Before this presidential election, there is quite an interesting situation. It is not clear yet who will be the opposition candidates for president, but the election campaign has basically
started already in a, so to say, “blind way.” The election couldn’t but start, because it has a rational, I would even say, psychological term – a few months. For example, in the United States, parties hold primaries during that time, which help find out who will be the given party’s candidate for president. Certainly, the structure of parties in Armenia is such that the party establishment and the masses “unanimously” endorse that one-man decision. There can be no competition and, therefore, possibility of development in a place where there is no diversity of ideas, “all as one man” etc. Our monopolies about which some parties complain just tactically stem from the very parties (all), because they are based on the monopoly of one man in the given institution of knowing the truth. Let’s recall, for example, how the Armenian National Congress has “purged itself” in the past year and a half. It is clear that our parties didn’t appear out of the blue, they are a product of our society; the paternalistic sentiment – expectations of a master, a king or a messiah – is strong here. And the messiah, mythical hero whom the majority of our population dreams of doesn’t hold primaries before saving the nation from poverty and injustice. In a nutshell, the campaign has started. But it is not clear against whom and what the campaign should be. Against “Serzh Sargsyan’s authoritarian regime” or only “the Cabinet that has ruined the economy”? Or, on the other hand, against “some forces that caused the years of cold and darkness and have lost memory” or “some forces that signed the memorandum and now evade responsibility”? You must admit that unless there is clarity in those issues, the parties’ struggle is somewhat abstract.
When it becomes clear who will be nominated – and it will happen soon – then “some forces” will become much clearer, and the rhetoric will naturally become stronger. However, I would very much like the propagators of two or three sides to be more restrained. It only seems at first sight that just words appear on TV, internet or paper. Those are poisoned arrows and it is not clear when and where they will reach. Sometimes also boomerangs.
Particularly given the fact that everything changes. It sometimes happens that the people are set on someone for many years, and then those who set them on say that this very person is the people’s savior.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
