Participating in the election in a party alliance has many inconveniences. The Republic bureaucratic union of 1995 existed till the end of 1997, when the first president’s positions weakened and the Republican Party of Armenia took sides with the more powerful one in 1998, giving a classic example of rats’ deserting. In 1999, the Union bureaucratic alliance was decapitated during the events of October 27, after which many members of that alliance took sides with the more powerful one once again. The Justice opposition alliance of 2003 collapsed, not playing a serious role in the opposition camp – today, different members of that alliance, Stepan Demirchyan, Vazgen Manukyan, Viktor Dallakyan, Aram Gasparich, take, to put it mildly, different political positions. The problem is that positions are different, to begin with, and those unions are created for pragmatic reasons – to take over the power or to maintain the power – and a light wind, which doubts that it is an efficient tool to maintain or take over the power, is a deadly disease. That is the very reason, why the coalition between the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) and the Rule of Law Party (RLP) will be most probably maintained and the Armenian National Congress (ANC) party alliance will, at least, diminish. The former continues to be a source of power and, therefore, money and the ANC has stopped being a tool of changing power.
What is the ANC at the moment? Is it a national movement for the sake of Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation? But such movements cannot exist for more than 4 years and enter the parliament. Is it a group adherent to the same system of values? But what community may be there between the supporters of liberal economy, people feeling nostalgia for the Soviet times, Putin fans, street “Gavroches” and former officials? Do they all want “to establish constitutional order”? Even if it is so, it is clear that many people’s enthusiasm about this election will die away. Add to that common pattern also the fact that many members of the ANC haven’t understood the “affair” with the PAP and, presumably, also with Robert Kocharyan. As a result, the Pan-Armenian National Movement (PANM), which has a few hundreds of members, the People’s Party of Armenia (a few dozens of people) and individuals, which are united by Ter-Petrossian’s charisma, will stay in the ANC. The majority of those individuals certainly deserve great respect, but to present the Congress as an alliance of political forces will be a gross exaggeration.
Therefore, let us put aside the false and empty speculations about a “union” of political forces. There is no real union, coalition or alliance. And having many parties or members doesn’t solve any real problem.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
