Vladimir Gasparyan, the Chief of Police of the Republic of Armenia, has recently made a responsible statement, saying, “I am personally responsible for holding a peaceful and just election, certainly, in terms of police activities.” www.aravot.am inquired from famous Armenian blogger Tigran Kocharyan, aka Elephant, whether the chief of police wanted to create a new image of the police or a new culture. “In my opinion, this is an attempt to create a new culture, although it is a bid difficult to believe that the police can evolve or be reformed, because people who have worked for 20 years in some way cannot suddenly change in a short period of time. In that sense, the Georgian version is better – they changed everyone abruptly and started to create a really new culture,” said Tigran Kocharyan, adding that it was hard to implement in Armenia because of a lack of personnel, “The system has rather big problems from within.” However, Kocharyan is convinced, “All smart people understand now that there is no need for another March 1 in Armenia. It is in either the establishment’s or the healthy opposition’s interest, because March 1s throw Armenia back a few steps both economically and politically and the establishment also knows that if it tries to do the same thing again, Armenia will appear in the last places with all indexes.” In the blogger’s opinion, the establishment is the most interested in conducting a free and fair election in Armenia, “One can sense from the overall atmosphere that they will at least try to do so as there is no vulgar election fraud or if there is, it will be punished.”
When we reminded Kocharyan another opinion of the Armenian opposition that passing the Legal Regime of the State of Emergency Act in the National Assembly, in particular, reveals the establishment’s preparation for another March 1, he opposed, “In my opinion, that law that is also examined in the international organizations is to ensure that there will be no March 1 anymore. The military was unprepared on March 1, without trainings – who had a gun in his hand didn’t know what to do, nobody knew who should do what because of the lack of organization, the police and the military units didn’t know what to do and in my opinion, there were victims, because an unorganized break-up of the rally took place. Also, the created situation was not regulated by the law, a state of emergency was imposed on contentious grounds – it was not clear for what and it caused blaming the government and highly doubting the president’s legitimacy. Although March 1 is two-sided for me, such laws can help avoid victims now. Everyone’s, especially every Armenian’s life is very important and valuable for me. There can be a debate, hotheadedness, it can come to curses, but to die for internal political problems is incomprehensive and painful for me.”
Naira MAMIKONYAN
