lesson from Iran, the "economics
of change" as a driving force behind this tension that was even more
worrisome for Armenia. In both cases, he argued, "young Iranians and
Armenians share the same hopes, for a brighter future, for economic
opportunities, and for a voice in how their country is governed." He
then warned that "for both countries, there is no return to the
pre-crisis status quo, as the political and economic demands for
change remain unmet, and to continue to ignore these basic demands and
natural expectations, sparks a real risk of only prolonging the crisis,
and most dangerously, of merely fueling the fire of discontent."
In closing, Giragosian stated that "in terms of the outlook
for Armenian-Iranian relations, there are both inherent limits,
such as the Russian pressure on Armenia over the size of the gas
pipeline to prevent the re-export of gas beyond Armenia, and inherent
opportunities," arguing that "Armenia can play a role as a strategic
bridge to Iran, and as a platform for Russia, the EU and the US to
engage Iran."