Is convinced Tigran Torosyan, a PhD in political science
– There is a rather interesting situation, when it seems there is no confrontation between the opposition and the authority anymore; they both speak of tolerance toward each other.
– I think the impression is not right and the results of recent years testify to that; people’s life-conditions are worse, the immigration has increased to a threatening extent, the external debt of the country has doubled, the moral downfall has reached devastating amounts, the only value for all issues is money and the only principle is trade, the balloon of initiatives concerning foreign affairs has blown up. The society cares for the solution of these issues and not for meaningless and false “civilized” relations between the authority and ANC. In the meantime, both of them care only for one thing, maintaining the situation in Armenia till the elections. The authority is satisfied with the prospect of one main rival during the parliamentary election. In particular, it is not hard to suggest that if ANC reaches the election with the present strategy, it will lose the voters that are legitimately displeased with the situation and do not blindly follow their idol. ANC is satisfied with the current situation, because the claimed purposes, from revelation of the March 1 events to holding a span parliamentary election, are not carried out and it has no potential for a revolution. Therefore the only thing left to do is maintaining the status of the main oppositionist. And the situation may be maintained by marking time with false processes and deceiving the society. They have been stating about a dialogue for quite a long time. Then they expressed conflicting positions at the first meetings; according to ANC, the only solution is span elections, the other side says that there are no grounds for that. Then the “dialogue” is suspended, now stopped for unserious reasons. Only the issue of bathrooms has remained on the “dialogue” agenda. It is not casual that all that is accompanied by now mutual praising, now mutual cursing. The street language is the highest manifestation of the mental abilities of the sides.
– According to some analysts, this situation is better, than the Egyptian or other bloody, destroying and violent options.
– Such a mentality is characteristic of not only “analysts” and palace “sazandar” (traditional Armenian music band), but also of the Armenian multiparty political system. And the root of that is ignorance. If people don’t see any other alternatives to clashes and rigging, if their worldview is confined to North African Arab countries and sad reality of Armenia, then they cannot offer anything else. According to Plato, ignorance is one of two main spiritual deficiencies. For the present-day Armenia it is a common thing and characteristic of all areas.
– You mentioned that both the authority and ANC long for keeping other political parties out, then why don’t the other political forces do anything not to be out?
– I think they are the one who should answer that question, but it is obvious that this is a situation, when it might seem more favorable for other political forces to put forward different ideas, approaches and relations. However, the sickness is really systemic and not only the authority and ANC are infected; this is the biggest tragedy. It is the reason why while looking for the way out people don’t see the road, don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. They get disappointed and leave the country.
– There are no catch-22 situations. In your opinion, how many steps are required and in what direction should they be taken to find the possible ways out?
– There, certainly are steps and one may put forward the plan of their implementation. Nevertheless it is important who will implement those. Therefore the precondition for fixing the situation is forming a political force of new quality, because in every country the political life and solving the people’s problems are related to political forces. They form the government that has to put forward a plan of fixing the situation and implement it, they form the opposition that has to reveal the drawbacks of that plan and its implementation, and present those to the society. And till a serious, mature political force is formed, it is pointless to speak of any positive prospect.
– Our society has suffered much, because of multiple and ambitious political forces and the reaction to a newly-formed political force might be negative.
– First, I am not talking about a new political force, but a political force of new quality. For centuries the mankind has had no alternative of overcoming such situations, other than smart governance. If human’s head is sick, then it should be treated, and the human should not use his leg for thinking. The activity of the political forces’ overwhelming majority absolutely corresponds to the last, collapsing period of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, even parties that adopted quite different values have become such. It is not casual that the society, seeing every time a caricature from the collapsing period of the USSR Communist Party, rejects it. Offer the society a party of new quality and it will react.