Artashes Geghamyan, a member of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) parliamentary group, made a speech yesterday “in support of” withdrawing Vartan Oskanian’s immunity. He also talked about geopolitical issues. As far as I understood, the MP’s point was the following – Mr. Oskanian was financially supported by outstanding member of the US Republican Party Jon Huntsman (one shouldn’t pretend that it is not the case; it is another matter that it is not money laundering). Mr. Huntsman’s party rather strongly criticizes Putin’s regime. However, Mr. Oskanian’s party and its factual founder Robert Kocharyan have quite a warm attitude toward both Putin’s and Lukashenka’s regimes probably feeling certain spiritual connection with them. So MP Geghamyan who is also a propagator of this “Eurasian” (crude-authoritarian) mentality legitimately sees a contradiction here.
It is significant that yesterday members of the parliament didn’t talk much about money, transfers and accounts; rather, they talked about politics, because the issue itself is political and related to the upcoming presidential election. Some people claim that Oskanian, along with his controversies, can be the opposition candidate and that is the very reason why he is put under pressure. Others say that the government deliberately puts the halo of “martyrdom” on the former Foreign Minister’s head, in order that he is considered the alternative and easily loses the election. Naturally, no one believes that one should start establishing law and order among MPs from Vartan Oskanian and not say Vardan Ayvazyan or a few dozens of MPs representing the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP).
However, the contradiction noticed by Mr. Geghamyan is not the only one. Another contradiction is related to the position of the Armenian National Congress (ANC). On the one hand, that party – by the way, it is high time that members of the ANC admit that they are members of a party and not a party alliance – cannot but defend an MP from political persecution. On the other hand, it cannot but remind the former Foreign Minister and a pivotal figure in Kocharyan’s team about his sins. I for one would have reminded him also about how in 2008, members of the PAP accepted the state of emergency that brutally suppressed democracy and how easily they “handed over” their opposition partners. Didn’t they care about political revenge at the time? Or perhaps they couldn’t imagine that they would appear in the same position in 4 years.
In a nutshell, Vartan Oskanian is not an appropriate candidate for the ANC. Although who knows how far pragmatism and realpolitik can go?
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
