ONLY SELF-ORGANIZED CITIZENS CHANGE THE POLICY
January 28 2014
According to Ruben Mehrabyan, expert of “Center for Political and
International Studies”, Ukraine events show that the self-organized
civic potential can turn into a serious political factor – Mr.
Mehrabyan, recently, unfortunate events taking place in Ukraine is
often pointed out, and attempts are made to justify Armenia’s choice
made on September 3, in the sense that here see what is happening in
Ukraine, but we are a small country, could we choose a different way…
? Are there any grains of truth in such comments? – Of course, no,
there is no gain in such comments, nor, particularly, the truth.
Today, Ukrainian people create a free Ukraine, its modern history,
becoming a beacon of freedom not only for the post-Soviet states,
including Armenia, but also for Russia. Of course, this process is
accompanied by painful events: the authorities have unleashed massive
violence and bloodshed, people coming out to peaceful protest are
killed. They have become the heroes of the Resistance Movement, whose
name will be used to name the streets and squares. But, 20-year-old
Sergey Nigoyan, who was deceased in Euromaidan, in Kiev, forever
united Fighting Armenia and Fighting Ukraine with brotherhood ties.
Criminal-oligarchic, corrupt, anti-civilization regime “Black
international” that was formed almost throughout the entire territory
of the former USSR headed by Putin’s regime and sponsorship, it is
clear that no discrimination will be put into the resources, nor the
country, no matter it is Ukraine, or Armenia, or elsewhere. We were
the witnesses of it in Yerevan, on March 1st, and we are witnessing
today, when in Kiev, as well as in Armenia in 2008, the government
unleashed the police and criminal terror resulting in the death of
civilians. It is the same handwriting, they are authorities driven
by the same “values”, which are openly sponsored and “inspired” by
“spiritual fathers” of the Kremlin. Simply, the realities in Armenia
and Ukraine are different due to regional peculiarities. The most
important amongst them: Ukraine does not have Karabakh conflict
and Ukraine has a direct border with the United Europe. And , as
for the claim that Armenia’s September 3 decision was “inevitable”,
especially as justification bringing developments in Ukraine, then
it does not stand any test. In the process of four years, Armenia was
negotiating with the EU, and the authorities had time and opportunity
to conduct internal reforms. In the meantime, the government was
busy with imitation, deception, and self-delusion. The opposition,
in turn, turning the EU Association Agreement into a trump card not
only could, but also should compel the authorities to go for real
changes. It should definitely to put pressure on the government in
some issues, like elimination of monopolies, separation of business and
politics, ensuring real independence of the judiciary, tax and customs
liberalization for the benefit of small and medium-sized businesses,
and so on. In fact, in the background of government imitation,
the very opposition was obliged to explain to the citizens that the
European idea, which is also the idea of Liberty, Rights and the Law,
is the pathway with no alternative, which also provides well-being
to Armenia with no raw materials and landlocked, that there is no
well-being without freedom. Instead, we saw a persistent endeavor
to cooperate with more “named” oligarchs, with some dubious Russian
circles. In fact, the European idea remained politically “ownerless”,
except for a few number of parties. And, the Armenian opposition,
generally, appeared more puppet than even the authorities, whose
“merits” have long been well-known to us. So, there could not be any
excuse or explanation to this cowardly, degrading and dangerous move
of September 3. – In the government session, last week, the Action
Plan on Armenian accession to the Customs Union and to the Belarus,
Kazakhstan and Russia’s common economic area was approved: the schedule
for implementation of the “road map”. The authorities stated that only
one or two days of work of technical issues and accurate translation
is left to bring everything to the end. Is it justified in keeping the
document secret from the community, given the fact that there was no
lack of people requiring the EU Association Agreement made public? –
The decision of Armenian authorities to join this “Customs Union”
called tyranny alliance, does not have anything to do with real
interests of the Republic of Armenia, and our citizens, but also
directly contradicts them. And making the “road map” of this infamous
process public, of course, is not so easy and a pleasant thing to
do. Maybe, it will be made public, and it will be a bureaucratic,
nothing containing document that will conceal this, in fact, loss
of sovereignty, national humiliation, “Anschluss” process, simply
by serving as a smokescreen. Those demanding publication of the
EU Agreement, yes, are silent now, they no longer demand neither
this nor the publication of CU accession documents. Moreover, the
present silence is like a “conspiracy of silence” under which this
capitulation occurs, by the principle of “Sovereignty for preservation
of power”. And, frothy, non-binding and, in fact, harmless calls of
some opposition circles regarding resignation of Serzh Sargsyan and
Tigran Sargsyan (it seems they also were thrilled and left after it)
transfer necessary dose and background of the scene required for this
process. – Since January 2014, the amendments in RF laws on entry and
stay of foreign citizens entered into effect. Under the new, stricter
procedures, foreign citizens have the right to stay in Russia at no
more than 3 months, 90 days, after which they must leave the country.
In your opinion, how much is this consistent with the goals
periodically voiced by Russian authorities about the Eurasian
integration? – Of course, this is a positive trend. Naturally, this
new procedure is contrary to the so-called “Eurasian integration”
logic. Not only the wave of anti-migrant sentiments are increased among
Russians, which is quite understandable, but also many Russians rightly
accuse the authorities due to corruption reasons for encouraging this
multimillion “flood” of immigrants. All this is accompanied by the
most ugly variations and lead the country to fascistization. Hence,
the Kremlin imperialists can not ignore this reality. On the other
hand, this is also a positive trend in terms of Armenia. The Armenian,
expropriated by the oligarchy, and having a bread and butter issue
would seriously think of whether to stay in the homeland, fight as a
citizen for the sake of freedom and rights of his and his children,
or to be guided by the advice of the Prime Minister to catch the
road of migration to avoid the “revolution”. – On January 24, the
Constitutional Court decided to suspend the action of Article 76 and
clause 3 of Article 86 of the Law on “Funded Pensions” until the end of
the trial on constitutionality of the law. Is this a concession by the
authorities? Did the fight of the public sector produce its results,
or the authorities just temporarily are doing such a step back? – Of
course, this is a concession by the authorities. The unprecedented
mass rally held on January 18, which I am sure, is not the last,
forced the authorities to step back.
However, this is a temporary concession, and the authorities, as well
as during the “100 dram” movement, rebounding, will wait for the right
opportunity to nevertheless “concede from underneath” this ill-fated
law. No need to lose vigilance, to increase pressure, and continue
to disallow various political groups trying to exploit this brilliant
movement for their narrow partisan goals. In addition, this movement
showed how important the self-organization of citizens, the increase
in potential of lawful, peaceful, and massive fight is. Ukrainian
events show that the self-organized civil potential can be turned
into a serious political factor, which can only in this way compel
the authorities and the opposition to reckon with their interests,
to exclude their shady deals at the expense of its interests and the
future, prolonging the existence of criminal-oligarchic existence,
which we have witnessed in Armenia several years ago, and serve
their own citizens, and not to be engaged in, let’s say, “and-and”
imitation jugglery or “political analysis”, which inevitably end in
inglorious conclusion. We, the citizens of the Republic of Armenia,
are obliged to learn these lessons, and we have no other way. Only
self-organized citizens are capable to change the policy: both
domestic and foreign, for the benefit of their interests. This is
the only way we can qualify for a truly free and independent Armenia.
Emma GABRIELYAN
Read more at:
http://en.aravot.am/2014/01/28/163538/