THE “OSKANIAN AFFAIR”: THUG RULE WINS AGAIN
By John Hughes
ArmeniaNow
02.10.12 | 18:42
Today’s National Assembly vote that potentially paves the way for
sending former Minister of Foreign Affairs Vartan Oskanian to jail
is so wrong, ill-conceived and ill-timed, it is hard to know which
of the legion of absurdities to address.
At the top of the list should be one that seems to be of disturbingly
little concern to Oskanian’s colleagues who voted to strip him of
the immunity from criminal prosecution that comes as one of the perks
included in a parliament mandate. The vote was 64-6 with one invalid
ballot, and 58 members either absent from the vote or refusing to
participate, on grounds that the vote was a travesty.
Today’s vote again proves to the world that Armenia runs on thug-rule
at the expense of democratic progress.
But just a month ago and ever since, Armenia was embraced with
tragically-won sympathy when the “Safarov Affair” alerted the world to
the stark moral difference between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The latter’s
deification of a convicted murderer was ample evidence of why Western
democratic countries should stop treating the two neighbors with
parity – or with preference bought by Azerbaijan’s oil – and accept
the politically incorrect truth that Christian Armenia has a foundation
for democratic principle that is not in evidence in Muslim Azerbaijan.
Now, the “Oskanian Affair” shifts attention, and none of it is good.
Armenia’s KGB (calling the agency “National Security Service” may
sound less spooky, but doesn’t change who they are) says Oskanian
hid money that United States businessman Jon Huntsman, Sr. intended
earmarked for the Civilitas Foundation, founded by Oskanian.
ArmeniaNow has been told by sources familiar with the investigation
that, indeed, staff at Civilitas were asked to deposit portions
of the Huntsman money into personal accounts. It remains unclear,
however, whether Oskanian was involved in the alleged solicitations
or whether such transactions would constitute the fraud with which
he is being charged. In any case, investigators have not interviewed
the Huntsman family to clarify their agreement with Oskanian which,
as one lawyer pointed out today, would not require the NA voting on
anyone’s immunity.
This is clear: If this former foreign minister goes to jail ahead of
the next presidential election, it will not be for money laundering —
just as when his foreign minister predecessor, Alexander Arzumanyan,
went to jail ahead of the last presidential election on the same
charges. In each case – now laden with irony – the former cabinet
members surfaced from political upheaval on the wrong side of power, a
matter more politically perilous than whether or not they conveniently
landed on the wrong side of the law.
General Prosecutor Aghvan Hovsepyan said today that Oskanian will not
be arrested, nor will he be required to remain in Armenia during the
course of the investigation.
Last week Hovsepyan took extraordinary measures to tighten the
screws on Parliament Member Oskanian. But today, he says that
citizen Oskanian, whom the Prosecutor General’s office believes
to have defrauded the government in a $2 million scam is free to
escape? If we believed Hovsepyan last week, Vartan Oskanian is such
a threat to society that a rare act of Parliament should be invoked
to assist in his prosecution. Now, the nation’s top law enforcement
officer is practically tossing his suspect a “Get out of Jail Free”
card? What sense does that make?
Yesterday Oskanian gave an interesting evaluation of the impact
arresting him would have on Diaspora relations, which may or may not
have prompted Hovsepyan’s odd announcement today. In effect Oskanian
asked this: “Are Diaspora now going to think that I was laundering
money for the 10 years (1998-2008 as Minister of Foreign Affairs)
that they trusted me?”
He also raised a valid point that the government needs his services
now as the Syria crisis rages, affecting tens of thousands of
Syrian-Armenians. Oskanian, himself, is from Syria.
Those, however, are not the questions that a voting public would
be asking, were Oskanian to fulfill predictions and try to unseat
President Serzh Sargsyan next February, or would use his influence
in Diaspora to earn support for a candidate capable of doing so.
Vartan Oskanian is a statesman – duly experienced – who says he is
ready to come to his country’s aid, five years after he – through his
failure to do the right thing – almost helped destroy the republic
he again solicits to serve.
“Where were you when we needed you?” is a valid question in evaluating
the veracity of the former foreign minister’s willingness to put
public good above political gain.
Oskanian, Minister of Foreign Affairs on March 1, 2008, should
have resigned his office that day, and in doing so proved himself
above the very sort of reckless, political-power-as-personal-weapon
decision-making that now has turned against him. But had he done so,
he would have found himself crosswise with then-president Robert
Kocharyan, with whom Oskanian now remains in favor as a member of
the political party created by Kocharyan.
Those of us who believed Oskanian represented a rare voice of reason –
or at least embraceable viewpoints — in Kocharyan’s Moscow-controlled
administration, were disappointed to watch him collude in brutality –
“legitimizing” as one of his fellow party members now says of the
current prosecution/persecution of Oskanian, “an illegitimate act”.
On that Bloody Saturday, Oskanian’s special assistant, with whom he
would later found Civilitas Foundation, appeared on CNN to downplay
reports that the capital was coming unhinged. And when members of the
foreign ministry complained about the ministry being dragged into
Kocharyan’s crackdown that would lead to 10 deaths and hundreds of
injuries and arrests, Oskanian fired those staff.
To be fair: people would have died, property would have burned, the
thinning fabric of Armenian democracy would have suffered another rip,
no matter who headed the foreign ministry in the awful spring of 2008.
But on that day, more than on this one that brings shame to Armenia
and political martyrdom to Vartan Oskanian, we needed leadership that
would say “this is not right”, just as people today are saying so on
his behalf. We needed men like him to stand up by stepping down.
Oskanian didn’t. And his lack of guts on that day may have been
forgotten by the “concerned” Diaspora, “spyurkahye” celebrities
and foreign journalists who rally for him today, but it has not
been forgotten by locals. Foreign Minister Oskanian’s failure to
enforce democratic principle may now be a blind spot in the U.S. State
Department’s mirror, but it is a glaring spotlight for Armenians who
needed then, and now, courageous conviction.
It is near Shakespearean that Oskanian now finds himself on the
same wrong side that his predecessor in the foreign ministry,
Arzumanyan, found himself. Arzumanyan was jailed on charges which,
like the Oskanian case, were trumped up because he sided with those
who sought to unseat the existing regime — at a time when Oskanian
was part of that regime.
Some might call it karma. In any case, today’s predictable outcome
is a pity. Everybody loses. Except those who will do this again when
necessary, because they know that they can.