So something like a dialogue is starting between the government and the opposition. Generally, it is a positive thing. Let me remind that I was for the dialogue between the Armenian National Congress (ANC) and the coalition in 2011 too; never mind that it didn’t yield any results. I would have been all for a dialogue between the ANC and the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) in 2012 too, if its agenda had been clear. But since the agenda, even generally, was not revealed, it aroused suspicions. I for one had a suspicion that as a result of this dialogue (or cooperation), Robert Kocharyan would come to power again, but the most disgusting scenario for me has not taken place at least yet.
What I am saying is that one shouldn’t go to extremes, while keeping the dialogue in secret. Perhaps exchanging open letters, as the current dialoguers do, is not appropriate; in that case PR elements are unavoidable from both sides. However, one shouldn’t draw a veil over the negotiations to such an extent that “ill-wishers” are able to make up anything about it, and “well-wishers” start to suspect.
The dialogue between Raffi Hovhannisyan and Serzh Sargsyan, regardless of its formal drawbacks, should be encouraged. Certainly, one cannot but assert the flaws of the negotiating parties. The government, the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), and its leader had promised an unprecedentedly democratic and transparent election, but on the election day and particularly in the evening, “it turned out as always.” Raffi Hovhannisyan had said at the beginning that there would be no suffering and hunger strike in Freedom Square, and then he went on a hunger strike. He threatened the president at the beginning that the latter would swear in over his dead body, and then he has entered into a political dialogue, not ruling out that Serzh Sargsyan will keep his office for 5 more years.
However, now one had better not deepen the contradictions, not bash the parties, but on the contrary, try not to discredit, not to mock the dialogue, and not to provoke participants to take actions “on principle” in the negative sense. It is not clear yet what results the negotiations can yield, instead, one can surely say what will happen, if Serzh Sargsyan and Raffi Hovhannisyan run after two hares and try to demonstrate “decisiveness” urged by the “falcons” surrounding them. The opposition movement will die out in the same way as the former movements, there will be greater disappointment in society than it had been before
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the election, and there will be no changes in any field in the short-run. I repeat it will be so, if the parties take uncompromising stances, because any kind of maximalism ends in it. It is obvious that such an outcome is not in Rafif Hovhannisyan’s interests. However, it will make Serzh Sargsyan’s life as much harder, because it will make the president completely dependent on “the guys who bring votes.”
Therefore, negotiations and compromise as a result of those is the only effective way out.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
