HARSNAKAR FALL-OUT: REPUBLICAN PARTY MUST ASSUME MORAL AND POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY
Armen Arakelyan
hetq
18:15, July 9, 2012
Despite the public anger and related protests that have been taking
place in Yerevan and elsewhere regarding the beating death of Armenian
Army physician Vahe Avetyan, the authorities remain silent as stones.
There even hasn’t been any news about the criminal case launched
almost one month ago.
So far, only 5 of the 15 or so individuals who savagely beat Avetyan
and his friends have been arrested. What are the police playing at?
Armenian authorities have adopted a policy of silence, thinking that
the best approach would be not to further stoke the public ire by ill
conceived statements and actions.
But the government in fact has no answers to give the people in any
event. And this is what the people expect from a regime that says it
won 69% of the vote in the recent parliamentary elections in Armenia.
A government of, by and for the people has an obligation to speak to
the voters that put it in power.
The fact that this current regime avoids speaking to the people is yet
further proof that it is wholly independent of the people and feels no
obligations towards citizens. In short, Armenia’s authorities do not
enjoy the people’s “vote of confidence” and thus derive their power
from other sources.
This “see no evil”, “hear no evil” approach actually confirms that
what took place at Harsnakar on June 17 actually defines the rules of
the game in Armenia. The silence of the authorities is nothing more
than criminal negligence.
In reality, the authorities are very delicately trying to find a way
out of avoiding political responsibility with their silence. They are
attempting this maneuver by painting what transpired solely in a
“criminal” context.
First RA Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan declared that what happened
at Harsnakar was merely a result of the actions of a few stupid and
uneducated restaurant employees and certain members of Ruben
Hayrapetyan’s personal bodyguard unit.
By doing so, not only have the police lowered what happened to the
level of a common murder but have conveniently given investigators the
opportunity to close the case by charging a few of the participants.
Despite the fact that Vahe Avetyan was facing death in a hospital bed
for almost one month, Hayrapetyan only gave up his parliament seat
after the military physician died. In his statement, Hayrapetyan only
spoke about his moral obligation.
Even though the case was in the preliminary stage of examination,
attorneys working on the social principles of the Republican Party
rushed to claim that Hayrapetyan wasn’t at Harsnakar at the time of
the incident.
This wasn’t because they actually believed what Hayrapetyan had
claimed, but because they wanted to distance the party from any
possible political or moral accountability.
But the wave of public anger threatened to turn into a powerful
pan-social movement, and the authorities were forced to take steps to
see that it didn’t develop from a social one to a one with political
overtones.
That’s why Armen Ashotyan, the Minister of Education and Science,
fired his rhetoric-laden declaration that such incidents should be
viewed in their social, human and moral contexts but never political.
Ashotyan deliberately distorted the meaning of the term “political”,
by essentially equating it with party affiliation. The reason is
clear. If the matter is actually placed on the political agenda, the
authorities are faced not with a specific incident but with an even
more criminal set of cause and effect relations – it raises the
uncomfortable issue of the oligarchs, the ones who keep the regime
afloat and the government’s loyalty to them in return.
This is why a party that speaks so much about moral responsibility
lacked the moral will to support the initiative of the parliamentary
opposition to hold special hearings on the matter, a move that was
nothing more than an attempt to bring the issue onto the political
agenda – to put the spotlight on the political responsibility of the
regime.
To the extent that the issue remains on the civic and moral stage, it
is also, at minimum, political in nature.
When Armenia’s president declared in November of 2010 that he couldn’t
understand or accept the f convoys of cars of bodyguards on the
streets of Yerevan, didn’t he realize that Ruben Hayrapetyan’s goons
also were in those privileged ranks?
Who else but the ruling party is responsible if these armed guards
continue to operate and in a much more dishonourable fashion than
before? It was the party that stubbornly refused to draft legislation
to regulate these guys.
Now, the issue has become a political one for the regime. Who to give
preference to – the public or the oligarchs?
Hayrapetyan never desired to sit in parliament. But the Republican
Party, focused on winning the votes in Avan, convinced him to run on
the majoritarian ticket. It wasn’t due to his wit or intellect but
because of the weight and influence he carried as someone with power.
This is the very reason why he was not only nominated on the
majoritarian ticket but successfully came to rest on the party’s
proportional list.
This is alone makes what happened at Harsnakar a political issue and
the Republican Party bears clear responsibility.
From: Baghdasarian