Levon Ter-Petrossian’s speech at the end of the rally, in which he at least did not rule out the regular parliamentary election, caused malevolence among the rivals of the Armenian National Congress (ANC). By the way, the realization of that so-called “plan B” of the Congress, i.e. to win the parliamentary election and to impeach Serzh Sargsyan, is unlikely, moreover, it also has a methodological drawback – according to the Constitution in effect, in case of having an oppositional majority in the National Assembly, the president doesn’t have leverage to rule the country and his resignation is already decided.
Getting back to the malevolence, I must say I absolutely do not share this feeling. The amount of the people standing in the Freedom square is inversely proportional to the uncontrollability and arbitrariness of the authorities, since we haven’t created the mechanisms yet to restrain the desires of the powers that be. If the malevolent persons are those who always want to be unrestrained – it is certainly understandable. However, I cannot say why the others joy. Probably, they have some scores with ANC.
It is a different matter that Congress has to self-critically examine the situation (which it has never done) and try to answer a question at least in an intimate circle why critical mass is not gathered in the square. I think the reason is obvious – it, if I use the terms of Minister of Foreign Affairs Nalbandian, is “the multidirectional policy”. Before starting an affair one must decide who his “target group” is, who his audience and customer are. The 20 years of the Armenian independence show that the only customer of the opposition activities is the lumpen mass, poor and desperate people who are full of hatred for any establishment and are ready to follow any man who calls for toppling that establishment, despite the fact that politician is Arshak Sadoyan, Arkadi Vardanyan or Levon Ter-Petrossian. That mass does not dwindle thanks to the “valiant efforts” of the authorities. If the Congress worked for those persons only, it should have never spoken of a dialogue and made such attempts, it shouldn’t have stated that it was not going to destroy any fence, it wouldn’t have talked about the regular election. However, the difference between the former oppositions and ANC is that this political force wants to make its voice heard also for intellectual and active people. However, in this case the Congress should rule out curses, labeling and blackmail as work style.
One of the two. In case of the “lumpen” version, the “masses” are guaranteed, the result is doubtful. In case of “passionate” people, the mass will be fewer, but the efficiency will be much higher. When one tries to combine the two, neither one, nor the other is successful.
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Aram Abrahamyan
