ARMENIA ALREADY NEEDS A DEFENSE MINISTER
By HAKOB BADALYAN
Lragir.am
18 July 06
The internal political situation in Armenia is entering a rather
interesting stage, for the period of orientation of the minister of
defense is ending. On July 22 it will be over, and we will learn what
position Serge Sargsyan will have in the Republican Party. Then the
activity of all the spheres of life of Armenia may normalize because
people will stop taking interest in the plans of the defense minister
and will mind their own duties.
But if Serge Sargsyan’s membership to the Republican Party may help
restore the normal schedule of work, it will hardly be possible
to say the same about the sphere led by Serge Sargsyan. It is
possible that the defense minister will occupy a rather high post
in the Republican Party. So high that he will not be inferior to
Andranik Margaryan. They even say it is going to be the post of the
co-leader of the party. What is the point of his membership if he is
not going to have an influential lever in the party? It is true that
a post is not essential to having levers, especially in the case of
Serge Sargsyan, for in the post of defense minister he had almost
presidential power. At least, everyone in the public and political
sphere thought him to have. The same can be inside the Republican
Party. Now the situation is different, however.
Serge Sargsyan has already adopted a policy of formal
powers. Therefore, he acquired posts in the spheres of economy,
education and even sport. In other words, the defense minister
either formalized his powers or simply tried his best to acquire
these powers because if one or two years ago he could nourish the
myth about his almightiness because he was the most reliable person
for Robert Kocharyan, now everything is different. It is obvious that
Serge Sargsyan is not the only reliable person for Robert Kocharyan,
let alone the most reliable one. There is a lot of evidence to
this. The most recent evidence is Vardan Oskanyan’s speech on July
14, when the foreign minister made a speech on home policies, in
fact. And it is more notable that it happened on the day when Serge
Sargsyan announced that he submitted an application for membership to
the Republican Party. Obviously, stopping to be Robert Kocharyan’s
"favorite son" (though he may have never been such), Serge Sargsyan
had no other way out but to gain as much formal levers as possible,
which he will need for his political plans, because he cannot go on
to rely on Robert Kocharyan’s levers any longer.
The administrative-criminal resource too, reliant on the defense
minister, has already started accepting "cash" only, and wants to
make sure that the "boss" really has power, he is the formal bearer
of power. In this case, a leading post in the Republican Party is
not just a caprice or a matter of choice for Serge Sargsyan. It is
a vital necessity. In fact, it is evident that it takes the defense
minister five minutes to become a public political-party figure. And
he kickstarted the activity on July 14.
For the first time the defense minister said "why not" for the
possibility that he will be president. In other words, Serge
Sargsyan announced for the first time that he is considering
presidency. Formerly, he had not stated that he did not think about
it, of course, but now he shows that he is thinking about it.
Here it is worthwhile to recall an episode from the recent visit of
the Russian defense minister Sergey Ivanov to Armenia. When Ivanov was
answering questions of news reporters sitting beside Serge Sargsyan,
he was asked if he might be the next president of Russia.
Sergey Ivanov said he is a defense minister, and if he starts thinking
about becoming president, he would perform his duties of defense
minister badly. Serge Sargsyan probably did not hear these words
though he was sitting the closest to him.
In this respect, it might be necessary to remind this episode,
which would be useful for normal activities of the sphere of defense,
essential to the country’s security. It’s a pity the president has gone
on holiday because at the moment learning or recalling Ivanov’s words
is much more important for him. If the defense or whatever minister
starts thinking about presidency and taking definite steps in this
direction, real danger occurs that the official will start thinking
less about his or her own duties. In this very case, the sphere of
defense is concerned.
Meanwhile, it is notable that over the past few weeks the head of
the defense ministry of Armenia has attended to everything except
defense. At least, very few of his recent public speeches referred to
defense. These were mostly speeches about chess, energy, gas pipelines,
parliamentary elections, education, encouragement to businessman and
now parliamentary and presidential success of the Republican Party.
Apparently Armenia needs a new defense minister for the country to
mind its own business and Serge Sargsyan to mind his own political
business. In this sense it might be even good that the president has
gone on holiday, for Robert Kocharyan will have time to consider naming
a new minister not to waste too much time on the protocol. It is also
possible that the defense minister has already thought about his fate,
and maybe he will submit his resignation. At least the National Unity
Party, widely known to everyone, says this is a possible thing. The
supporters of Unity say a resignation would bring points of political
honesty to Serge Sargsyan. In other words, the defense minister
will retire as a hero. It is also possible that he will declare the
conflict over Karabakh as the cause of his resignation, announcing
that he is against returning lands, rather than his activity in the
party and his reluctance to politicize the army.
Hence, here is a situation, which the minister of defense can use for
his interests, publicly countering Robert Kocharyan and presenting
the president as someone who "returns the territories".
Indeed, this step needs to be estimated deeply to find out what is more
important, the lever of the army or political dividends. After all,
it is not clear what resource the defense minister will be using to
become president: political, which is on the zero point, or military
criminal, which passed the test of time.
By the way, the army is also waiting for him to make a decision.
After all, it is equally important for the army to learn what the
defense minister will eventually be doing. Perhaps, however, we will
not be mistaken to say that it is even more important for the army
to know what the commander-in-chief is doing. Can you imagine if he
also failed to think about the country’s defense capacity? What would
the citizens of the country think about him?
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
