Interview by David Strpanyan, exclusively to VK
The head of the Armenian Center for National and Strategic Research Manvel Manvel Sarkisyan, who is also a member of the ‘brigade’ for the takedown of the illegally constructed boutiques in the Mashtots Park, told ‘VK’ correspondent about the goals and the prospects of the Armenian public movement against the "illegitimate" actions of the government.
- Officials say that your ‘brigade’ is sponsored by some ‘external forces’. Whom are they implying?
- For some reason no one in Armenia can believe that people take up some public activity of their own volition, they always try to find out who’s ‘behind the scenes’. And this is the result of the state policy of the last 20 years. All these years the Armenian society was told that it can’t do anything on its own. And when people are rendered powerless, they can’t believe that anyone else can take г some public activity without any external help or secret agenda. These alleged external players are: Russia, the West, KGB, CIA, US Embassy or even freemasons. The only figures who are not suspected in any destructive activities and who feel quite at home here are our criminal authorities. All criminal and corrupt activities tied closely to all the governments we had in these years are perceived as something normal by our public.
But in reality, there are no external forces behind our movement, it’s all simple: young educated people just don’t what yet another act of lawlessness to happen.
- And these are the people who don’t what to leave Armenia and are going to create a jural state here?
- Yes. For example, their slogan: ‘We are the masters of this land’. It’s nothing like the criminal ‘it’s our territory’ or ‘it’s our block’. And no one has ever before openly stood up to the criminals who claim their right to the land that’s not theirs.
- But why are the authorities so persistent in protecting these boutiques? It would be easy for them to get rid of the boutiques and therewith win some pre-election scores. Are they scared of the movement, as it could turn into something larger?
-The oligarchic system of Armenia id based on usurped rights for national property. The government in Armenia a illegitimate from the very beginning, so there are actually no legal transactions. And no people reclaim their rights for what’s been stolen from them: ‘We are the masters of this land’. But the bandits who are ruling our country bow aren’t afraid of any accusations, they are ready to say: ‘yes, we are bandits and all we’ve stolen is no ours by right’.
So why the conflict between the activists and the police& Because it is the first time that the activists demanded to stop protecting government’s illegal actions from the police. The policemen refused to take up the responsibility of analyzing the legitimacy of their orders, so the activists said that in this case they’ll have to stand guard forever – and not only in the Mashtots Park, but at each illegally occupied lot of Armenian land. The police will have either to agree with us or to ask reinforcements from the president.
The number of the ‘brigades’ members only grows, and the police knows it. The police became a hostage of the situation, and they’ve lost this one. The public doesn’t believe the property they are protecting is legal, people also don’t see their actions as legal. The mayor has to hide behind the policemen’s backs, and the PM hides behind the mayor. The President has vanished – as all the situation has nothing to do with him. In the meantime the media reports that the boutiques’ construction were funded from the budget to compensate ex-mayor’s brother Gagik Beglaryan his previously lost ‘property’
- And as these illegal ‘privileges’ of Beglaryan, which are an integral part of the whole system of corrupt government, were violated, can we expect the whole system to collapse?
- Yes, this crisis has no other possible outcome. The system can’t fulfill the society’s main demand – the observance of the constitution. The police has no other purpose than to serve mercenaries for oligarchs. The mechanism that should guarantee the legality of the whole system – the presidential office – isn’t working properly. The only way to resolve the crisis is to revise all illegal property. The authorities would very much like to deal with the situation as they did on March, 1, 2008, but they can’t. If they could, they would have done so long ago.
- So what solution could you propose?
- People should understand that the problem should be resolved within the strict boundaries of the law. The numbers of the activists are growing. The situation is very grave, that is why we, the older generation, joined the young activists. It is very unwise of the authorities to protect illegal property with the police cordons. If the public doesn’t recognize the property right, no power in the world can protect this property. Yes, the property right is fundamental, but only the right for legally acquired property. Our main task now is to make the society understand that they are the masters of their state, of their land. The tragedy of the Armenian society is that it’s major part is ready to obey illegal power, to accept rigged election results. But if one refuses to follow illegal orders – there’s just nothing that the power can actually do to such a person to convince him otherwise. Today it’s civil disobedience to the police, tomorrow – to the courts. It is the beginning of the new era of our movement for Constitution protection^ we stop asking and start demanding.
- Would you like to comment on the upcoming election?
- What’s there to talk about? The power understood that you can influence the elections’ outcome in a more elegant manner than throwing in piles of ballot papers, that’s all. They say the elections will be transparent – but the transparency will touch only some secondary issues. Can you control the administrative pressure on voters before the elections? No, but it is a very efficient means to make teachers, military and other state employees to vote the way the power wants. SO what transparency are we talking about? They just use secondary aspects of the elections as showpieces of their ‘transparency’, that’s all. The elections remain illegitimate.
- So how could one vote if all 9 parties are so much alike?
- All the parties that take part in the elections should answer a simple questions: do they think that Armenia has an efficient and legitimate election mechanism? If no, than they should explain how are they planning on getting their mandates. They never do that. If the constitutional way of obtaining a parliamentary mandate is disabled, than one gets the mandate in an unconstitutional way. And it is a crime in any case. Sarksyan and his party can’t say he won 100%, so he lends 30-35% to other parties.
The election’s outcome is defined by the criminal nature of our administrative system. People are not only made to vote in a certain way, so are even threatened into joining party lists, etc. They used to promise some dividends for such ‘services’ before, but now they only threaten. It’s almost impossible to live and work in Armenia without joining some criminal-political force, and that is why the people leave our country. And only the civic society can change the situation, without the help of the corrupt political parties.
