SPEAKING OVER AND OVER AGAIN
ARMEN TSATOURYAN
Hayots Ashkharh Daily
23 Dec 2008
Armenia
L. Ter-Petrosyan prolongs time with his lectures
As shown by the first conference of the Armenian National Congress
and the speeches delivered there, L. Ter-Petrosyan’s efforts towards
smoothing over the discords among the radicals and sponsoring their
political activeness have come to the point when the ex-President,
as a political figure, has nothing to do any more and has therefore
to disguise the obvious reality behind the slogan, "Speak Over and
Over Again!".
What we see inside the pro-opposition camp at present is a structure
consisting of political forces and public organizations, whose separate
leaders have their own ideas about the further political steps of the
Congress. That’s why, they leader is currently engaged in mitigating
the discords and prolonging time. That’s to say, L. Ter-Petrosyan
has no other choice apart from making joint assessments over the
new challenges to be faced by the Congress and the country. However,
the elaboration of a tactics of actions is out of the question.
L. Ter-Petrosyan devoted his successive lecture to the evaluation
of the processes in and around the country, completely ignoring
the further actions of the Armenian National Congress. Accordingly,
he singled out three important challenges faced by the country: a)
the set tlement of the Karabakh conflict "in the nearest future", b)
the impact of the international crisis upon the country’s economy c)
the necessity of "reinstating the constitutional order and democratic
freedoms".
Fore creating common opinions and approaches over these issues, L.
Ter-Petrosyan tried to find justifications for having sent his
co-thinkers home after the October 17 rally, encouraged them with
the prospect of the prospect of the economic hardships to be faced
by Armenia and attempted to keep the public attention focused on the
trials of the March 1 case.
However, repeating ourselves we should note that L. Ter-Petrosyan’s
assessments remained in the domain of reiterations.
The ex-President’s firm belief on the necessity of looking forward
to the settlement of the Karabakh issue by pursuing the "wait-and-see
policy" also aroused sharp criticism among separate organizations which
have joined the Congress, and their representatives started making
more clear and convincing arguments. As to the allegations on the
impossibility of "mounting a strong public protest over the Karabakh
issue in Armenia", they are only based upon the "memories of the past"
and sound more than unconvincing. "We are neither Dashnaktsoutyum
nor the National Democratic Union to deepen the impending danger by
certain activities destabilizing the situation."
20 As to the issue what the Congress is going to do in case of
possible negative developments with regard to the Karabakh issue,
it remained unclear.
The same uncertainty continued while L. Ter-Petrosyan proceeded to
the second part of his speech, i.e. the impact of the international
economic crisis upon the economy of Armenia. Here too, the ex-President
satisfied himself with strictly general assessments and several
proposals, without making any clarifications as to what the Armenian
National Congress is going to do in case the crisis assumes larger
scales. The vague assessments on the crisis can only lead to the
assumption that the Congress will probably organize a couple of rallies
in February-March when given phenomenon has more acute manifestations.
Thus, in its rally held on December 21, the Armenian National
Congress did not propose to the opposition any concrete political
course. The leader finally arrived at the thought that "while assessing
the activities of the Armenian National Congress, it is hereafter
necessary to consider the prospect of broadening the agenda of the
Karabakh settlement and the international economic crisis. It is such
new phenomenon that dictates the logic of our current activities and
the character of our current tactics". But as to what the "current
tactics" is, it remained unclear.
We believe the reason is that in case of changing his strictly g
eneral judgments into concrete political steps, L. Ter-Petrosyan will
be facing the imperative of making a choice among several tactics
inside the Armenian National Congress. Besides, it is necessary to
keep in mind that in such case he will have to replace the practice
of delivering lectures once per month with the agenda of a politician.
Hence, the more uncertain the tactics of the Congress, the better
for L. Ter-Petrosyan and his closest circles. As to the remaining
issues, such as Karabakh, the economic crisis and even the "political
prisoners", they still have some time to wait a little.