Do you remember the conversation between Pastor Schlag and Krause, an emigrant German diplomat, in Switzerland in the movie “Seventeen Moments of Spring,” during which the Pastor expresses his surprise at the fact that the Americans try to negotiate with the Antichrist, i.e. Hitler, through Allen Dulles. And the diplomat says something like this: “The Christ, the Antichrist, these concepts have nothing to do with politics. Politics is an accurate manifestation of the balance of power.” Certainly, one can call this cynicism, one can also ask: “So politics must be immoral, is that it?” No, one shouldn’t draw such far-reaching conclusions; politics can be moral and immoral, as an apple can be red and yellow. However, an apple, as a fruit, and red (yellow), as a color are related to different fields.
Now when everyone says that a political agenda should be drawn up in Freedom Square, Raffi Hovhannisyan, a wonderful, honest, and moral person, and Zaruhi, Stepan, and Armen who are as likeable may be offended and even surprised whether demanding the president’s impeachment is not politics. It depends on conditions and instruments. If I, for example, demand that Hrant Bagratyan be declared president and threaten to throw myself off the Kiev Bridge for that, will it mean that I am engaged in politics? I will have grounds to demand that, if I am powerful. The government’s power is in the political machine with its security forces, the police, the secret service, the army etc. The opposition’s power is in the active mass of people who honestly believe in its ideas. In 1988, only two out of 250 members of the Supreme Council of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) represented the Movement, Ashot Manucharyan and Khachik Stamboltsyan. However, they were able to coerce the Supreme Council into adopting their decisions, because they had tens of thousands of people behind them.
Talking about Raffi Hovhannisyan’s and Serzh Sargsyan’s meeting, publicist Hrant Ter-Abrahamyan made the following comparison; you go to negotiate and you say that your goods are worth 10 000, 5 000, or 3 000 drams, which is a methodological mistake in itself, because you immediately name the final price – a new National Assembly election. Continuing that comparison, one can say that Serzh Sargsyan’s main message, which was pronounced during a meeting with journalists, was the following; your price is 1 000 drams, a referendum on constitutional amendments, take it or leave it. People might not like what the president said, they may be angry, but it is a political text, which is based on the assertion of the current balance of power. And that assertion was also made during the same meeting: in 2008, the “candidate” (the word used by Serzh Sargsyan) would rally 30 000 people and now 3 000 on average. This is an assertion of bare facts, which cannot but be taken into account.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
