A year ago in the context of confrontation between the authorities and the opposition in Armenia, VK compared their activity with a theatre play. Ahead of the coming parliamentary elections, the acting skills of Armenian politicians began to shine even brighter. The owner of Multi-Group, Gagik Tsarukyan, is always smiling and promising to make Armenia “prosperous.” His partner in the ruling coalition, the leader of the Orinats Erkir Party and secretary of the Security Council, Artur Bagdasaryan, keeps his spirits up and gives jam and other goods produced by his enterprises to potential voters. Jam in Bagdasaryan’s election campaign could be explained, but mobile phones given to the population by Orinats Erkir is difficult to explain. However, the progressive community has found an explanation in the fact that Bagdasaryan supposedly owns a mobile production enterprise in… China. Moreover, the politician still strives to make Armenia “a country of law.” The leaders of “Prosperous Armenia” and “Country of Law” have been involved in power since 2007, but they have brought no prosperity or supremacy of law to Armenia.
The leader of the opposition party Heritage, Raffi Ovanisyan, deserves a separate mention. He always talks about democracy and European values, but at the same time he deals with the authorities using methods which are far from these notions. Rumors say that Ovannisyan deals not only with the ruling Republicans, but also with foreign forces in the American embassy. As a result, Heritage will participate in the elections as part of a coalition with the Free Democrats, which is being called in society “an American project.”
The former radical and today soft opposition Armenian National Congress, headed by the former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, doesn’t criticize the authorities actively either. The ANC includes many opposition forces which confront each other – all 18 parties want to be included in the proportional list. The list isn’t elastic, and a maximum of 15 representatives will be elected to parliament, which resulted in rising confrontational tensions and the four parties that failed to be included on the list leaving the ANC. This means the number of seats needed to pass is well known, even to the lowest part of the ANC hierarchy.
The other political force, Dashnaktsyutun, traditionally chose a well-trodden path. After leaving the ruling coalition in 2008, they began heavily criticising the authorities in 2009. Having no responsibility in power, their criticism is growing due to the coming elections. In recent times the party’s criticism has touched on individuals. So they have successfully cornered the niche that previously belonged to the ANC – blaming the authorities for all mortal sins.
The Republicans continue speaking about taking responsibility for the people, yet including on their lists tycoons, “criminal elements,” and party functionaries. The main political force of Armenia has recently repeated the practice of the Communist Party of the USSR – all decisions are made by its leader Serzh Sargsyan only, the others only nod in agreement. The Republicans rely on the administrative resources and display confidence that they will form the parliamentary majority without any coalitions or unions.
As for the Armenian Communists, the CPA intends to gain at least 15% of the votes cast, taking into consideration financial support from the Communist Party of Russia. Along with traditional vows and recalling the bright past of the Soviet Union, the Communists hint to the electorate about support from Moscow. It should be noted that Armenia has three communist parties. Now two of them have united in favour of victory in the elections.
Armenian parties are trying to establish conditions allowing them to take as much as they can from the ruling regime. It doesn’t matter whether they serve it or oppose it. None of the parties can tell society the truth that through deals and quota allocation they will get their “voice.” So speaking about the necessity of fair and just elections in Armenia, all the parties permanently misinform society. Civilized elections cannot take place under such conditions. It is obvious they will be falsified by the authorities and as a result of the support of all political forces of the country.
David Stepanyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to VK
