Members of the Sardarapat movement stated that they had to end this regime of “cynics and midgets.
” Yesterday in response to a question of www.aravot.am whether there was a strong possibility to end the regime given the fact that the presidential election was ahead of us and whether there was a leader among the probable candidates, Garegin Chugaszyan, a member of the Sardarapat movement, said, “We have expressed our opinion on the election many times – one cannot defeat the casino in the casino. That game is pointless. On the contrary, participating in that game, one legitimizes it and becomes the 4th leg of the table, which stabilizes the table. When one doesn’t participate, being an opposition minority, one basically shows that this table is not stable, so nothing will be solved by the election.” We asked to clarify whether the election should be boycotted, Mr. Chugaszyan said, “One should not boycott, but use that time to try to form an alternative government, to conduct an open election, because the system of elections, that whole machine doesn’t work. We had the events of March 1, after which no one has been held accountable. How can one trust that election machine?” In response to our question who could be an alternative candidate, in that case, Mr. Chugaszyan said, “One can be the best candidate, but in the end, the casino will win, so eventually the results will be fudged, what is the point in pinning hopes on such an election? If the election machine is completely rotten, how can one believe the result, in the end, they will fudge, right, we have seen all that, right, we have been seeing that for 15 years, will we eventually realize that this is a casino and we will not win, if we play here?”
According to Garegin Chugaszyan, we need political changes, there is a need for a fundamental political renewal of our republic, “As it was in the 1980s, when the Soviet Union was already collapsing, the people realized that they needed an alternative government, they needed to form bodies, as a result, there was a change of power. We are approaching that condition, when there is a need for an alternative government or, using the British term, a shadow government in Armenia, which should ensure a change of power.” In response to our question what role could the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), which presented itself as an alternative to the government, play in that regard, Mr. Chugaszyan said, “Parties cannot play any role. The whole political stage should be reorganized. Parties don’t disappear, but they will be reregistered and renewed. New parties may emerge too. The state of our parties today is really critical, stagnant, they are in stagnation. The classical political institutions, one of which is parties, have reached a stalemate, i.e. they don’t work whether it is elections or hearings. For instance, the hearings on Vahe Avetyan showed that they don’t work even on an issue that has evoked a huge public, all-Armenian response. Our politicians are on vacation, when there is a row in 20 countries. Political bodies whether they are opposition or governmental are on vacation.”
Garegin Chugaszyan is also a member of the Vahe Avetyan social movement. In response to our question whether the back of people’s camel was broken that they had risen to fight, since incidents like Harsnakar had happened in our country before or whether this was a different incident, he said that it had been a particular incident, “That murder, the level of that crime’s seriousness was very high, it is the same tragedy from the human perspective, but this is a special case in terms of social danger, because even officers of the national army who are the guarantors of the security are terrorized. If one can murder the guarantor of our state’s security and then conceal the murder, the whole country should realize that it is in an insecure position; its national security is at issue here. The level of social danger is very high, this is the end, the citizen should realize that he is not protected from now on and he should take his security into his hands.” We inquired whether he didn’t face obstacles in his everyday life, at work, taking into account his criticism, Garegin Chugaszyan said, “Certainly, there have been certain things. I will not say anything about that now, but if it comes to that, I will make a statement myself.” We inquired whether he was persecuted,
repressed, Mr. Chugaszyan said, “I cannot say now, but there are some factors, about which I will say, when the time comes.”
HRIPSIME JEBEJYAN
