We have decided not to talk about the content of a conversation between two MPs that has been eavesdropped by “secret forces” – it seems we have got a sort of consensus on this issue. However, one should probably talk about the fact of eavesdropping, as well as why the government – let us pretend to be naïve and not say the National Security Service – decided to make public this conversation. Firstly, it became clear once again that there still was political intelligence, which existed in the Soviet times, in our country. If the Soviet times had been a thing of the past, people who made that recording and put it on the internet would have faced a trial. Since that assumption of mine will be met by chuckle, one can only assume that the Soviet regime still continues. The speeches of a “milker” and others at the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) congress testify to that.
On the other hand, it is clear that our valiant Cheka agents – in the broad sense of that word – record and film lots of things, but they don’t make public all of them. They very much needed this material for the election campaign; that is why it has been made public. It seems to the authors of that operation that they have discredited the Armenian National Congress (ANC). It is still hard to say whether that calculation is right or not. However, the calculation is based on the fact that the policy of the ANC, as well as all the other political forces in our country, is not transparent; open competition and public debate don’t exist here. Contradictions are hushed up and come out in the form of rumors, gossips and hints, which the government skillfully uses, commenting on those contradictions and hints as it likes. I consider the recording at issue as a sort of gossip and an anonymous letter. “Works” of that genre should be severely condemned. However, there is only one way to neutralize their impact – that is honesty. And in order to be such, one should put aside the veil of secrecy and give up on playing a “Byzantine court.” At the end of the day, it is not about the Karabakh conflict settlement, the experts of which, as we know, were 4 or 5 people. One cannot participate in presidential elections as an “expert”; given the specificities of Armenian elections, serious mobilization of the society is needed here. Convincing people for one year that their savior and the one who will provide them with prosperity and justice is Gagik Tsarukyan, not doing anything now against the background of those people’s disappointment and continuing to be engaged in some “secret negotiations” is not logical for me. Neither Zurabyan, nor Bagratyan, nor Nikol are to blame for the current situation in the opposition camp. Guess who!
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
