Establishing constitutional order and democracy in Armenia is really an important issue for our nation. However, I think the opposition has made a methodological mistake in the past 20 years, claiming that order and democracy can emerge, as a result of “getting rid of this criminal regime.” “This regime” – whether it is the Pan-Armenian National Movement, Kocharyan or the Republicans – only use the lack of order (some people, they say, have accumulated billions), but they are not the ones who created the disorder.
The top brass of the first republic was comprised of educated and advanced people who, perhaps, didn’t “devour” by themselves, but they complained in their memoirs afterwards that whoever they would appoint, he would start to abuse his office. Or The Problem of Bread telling about Armenia in the 1840s, one can say that it doesn’t even occur to the characters of that documentary novel – the Cossack captain, the governor-general or the village headman – that one can live in accordance with a certain order and not by “bandit” laws. If an emperor in Saint Petersburg had handed over the power, along with his court, to a new emperor, would anything have changed? Tsars also changed, then Bolsheviks replaced the tsars, then the PANM came, but the system has remained the same. The problem, therefore, is not “this changeable regime,” but our legal awareness. Was it possible to hold a free and transparent election in the villages of Ashtarak described by Proshyan.
Elections and the Constitution are too abstract categories for the most part of the current citizens of Armenia. There is a perception of “right” at the level of grassroots, there are relationships between friendly and hostile families, there is a well-doer “caring for the people,” there is the father or the king and there are bureaucrats not caring for the people (like the Cossack captain) whom they flatter to their faces and curse behind their backs, but they dream of taking their place at the bottom of their hearts. Such citizens can take 10 000 AMD, vote for the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) or the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) and then go to a rally and bombard the government “not caring for the people” with curses.
The way out of this situation is educating and enlightening the people. Not with demagogic speeches at the top of one’s lungs, but, first of all, by giving an example. If everyone around you runs at a red light like a flock, you shouldn’t follow that flock – it is better to wait patiently till the light turns green. Let your behavior seem strange.
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The candidate for majoritarian representation who lost in Gyumri congratulated his rival. As far as I know, it is the first case in our 20-year history. I am sure that there were also a lot of violations in this electoral district. But that congratulation is a small embryo of the new culture. Because the constitutional order and democracy are, first of all, a culture.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
