Our delegates’ discontent with the PACE increases, and they make ever stronger statements. The assessments of the Armenian government and opposition representatives on that don’t differ very much from which one can conclude that many MPs from different European countries really don’t behave in a European way at all and are corrupted more than post-Soviet or, say, Latin American state officials. In particular, the PACE has “found out” that Azerbaijan is a rather democratic country and brilliantly meets the obligations to the Council of Europe. And if something is wrong, it is only because 20 percent of “their” territory is “conquered,” and there are one million refugees in Azerbaijan. As the saying goes money – in this case, perhaps caviar – talks. How else can one mock the aims of that organization and, generally, the European values?!
However, two questions arise here; is it worth putting all one’s effort so that the PACE makes a critical report about Azerbaijan? If I attach importance to someone’s opinion, surely, I try to present all facts to him, in order that he assesses the situation as objectively as possible. However, if I am sure that the given person or organization makes an assessment under the influence of a bribe, their assessment is worthless to me.
According to the same logic, it is not quite understandable why the Armenian government and opposition representatives put so much effort so that, for example, this European institution gives as positive or as negative an assessment of our elections as possible. Are they such unbiased judges the opinion of whom makes us shiver? Now they will send some observers who will write some reports, then the government and the opposition will examine those reports word by word, they will say, “The reputed international organization welcomed,” “The reputed international organization condemned,” disregarding the fact that that “welcoming” and “condemning” is worth a few kilos of caviar.
Actually one can tell the difference between good and bad without any observers. The socio-economic situation in Armenia is bad, and the reason is not the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, as the government wants to present, but the fact that it, the government, is useless and corrupted. On the other hand, it is a lie that this election campaign is uncompetitive, passive. It is also a lie that there is an atmosphere of fear in Armenia; watch the recordings of campaign meetings! Let us hope that the phase of fear is finally a thing of the past in our country.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
