“I clearly see that the current government is carrying out the policy that was pursued in the first half of the 1990s by forming this new Cabinet, in which no outward changes have been made,” Movses Shahverdyan, the leader of the Armenian Labor Socialist Party (ALSP), said about the changes in the Cabinet during a conversation with www.aravot.am. “I want to warn that this is a dangerous and very risky policy. We know quite well what policy was pursued in the first half of the 1990s, at whose behest it was pursued, under whose influence and what it led the then government to. I don’t think that the current government will achieve better results. Let us remember the 1995-1996 elections and the events of 1998. If they are going to put into effect their option of ‘War or Peace?’ let us wait for a new, similar article. However, remember how it ended,” our interlocutor says. With regard to the opposition camp, Shahverdyan notes: “Unfortunately, our politicians in the Armenian opposition camp take the liberty of expressing themselves a bit unrestrainedly. One shouldn’t act like that. They make strong statements about each other quite easily. However, the issue here is not whether they are right or wrong, honest or dishonest, but rather if we have a common cause, there is a common goal, whether those steps, statements, and actions help or harm that common cause.”
According to Shahverdyan, Armenia enters a whole new phase, which will not be political struggle in the sense we have understood it so far. “We enter the phase of national struggle for liberation, which has its unique logic and methods. Ter-Petrossian has talked about the bourgeois democratic revolution several times recently, and he established the Armenian National Congress (ANC) following India’s example. The definition ‘bourgeois democratic’ is mostly obsolete nowadays, but they can use it, if they want to. I just want them to follow the example of that same India and many other countries, which went through national struggle for liberation, solving national and government problems; I just want to remind that in such cases, the bourgeoisie existing in the country splits into two parts – national bourgeoisie and compradors. Now the moment of truth has arrived, and it should be clarified who is in what camp, is with whom, will do what during this struggle, who is a comprador, who will cooperate with the government, and who will stand by the people. The well-off should clarify their future place and role.”
Nelly GRIGORYAN
