A member of the initiative group of the political movement "Sardarapat" and systematic analyst, Karekin Chugaszyan talks about possibilities of experiencing power through direct democracy in Armenia and the parallels with the Arab spring in an interview to VK.
- You have recently returned from the USA. How is the internal political situation in Armenia seen through the eyes of Armenians living there?
- In the US we had meetings with Americans, as well as representatives of various branches of the Armenian Diaspora. Quite an interesting dialogue took place there. The very existence of such a radical movement in Armenia as "Sardarapat" has become quite a huge surprise to our fellow countrymen. In particular, they were surprised by our commitment to systemic change, and not just a change of government in Armenia. The demand for a power shift has become an acknowledged demand in Armenia, but the questions of what we want to achieve by this and where it will lead us do not concern the people. In this sense, we see the only way to make system changes through the strengthening of the entire Armenian nation, and not only the Armenians of Armenia. We are on the verge of a very deep social and political crisis, and we will not be able to overcome it through forms of representative democracy. To exit from this situation we will need political activity within more circles of Armenian society.
- What is your attitude to the dialogue between the ANC and the government?
- I do not understand who the participants of this dialogue are or what is it about, as well as what we want to achieve with it and what goals we are pursuing. The opposition announced that the dialogue will center only on early elections. I cannot understand how can we have a dialogue about elections when we have not yet resolved the issue of the tragedy of March 1, 2008 and found those guilty, when none of them has ever been punished. After three years, none of them has been convicted of the bloodshed. At the same time, the opposition members had been condemned for their political views and were only recently released. So it is either naïve or irresponsible to talk about elections today. We can only speak about indigenous, not partial changes in the entire political system of government by means of so-called direct democracy. Any democracy is a certain balance between direct and representative democracies. The complexity of placing direct democracy in Armenia is no more difficult than the placing of any other representations of democracy. If something is possible, than everything should be possible. In particular, the experience of 1988 is exactly the Armenian experience of direct democracy. Our movement suggests developing this idea in Armenia by providing active support for the development of all areas of resistance against the arbitrariness of the authorities.
- Has this process already begun? Are there any prerequisites for its implementation, a certain ground?
- Everything always starts with various small forms of social resistance. We respect and know all the areas, where people manage to somehow express their dissatisfaction with the lawlessness of the current system of government. The example of the Arab revolutions is very instructive for Armenia. Of course, we have our own experience and history of resistance. The Arab experience, in a sense, is the newest form of resistance, which is different from all the others, and which was coined during movements in the Arab countries. In this regard, the Arab spring only represents a new stage in the history of public resistance to the unruliness of the authorities. One of these new forms is the secondary role of political parties, their lack of leaders of resistance movement and aggregation, which can be seen, for example, in Tunisia and Egypt. I think that it has become relevant not only for Arab countries, but also for Europe. In recent months we have seen similar movements even in Spain. Therefore the smaller streams of resistance, which exist today in Armenia, will in the end merge into a single "river of direct democracy, when citizens will take the decision-making role in the elections into their own hands and will decide the matters not with their hands, next to the urns, but with their feet on the street. The fight against the adoption of amendments to the law "On Language" and around the protection of the cultural heritage of Armenia, for example, the summer cinema "Moskva", are the first shoots of direct democracy in Armenia, where citizens are beginning to believe that they have the power to influence decisions which directly concern them. That is, we do not need to reinvent the wheel, we just have to look around and learn from the others.
And there are several prerequisites for this. Over the past 20 years, Armenia developed an artificial polarization between rich and poor, when all the country's national wealth fell into hands of less than 5% of the population. As a result, we got the unconvincing economic system that we have today: a national treasury in the hands of 40 families. If we realize that there are no prerequisites and conditions for a civil war in Armenia, then our fear of a complete change of the government system will disappear. Today, I see only a criminal system of governing, with very few people at the apex of the pyramid. I do not see the prerequisites for a broad separation of our people based on social or ethnic criteria, we have no social classes or ethnic groups, which could lead to an antagonistic class or ethnic struggle.
- Where, in your opinion, does the potential for the development of Armenia lie?
- In it's human potential and the awakening of Armenian political thought. When we talk about Armenia, we talk about managing a country or even a town with a population of two million, which is located in a world inhabited by 7 billion people and in which thousands of Armenian managers manage huge social facilities. However, I'm not talking only about the old Diaspora, but also about the new generation of the Armenian Diaspora, that is, people who left Armenia in the past 20 years and achieved great success in various fields and have great potential. I think if we want to we can always find three or four hundred Armenians who will be able to create a functional system of government for our small country. If tomorrow the Armenians throughout the world realize that the modern Armenian state is a fiction, they will certainly succeed in founding a real state. In other words, I associate the future of Armenia with the awakening of the political consciousness of all Armenians. This consciousness began to show itself as early as the eighteenth century, and we are currently observing the next stage of its revival.
- What prevents our government from using this potential already today?
- The fact that they are not the authorities of Armenia, but only a temporary administration appointed from outside. This administration does not have on its agenda issues arising from within Armenia and the Armenians. For example, where did the same question about foreign-language schools come from? We do not have this problem, or any preconditions for its solution. In Armenia there is a problem and a need to improve the quality of education, and the Armenian language is not to blame that the quality of education in the country is unsatisfactory. But the real problems of Armenian society do not get any response from the administration. This administration clearly knows only one thing - it is appointed, not elected. Accordingly, it clearly fulfils all the requirements dictated by its owners, being unable, by its very nature, to address the issues and concerns of its own people. The sad thing is that the "cells" of this administration, which defended our country and fought for it at the time, now find themselves infected with a social "gangrene", poisoning and endangering the entire body. I think that this is already abundantly clear, not only to me, but to the whole of Armenian society.
David Stepanyan, Armenia. Exclusively for VK
