Armenia: the trio establishes offices of the all-national movement
Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Nov 12 2014
12 November 2014 – 10:58am
By Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
Two mass meetings on 10th and 24th of October and the decision of the
three leading opposition parties on holding rallies in Liberty Square
of Yerevan every Friday, made the political forces and society expect
greater activation of the protest movement. However, there is a pause
in the actions of the opposition, and this pause gave the authorities,
the media controlled by them and some experts rise to draw conclusions
about the uncertainty of the opposition (the “Prosperous Armenia”
Party (PAP), “Armenian National Congress’ (ANC) and “Heritage”),
its unwillingness to make any real steps and the lack of necessary
resources for the change of state power. In some media appeared a
belief that the opposition should prove its sincerity by depositing
deputy seats of its members.
Hovhannes Mandakuni, the observer of “1in.am” believes this
“commercial break” occurred because those three leading opposition
parties (opposition trio) do not have any tactical and strategic
far-reaching agreements.
“I do not see any preconditions for holding early elections. Yes,
the opposition is discussing the matter, but it’s a tradition we
have here – to talk about early elections. The opposition trio has
no resources for enforcement authorities for the early elections,”
– said the director of the institute “Caucasus” Alexander Iskandaryan.
“Motives of the demands of changing the government are social, not
political. And it is a fact that the social situation in Armenia is
unsatisfactory for at least 20 years now” – says the Minister-Chief
of the Government of Armenia David Harutyunyan.
Nowadays, some experts and politicians are discussing the question of
a possible split within the opposition trio on geopolitical grounds,
referring to the multi-vectorness of belonging to this formation
forces. In particular, they are referring to the fact that the
PAP and the ANC are supporting Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian
Economic Union, and the “Heritage” party stands for Armenia’s European
integration.
According to Armen Badalyan, the expert on the political and electoral
technologies, the opposition trio de facto is the unit which, unlike
the existing de jure unit, assumes no recorded liabilities and certain
limits in many issues, including the issue of geopolitical orientation:
“At long last let’s not forget that the opposition is not one party,
but there different ones and they do have distinctions in interests
and approaches. If there would bÑ~C a moment when all three of them
will say the same thing, when there’d be no differences in their
opinions, we may assume that the opposition trio has ceased to exist,
and became a political corpse “- says the analyst.
As for the trio itself, which seemed to be still and remain in
stagnation, by the assurance of some of its representatives, at
the moment, its most urgent task is to build a national movement
headquarters across the country. Recall that during his speech at the
rally program of October the 24th PAP leader Gagik Tsarukyan pointed
the need of elimination of the country’s current political monopoly,
as well as a majoritarian system of the parliamentary elections. PAP
leader noted that Armenia now is in need of power of a new quality and
fundamental changes. According to Gagik Tsarukyan, if the demands of
the people about the resignation will be ignored by the authorities,
the people will pressure and oblige the government to hold early
elections.
The activity of opposition has transformed from a public format into
a hidden form, which suggests the beginning of a new, perhaps more
tangible, step in the political struggle. According to the expert
Vakhtang Margaryan, this created an exclusive situation where
statements really do become actions.
The opposition essentially offers two options for the authorities
power shift: incremental option and “package” option. The first option
is to conduct amendments to the Electoral Code as soon as possible,
aimed at the elimination of the majoritarian system, as well as the
holding of early presidential and parliamentary elections. Second
option may be to hold early presidential elections. In both cases,
the most important task of the opposition trio is to change the
political situation in the country avoiding upheavals.
From: Baghdasarian
http://vestnikkavkaza.net/analysis/politics/62039.html