I HAVE AN " EXPRESSED CONCERN" FOR THE CITIZENS OF ARMENIA
KarabakhOpen
29-11-2007 13:53:57
Dear Madame Odette Bazil,
I’ve come across your letter and I wish to respond to it, seeing that
the Armenian TV news report you mention has not been sufficient for
you to grasp what the kiosks set up in the streets of Yerevan by our
party, the Dashnaktsutyun, are intended for.
What is going on is not the actual voting for one of the two candidates
the Dashnaktsutyun will choose from, but rather, a public opinion poll
by the Dashnaktsutyun regarding its candidates. The Dashnaktsutyun
Supreme Assembly of Armenia, in September 2007, decided to propose
two candidates, Armen Rustamyan and Vahan Hovhannesyan, and to choose
one of them in November 2007. During this past month and a half, the
two candidates have been touring the capital and regions of Armenia
together, meeting with party members and supporters. On November
30, 2007, the party’s Supreme Assembly of Armenia will choose the
Dashnaktsutyun’s presidential candidate taking into consideration the
public support each of the two enjoys. The kiosks in Yerevan is one way
to gauge that support, since it is exactly "the ordinary man/woman in
the streets of Yerevan" who will be electing the President of Armenia.
Dear Madame,
While you stress that a non-party member "should not have any saying
in the affairs of that party", you allow yourself to say how a party
should decide how to choose its candidate or conduct its affairs.
Gauging the public opinion especially on public policy matters and
candidates for public office is a classic practice of political
parties.
Furthermore, I think you are underestimating the intelligence and
political sophistication of the citizens of Armenia, and specifically
the residents of Yerevan, by assuming that they might confuse a
simple public opinion exercise with the real elections. By doing so,
I think you are insulting the citizens of Armenia.
In Armenia, as I’m sure in the United Kingdom, "any party member
faced with the possibility of outside and non-member interference in
its most private decision making legal right," exactly like what you
have done by your letter, would prompt that member, me in this case,
to politely ask the intruder to mind their own business.
Your expressed concerns for the Dashnaktsakans and/or citizens of
Armenia do not veil the fact that you have an axe to grind.
Sincerely yours, Giro Manoyan Yerevan
P.S. I presume that in the signature of your letter the reference
of your being the Co-Founder of the British-Armenian All-Party
Parliamentary Group is not intended to indicate that you’ve written
on behalf of the Parliamentary Group or that the Parliamentary Group
shares your views.
Dear Mr Giro Manoyan
Thank you for your letter and its content which has been noticed. The
TV report I have referred to said exactly what I had mentioned:
your party had set up kiosks in the streets of Yerevan , in order,
for the ordinary man/woman in the street to elect your party’s
Presidential candidate.
I had also received calls from Yerevan where it was said that already
people, in the streets, were electing their new President. By your
kiosks there was no poster saying " this is only an exercise to gauge
the support that each of our candidates enjoys". Like an alarm drill
where there is no fire!
If you conduct a poll in a public manner , in a public street,
involving the public – me in this instance – then you cannot ask that
person to mind its own business . That " business " has already become
" public business" .
What gives you the indication that " I have an ax to grind"? Whit whom
would that ax be grinded ? I never knew that there WAS an ax to grind!
Gosh!
But you are perfectly correct in saying that I have an " expressed
concern" for the citizens of Armenia : I have served them all my life,
with love and gratitude.
Yours sincerely Odette Bazil Co-Founder The British-Armenian All-Party
Parliamentary Group You are also correct : the signature in my letter
was not intended to indicate that it was written on behalf of the
BAAPPG.