Parliamentary immunity is a right thing. No matter how much citizens protest against it, particularly before elections, no matter how much they legitimately claim that semi-criminal businessmen long for entering the parliament to guarantee their impunity, nonetheless, it is a necessary democratic norm. The well-known legal principle applies here – better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer. In this case, better that say Mher of Tokhmakh or General Manvel have parliamentary immunity than Vartan Oskanian not have.
I didn’t particularly like Vartan Oskanian’s activities before his becoming an oppositionist. If he was such a convinced democrat, why didn’t he speak out when elections were rigged, oppositionists were sent to prison and abused, when A1+ was closed? Or why did he rush to dismiss the diplomats who stated very mildly that one had to conduct the 2008 election fairly? In the foreign policy, the “Meghri option” seems to me just horrible – it is good that it was not realized. He as a member of the team also bears responsibility for the March 1 slaughter and brutal persecution of the opposition.
But those are Mr. Oskanian’s political sins, for which he is accountable to the society and not to the law. They are cooking up a case against him – and no one doubts that it is the case – not for “official,” but for subsequent opposition activities. So it is one thing whether he has the moral right to talk or not to talk about say democracy or fair elections. It is another thing that he will be jailed for crimes he hasn’t committed.
To imprison an MP, one needs the consent of his colleagues. Taking into account the qualities of this and former convocations of the National Assembly, it is quite possible. In 1998, the majority of MPs withdrew Vano Siradeghyan’s immunity with unrestrained joy. They knew quite well what Robert Kocharyan would do with them and their businesses, if they unexpectedly decided not to “hand over” Vano. Moreover, they joined the officially instigated “anti-Vano” hysteria not sparing eloquence, in order to curry favor with the then government ofArmenia. By the way, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) members joined it too taking revenge on the Pan-Armenian National Movement (PANM) that had persecuted them in the past. Now the atmosphere is absolutely different – there is no fear of “being punished”; there is no hysteria.
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I think there will be no revenge of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) members taken on the Kocharyan supporters who persecuted them. Therefore, I hope that the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), the ANC, the ARF and the Heritage Party will vote against withdrawing Oskanian’s immunity and there will be MPs among the Republicans who are individuals and not representatives of an indistinct mass.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
