MAIN CAUSE OF COLLAPSE OF OLIGARCHY
Siranuysh Papyan
09:29 20/02/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:
Interview with ethnographer Aghasi Tadevosyan
Aghasi, the Armenian government was again reproduced. In your opinion,
did we get stuck again or is change inevitable?
It is possible that the Soviet generation is using its last resources.
The former communist party traditions which were expressed in the
face of the RPA and its candidate Serzh Sargsyan in this election
are stagnant. The RPA which is the heir of the Communist Party of
Soviet Armenia displayed its bankruptcy and helplessness to cope with
innovation in this election. This bankruptcy is especially evident
in the process of generation change in the RPA. Their young activists
remind me of the bores of Young Communists of my student years. Eduard
Sharmazanov, for example, reminds me the last secretary of the Young
Communist Party Hranush Hakobyan. Karen Avagyan who is distinguished
for his talent for organizing marches with balloons reminds of a
mediocre organizer dating to Brezhnev years.
A typical expression of Soviet stagnation is the historic answer of
the RPA leader to the journalist on hitting numbers. This answer
reveals the irony of the RPA and its presidential candidate to
the reality. Interestingly, not only the RPA leader’s perception is
ironical but also he thus presents his and his party’s ironic attitude
to Armenia. The tragedy of this self-irony is the lack of awareness.
Being the president and the candidate of the ruling party, thus the
one who bears responsibility, Serzh Sargsyan does not understand that
his irony is first of all aimed at him and his party. This is the
symptom of stagnation of the oligarchy and the RPA which represents
its interests. It is not accidental that the president is giving out
medals to ministers and other officials. It is not accidental that
rich people have created another party – the PAP. It is a hopeless
attempt to tackle the crisis. It is hopeless because this party and its
president have appeared in an even more awkward state of self-irony.
In any case, it is time consuming to get rid of the Soviet Heritage.
It is not good that it is reproduced among youth and unfortunately
it will be the future of Armenia. It is hard to imagine the ways of
overcoming this situation. But we need that badly.
Is the collapse of the RPA possible? Will new forces appear and
implement change in this way?
I am aware of these opinions that the RPA may modernize. They say a
lot that Serzh Sargsyan is taking steps towards modernization. The
problem is that independent Armenia has never gone through a
pre-modern stage. Soviet Armenia was a modern society. The problem
is that Armenia is the heir of Soviet modern and transition must be
transition from Soviet modernism to capitalist modernism. Are Serzh
Sargsyan, the representative of the middle generation Tigran Sargsyan,
young adepts of the RPA Armen Ashotyan, Eduard Sharmazanov, Karen
Avagyan and others able to ensure this transition? The controversy
is that though the candidates protect the interests of new Armenian
capitalists, their methodology is based on the modern Soviet spirit.
In other words, the interests of capitalists are often protected in
the Soviet modern style. This is the inner controversy, as well as
the funny aspect of Armenian capitalism and the party and figures
representing its interests.
It does smell capitalism but the problem is that no candidate has
every stated that Armenia must be a capitalist country. When I hear
such a phrase from any political figure, I will be able to think
that these people figure out what modernism they mean. As to the RPA,
nationalism played in the spirit of Soviet dissidence is still very
vague. Its internal controversy comes from the problem of reproduction
of government. This party does not have the resource to nominate a
new president in the next election. Everyone else is weaker than Serzh
Sargsyan. Hence, Robert Kocharyan or his protege is the option. This
election showed that Kocharyan is a loser, too old and lacks capacity.
As to a protege, it always deepens crisis or causes a crisis.
The system is in crisis which is expressed in stagnation and may later
collapse because such systems lack mechanisms for confidence building
due to the deficit of internal confidence resource. I think this will
be the main reason of collapse of the oligarchy. However, the issue
is that the Armenian society is not ready for such collapse. I think
the Armenian society is not ready for change of government along the
path of development. In other words, the main issue of the upcoming
post-electoral years is to form a force which will be able to assume
responsibility for transformation of Armenia to a modern capitalism
and the complex process of transforming nasty and untidy rich people
to capitalists. I sincerely wish this process were conscious and
planned for which all the resources of the society would be deployed.
It is in the interests of Serzh Sargsyan, the rich, our society and
the state.
Is it possible to form new elite in the next few years?
I think formation of elites is not an independent process. Elites
form in a well-established environment. In Armenia the process of
forming such environments is underway. People tend to think that the
Armenian elite are major businesses, the so-called oligarchy. However,
it is hard to call it elite. They are people who have money, who have
parties which protect their interests. Our oligarchs understand the
world in a simple pitch.
There are different ways of thinking in arts, science indeed. There
are civic activists which is good. There is a shortage of styles,
monotony and boredom must be overcome. Because more or less there are
elites. I personally do not like them. That is the elite formed by
rich people. The problem is not to create elite but to form thinking.
I do not link change to creation of new elites. New forms of life
are more important. Individuals and social classes with their own
identity and position are able to form them. They can create demand
for new realities which will diversify the political processes. For
Armenia the key problems are set in culture.
Can you see any movement in this aspect? Even Facebook diversity has
disappeared and has been replaced by expressions of hatred.
The most important thing that I see is the appearance of bright people
in Armenia. They are individuals who think, create, form new meanings,
discourse which differs from that of the government and elites,
raise issues at new levels, such as ecology, freedom of individuals,
culture, style of life. However, frankly speaking, the present is grey
in Armenia. Armenia is a colony veiled with formal independence. The
government cannot resist to this status quo because it is not in the
interests of oligarchic capitalism in Armenia.
Serzh Sargsyan disclaims responsibility for emigration. Who is
responsible for emigration?
High-ranking officials and political forces are responsible for all
kinds of processes. The situation is getting worse in Armenia. The
world develops fast, while we are outrageously behind.
One of the ways out is an active public discourse on the prospects of
development to underlie new forms of government. We need to understand
not only what country we don’t want to have but what country we want
to have. As soon as we understand and define it and agree on that
definition, we will be able to make action plans to achieve them.
From: A. Papazian
http://www.lragir.am/index.php/eng/0/interview/view/28993