Despite all specific circumstances, the government, ministries, and regional administrations should not organize rallies as a principle. They need to work and organize the life of the state, as well as promote the safety and prosperity of citizens. And they should not stop working even during campaigns. If they spend two days working on a rally and march to ‘support’ the leader of the state, then that has nothing to do with ‘the people’s government.’ That is not a government of the people, but of officials and pro-government oligarchs, which existed over the past 30 years and exists today.
The issue isn’t to what extent the government will be able to deny or hide the administrative resources it uses to organize a mass rally ‘to defend itself.’ All the same, the rally organized by the government cannot be ‘spontaneous’ in any case. And even if one million people manage to gather at Republic Square, it will not do anything to strengthen the government’s power or to enable to government to ‘show its strength.’ So, in both the past and now, ‘pro-government demonstrations’ are absolutely meaningless politically.
But when the demonstrations organized by the government take place at the same time as demonstrations organized by the opposition, that is, of course, very dangerous, and clashes can take place. Even if the organizers of the opposing demonstrations have no intention of causing clashes, the presence of thousands of people with opposing views is a ticking time bomb. Luckily, to the honor of both sides, no serious incidents took place yesterday, but it isn’t clear what will take place tomorrow.
I understand that the main goal of the authorities and the opposition is to make the other feel intimidated, broken, and to show off the grace of ‘dominating’ the masses. But in this situation of confrontation in Armenia, it is a dead end and a dangerous path. The crisis will not be resolved by a race in demonstrations; a regime change will not be able to take place, and there is no way to destroy the opposition and establish a dictatorship in the name of ‘the people’s power.’
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The only logical solution remains what is known as ‘painful compromises.’ The opposition must agree to hold snap elections while Pashinyan remains Prime Minister, and the government must agree to hold those elections within the next 2-3 months and to create legislative guarantees that will convince the opposition that the elections will be as fair as possible. The generals must be persuaded to give up in their demands for the government to resign, and the Prime Minister must give up in his intention to remove the chief of the General Staff from his position. Given Pashinyan’s conflicted, divisive, and contradictory nature, this will be difficult to do. But it is sometimes worth mentioning that Armenia is a parliamentary republic, and not everything should depend on the whims of the head of state.
Aram Abrahamyan
