VOTE 2013: HAYRIKYAN POINTS AT ‘RUSSIAN IMPERIALISM’ IN WAKE OF SHOOTING ATTACK
VOTE 2013 | 04.02.13 | 10:47
Photo: Paruyr Hayrikyan official Facebook page
By NAIRA HAYRUMYAN
ArmeniaNow correspondent
Presidential candidate Paruyr Hayrikyan, who was wounded in an
apparent assassination attempt late last week, is soon expected to
announce his decision on whether he wants the campaign to be suspended
and elections postponed by two weeks – an opportunity given by the
Constitution – or he rather sees no ‘insurmountable obstacles’ to his
electioneering.
Whatever the candidate decides in this respect, however, one thing is
clear – the shooting at the candidate by a yet unidentified gunman has
changed not only the pre-election situation, but also the entire logic
of political events in Armenia. In particular, the matter concerns an
attempt to make the foreign policy factor more prominent in the
current presidential race.
And this was done by Hayrikyan himself. The Soviet-era dissident, who
spent 17 years in prison camps and was eventually exiled by Soviet
authorities to Ethiopia, blamed the ‘Russian imperialism’ for the
attack. He tied the assassination attempt with his statements about
the European way of development having no alternative for Armenia.
Hayrikyan claimed he was being chased by the same secret services that
persecuted him in Soviet times when he advocated Armenia’s state
independence.
The claim did not elicit any broad response from Russia which did not
even officially condemn the attack on the presidential candidate in
Armenia. A Sunday report on Russian state television about the events
in Armenia did not include a single reference to Hayrikyan’s
accusations.
In contrast, through its spokesperson, the United States State
Department condemned the Thursday attack on one of the opposition
presidential candidates in Armenia, urging the South Caucasus nation
to settle the problem that has emerged amid the ongoing campaign
“constitutionally”. In other words, Washington would not mind if the
presidential election in Armenia would actually be delayed by two
weeks.
Meanwhile, there are no signs yet that the perpetrator of the crime or
its possible masterminds will be found.
Almost all other presidential candidates, except the incumbent
president, do not mind postponing the Election Day. Candidate Andrias
Ghukasyan, who is on an open-ended hunger strike now, even addressed
an open letter to Hayrikyan, suggesting that he demand new elections,
because the fact that the gunman is not found and all candidates are
under threat constitutes an “insurmountable obstacle” for the
elections. He said that in that case he would quit his hunger strike,
and all of them would be fighting for free elections in which there is
no place for the ruling Republican Party and its candidate, whom
Ghukasyan holds responsible for rigging the previous elections.
Political analyst, chairman of the Partnership for Democracy Stepan
Danielyan says that if Hayrikyan appeals to the Constitutional Court
and demands new elections, it would mean that until the new election
Serzh Sargsyan, under the Constitution, would have to resign his
powers as head of state.
“It is one thing when Sargsyan is the current president and a
candidate, and another when he is only a candidate. I think
competitive elections would be possible to hold in that case,” argued
Danielyan.
The political analyst believes that conditioning the internal
political processes in Armenia by foreign policy matters is dangerous.
At the same time, he thinks it is necessary to appoint new elections
in Armenia to start building a Free Armenia from scratch.
Among “internal” versions of the shooting at Hayrikyan is the one
claiming that the forces who “regretted” not having fielded a
candidate in the February 18 election may have tried to scuttle the
current process. Meanwhile, law-enforcement agencies promise to find
the culprit, but the practice of disclosure of political crimes in
Armenia shows that they largely remain unresolved.
No one has yet been found and punished for shooting at demonstrators
in the post-election riots on March 1, 2008. Ten people, including
eight civilians, were killed then. And many believe this latest
political shooting will also remain unsolved, not least because in
that case it would be easier for everyone to advance their own
theories suiting them best.
It is remarkable that on the day after the attack, Collective Security
Treaty Organization Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha, who was in
Armenia together with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu as
recently as January 28-29, said that it still remained a matter of
investigation to determine whether it was an assassination attempt or
not. In fact, he put forward the theory that the attack was meant just
to scare Hayrikyan and others. If so, the question is “what for?”.
Some believe the further course of the electoral process in Armenia
might provide an answer to it.