DASHNAK LEADERSHIP CRITICIZES PARTY BRANCH IN U.S.
Emil Danielyan
19.08.2011
Armenia – President Serzh Sarkisian (R) and Hrant Markarian attend a
concert in Yerevan organized by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.
In a rare manifestation of discord within its ranks, the opposition
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) criticized
on Friday its largest branch in the United States for deciding to
boycott an upcoming event in Los Angeles to be attended by President
Serzh Sarkisian.
Sarkisian is expected to visit the U.S. in late September to address
the UN General Assembly in New York and meet with representatives
of the influential Armenian-American community. He will attend an
official banquet organized by the Armenian Consulate in Los Angeles
and dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Armenia’s independence.
Dashnaktsutyun’s organization in the western U.S. announced
late on Thursday that its representatives will not take part in
the celebration, in protest against Sarkisian’s track record in
office. It said his presence there will “cast a shadow on the idea
of independence and denigrate the struggle of our people for the
restoration of justice.”
In an unusually strongly worded statement issued late on Thursday,
the pan-Armenian party’s chapter described the Armenian president
as a “discredited” individual who “tramples democracy and democratic
values underfoot” in order to ensure “the reproduction of the criminal
regime.”
The statement went on to accuse the Sarkisian government, of which
Dashnaktsutyun was a part until April 2009, of committing “blatant
human rights violations,” controlling the judiciary and sponsoring
“oligarchs that continue to relentlessly plunder our people” in
Armenia. It also condemned the government’s conciliatory policies
towards Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Dashnaktsutyun’s supreme decision-making body based in Yerevan,
the Bureau, made clear the next day that it disapproves of the boycott.
Armenia — Giro Manoyan, a senior member of the opposition Armenian
Revolutionary Federation.
“Obviously, there are numerous unsolved problems accumulated in
the Republic of Armenia,” Giro Manoyan, the Bureau’s foreign and
pan-Armenian affairs spokesman, said in written comments to media.
“But the 20-year [independence] anniversary testifies to our common
victory and achievements.”
“We have no right to be guided by personalized relationships and
emotional steps in this kind of events,” Manoyan said. “Instead, we
must use this occasion to express our unity and consolidation with
such events, while remaining faithful to our principles.”
Manoyan did not clarify whether the Bureau agrees with the harsh
assessment of Sarkisian made by one of the party’s most important
Diaspora branches. Dashnaktsutyun leaders in Armenia have been more
cautious in criticizing the current authorities in Yerevan.
The verbal attacks from the Armenian-American political structure are
more in tune with characterizations of Sarkisian regularly made by the
Armenian National Congress (HAK), a more radical opposition force at
odds with Dashnaktsutyun. They are the clearest indication yet that
some Dashnaktsutyun structures and individual members disagree with
the party leadership’s cautious stance.
Opening a Dashnaktsutyun congress in Yerevan in late June, Hrant
Markarian, the de facto head of the Bureau, called for a “systemic
regime change” in Armenia but avoided personal attacks on Sarkisian.
He made clear that Dashnaktsutyun will not seek to topple the president
with sustained street demonstrations and other radical actions.
A declaration adopted by the congress likewise stopped short of
demanding Sarkisian’s resignation.
Dashnaktsutyun quit Armenia’s governing coalition in 2009 in protest
against Sarkisian’s controversial policy of rapprochement with Turkey,
rather than his human rights or socioeconomic records.
The nationalist party had joined the coalition after recognizing
Sarkisian’s hotly disputed victory in the February 2008 presidential
election and essentially endorsing the deadly suppression
of post-election demonstrations organized by HAK leader Levon
Ter-Petrosian. The crackdown was ordered by Sarkisian’s predecessor
Robert Kocharian, whom Dashnaktsutyun supported throughout is
decade-long rule.
Ter-Petrosian and his associates accuse Dashnaktsutyun of continuing
to maintain close ties with Sarkisian. The Dashnaktsutyun leadership
dismisses these claims, saying that the HAK itself exposed its
readiness to cut secret deals with the Armenian authorities when it
embarked on a dialogue with them last month.
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