Shahen Petrosyan, a former MP and a high-ranking official, will trust the fairness of the establishment, if they apologize for rigging the previous elections.
– Representatives of various branches of power haven’t spared efforts for a few days to assure that the administrative changes are not the result of the inner-establishment crisis and intrigues, but preparations for a free, fair and transparent election and that election is first and foremost in the interest of the authorities. Is there a grain of truth here?
– No. Because Serzh Sargsyan’s sayings and deeds are like the actions of the outstanding Komsomol figures of the Soviet Union. They said they would build Communism, but we know quite well what they were doing in reality. It is just demagogy. It is natural that Serzh Sargsyan wants to be free, to get rid of people with nick-names – he wants to update the team. Much is said about the people with nick-names and he wants to follow new trends in order not to “set tongues wagging”, in particular, given the fact that those people with nick-names will not last forever – it is the time. However, if the people do not resist and Serzh Sargsyan remains in power, there will be the same rule of impunity. In any case, active civil initiatives of the youth, nature protection movements give hopes that the civil activity will increase and there will be changes. But saying the establishment will do what they can, they care and prepare… let them first apologize for rigging the previous elections. Unless they do that I don’t believe that they are interested, want or do.
– After the latest rally when the first president stated that one of the options of further struggle is preparing for the regular election, disappointment arose among the ANC supporters. There were even rumors that the establishment and ANC leadership had made arrangements. Do you see any possibility of that?
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– There is a demand among the citizens of Armenia, among the international organizations for more transparent activities of the Armenian authorities. ANC have raised many issues on different occasions, fight against corruption etc. Now the establishment wants to take some steps to deal with the issues raised by ANC, but I cannot believe that they sit together or make some arrangements through mediators. The divide is so wide. At the end of the day, I communicate with some people from the establishment myself, they would have made the same offers to me. We have seen how they disrupted the dialogue. Therefore, these rumors are imaginary. What arrangements should they make? Should the authorities agree by their own volition to pass over the power on their own volition? They cannot do anything like that.
– Have ANC made a retreat by agreeing on the regular election?
– ANC do what they can. When one takes action, he should retain further steps. The latest sit-down strike took place – let’s guess a few activist are frozen, suffer in the tents and what; in the meantime, there is a situation, in which the youth are more willing to run away, to leave Armenia. I have even changed the popular proverb specifically for the Ministry of Diaspora, “love after death” to “home after death”. Armenia has become a big funeral parlor.
– Is it possible to change anything through regular or span elections?
– There will be no span election. I have been saying that for three years already. There will be regular elections and everything will depend on what actions the opposition will take. I don’t mean only ANC. Let the Heritage Party and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) become more active and unite for one task – to make it possible to organize a normal election just once. The rest is secondary. It is in their interest too – they will not write, give their percentages again, will they? Then, fight for your votes. Those elections are the last chance for Armenia, if they fail, we will finally fall under the influence of the Russian wheel-spin. Russia is a rich country, she can do anything, but the only resource of Armenia is democracy. There is a good example next to us, Georgia, and a very bad example, Azerbaijan. Armenia is the average of those two and she has not made up her mind. There is no Georgian satisfied with Sahakashvili, but nobody thinks of leaving Georgia. We have a reason to think and be concerned. These authorities should be forced to read a little and not to watch war movies and party. We saw where Greece reached by partying. They must end greediness and provinciality, they must become civilized, but they chat with each other on the internet all day long at best.
NELLY GRIGORYAN
