Hovhannes Igityan, a member of the Pan-Armenian National Movement (PANM) governing committee, shared his thoughts about using the army during the election, “former” and “present” friends and the Heritage Party.
Deformation of the Armenian political stage starts from the fact that the Republican Party has intertwined with the governing bodies so much that it is hard to distinguish where the duties of a state official start and end and where the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) appears as a political party, according to PANM governing committee member Hovhannes Igityan. Mr. Igityan refers to various statements of Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan as the most obvious examples. One cannot distinguish in those the ones, which Tigran Sargsyan made as the Prime Minister from those that he made as a member of the RPA. Our interlocutor is convinced that this problem in its turn arouses another problem, “When an opposition party ventures to participate in an election, so to say, to take part in the Republican Party, to be represented in the parliament, let alone to have ambitions of becoming the majority, the RPA perceives that a challenge or a declaration of war against the state. They start to struggle with all possible means and state attributes in the war context. All defense, legal and law-enforcement agencies start a struggle and it becomes a struggle between the state and the opposition and not an electoral competition.” Hovhannes Igityan sees the Legal Regime of the State of Emergency bill passed in the parliament yesterday on first reading in this context and argues that the army was used in the events that followed the 2008 presidential election without legal grounds, whereas now they try to guarantee the legality of the future possible developments, “In my opinion, it is done to legalize the use of the army, if necessary, after both the upcoming parliamentary election and the presidential election that will follow it and in order that the opposition is not able to use this fact in the international organizations, in particular. I think the situation around the world has played a certain part in this too – when people take to the streets against this or that dictator, those dictators don’t even try to resist the people without the army.”
Mr. Igityan did not agree with Aravot’s observation that the establishment tries to underline more clearly Robert Kocharyan’s illegal actions in the post-electoral developments of 2008. In his opinion, they try to do quite the opposite, “They try to legalize Kocharyan’s actions post-factum and not to underline those, to ease accusations of the opposition voiced up to now in regard to the use of the army during the events of March 1, 2008.” Our interlocutor is convinced that this “legalization” shows that the establishment predicts massive protests, which they will not be able to resist without the army, only by means of the interior troops. Igityan himself is convinced that there will be protests and all statements made by all the RPA members, from Serzh Sargsyan through ordinary Republicans, that this election will be the best in the history of Armenia will not ease the people’s indignation. Furthermore, he thinks that the assurances address exceptionally foreign ambassadors and international organizations, which proves that the establishment is concerned about their reaction or fears it. And generally the PANM governing committee member thinks that the establishment prepares for the election, according to the same methodology, as in 2008, “The same people with the same structure will organize and hold this election, according to roughly the same articles of the law, however, I think that they will develop their foxiness a bit, considering the reports of international organizations, in which this or that violation was pointed out. The establishment will do so as violations will not be obvious. But this doesn’t mean that the majority of the society, opposition political forces will not oppose election fraud and will not take to the streets.” Out interlocutor doesn’t deny that the society is disappointed not only with the establishment, the policy it pursues, but also with the main opposition force, Armenian National Congress (ANC) – by the way, it is twice as sad that people who have been actively engaged in the ANC activities are disappointed with it. “Yes, but one must take into account that there are two camps – RPA, authoritarian and gathered around one person and other forces, among which there are parties that have ideological, program theses, regardless of whether we like them or not. It is not necessary that the whole mass that is against the establishment goes and votes for the ANC, although the ANC states that its purpose is not to have seats in the parliament or to reach power, but to change this atmosphere, situation,” Hovhannes Igityan said, adding that if the ANC was able to use its program correctly, one could achieve positive results.
There have been speculations recently that the Free Democrats Party and the Heritage Party founded on the main body of the PANM have started discussions on joint ways of participating in the upcoming developments. We inquired from Hovhannes Igityan what he thought about this possible cooperation, given the fact that the representatives of one were his former friends and the ANC did not like the other force, Heritage Party, that much, to say the least. “‘Former friends,’ if you ask my personal opinion, I don’t perceive them ‘former friends’ – they were my friends and have remained such. Let everyone decide himself what means former or present for him,” said Hovhannes Igityan, adding that it was hard for him to speak of the ANC, since he was not a representative of the ANC, he was a member of the PANM governing committee and the ANC had an official representative who put forward political, compromise position. “In the PANM we always try to discuss and there are different opinions even in the PANM. As Hovhannes Igityan, I have always treated the Heritage Party normally and I appreciate what individual members of the Heritage Party did on March 1, 2008, in particular. I have seen them both while preventing outrageous actions of the police and while presenting the crimes of the regime in the Council of Europe and other international organizations. There are areas, in which they, not having big political experience, achieved a success, and there are areas, in which they didn’t, but the important thing is that they tried to struggle against crimes and outrageous actions. By the way, since the political stage is degenerated, in some instances, a political party is engaged in human rights protection, which is not worth condemning. Any type of struggle of anyone is a good thing for me. Any type of struggle is preferable to indifference.” Hovhannes Igityan is not jealous of the possible cooperation between the Free Democrats and the Heritage Party, furthermore, he thinks that they will not unite in one list, but their struggle “is against the same problem, the authoritarian regime in Armenia.”
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Anyway, our interlocutor is convinced that the process of power change, however a bit long, proceeds and he puts forward two arguments – if a really normal election takes place, the public is offered the opportunity to assess a man’s intellectual and moral abilities, it is doubtless that the current establishment has no chances. If, nonetheless, political leverage, rigging mechanisms and other things are used, the public will protest against that illegality and fraud, all the same, “It is not 2008 today. There is a different geopolitical situation, attention to the region from without is close, if new fraud is added to the previous one, for which Armenia has been forgiven, there will be a new and powerful wave of pressure on Armenia, to which Armenia will not be able to resist. Besides, the possibilities of alternative mass media have increased; social networks offer bigger opportunities for information exchange to people. We have seen that through environmental movements, actions against incidents in the army, illegal arrests etc. The establishment must take all this into account. If there are people in the establishment, for whom power is not the ultimate goal, the ultimate goal is Armenia, they must make them understand that really fair elections are in the interest of the establishment itself,” said Hovhannes Igityan.
NELLY GRIGORYAN
