What should have been done immediately after President Serzh Sargsyan was sworn commenced to be carried out only since this spring, all the same very slowly. The political prisoners were released, the overall political atmosphere was conciliated, the aggressive, crude propaganda against the opposition mostly ceased and a few corrupted police officers were arrested. It is certainly absolutely dissatisfactory, but several steps were, none the less, taken. Why so late – it is well-known that immediately after March 1 events even such indecisive steps were ruled out. It is the decisive moment now – to be satisfied by this or to advance. If the second option is picked, we, the citizens, should feel that no mischievous action, no act of violence – no matter who has done that, an official, an oligarch, a godfather or a godchild – will be tolerated. Certainly neither the economic condition will be fixed, nor the constitutional order will be established, but one of the main causes of people’s protest is not only the social troubles, but also the cynicism and impunity of the authorities (in the broad sense of this word), their ostentatious ignoring of any law and any moral rule.
In that regard, the issue of Liska, Suren Khachatryan, the governor of the region of Syunik, is a “test” – it is a touchstone that will prove the seriousness of the establishment’s intentions. If the reforms should have been implemented twelve years ago, Liska should have been fired much earlier – they shouldn’t have allowed an official to hold the whole population of a region in terror for at least twelve years, terrifying and humiliating people along with his whole family. We have written lots of times about the “heroic acts” of the governor, which were ignored by the state bodies as a rule. Only once, after Liska’s ordinary act of violence the Prime Minister stated about an internal investigation, but he didn’t want or couldn’t carry that investigation through.
There is a precedent. The former mayor of the city of Yerevan resigned, because he treated the President’s protocol officer rudely. Take note that mayor is an elected office. A governor, on the other hand, is much easier to be fired. If again it is not done, then the previous case was just a palace intrigue and not an action of principle.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
