TIME FOR POLITICAL JUGGLING IN THE PAST
Lilit Poghosyan
"Hayots Ashkharh" Daily Newspaper
7 Nov 07
Armenia
ARMEN ASHOTYAN, member of the NA "Republican" faction answers the
questions of the correspondent of "Hayots Ashkharh"
"Very often we discuss the necessity of imparting an ‘ideological’
sense to the political campaign. Do you see any traces of an
ideological struggle at the current pre-electoral stage?"
"An ideological campaign implies different social systems, a struggle
of various political-scientific trends proposing various models of
development. We have passed that stage in 1990-1991. As a model of
state system, Armenia chose to build, let’s not say the Western type
model, but rather the model of a social state, based on the principles
of democracy and rule of law.
And its supremacy is enshrined in the RA Constitution and a number of
obligations to which Armenia has committed itself under international
law.
Therefore, we cannot anticipate any ideological campaign as such.
As to the rest, I believe it will better to call them a program-based
struggle because the principal goals, the so-called targets are
already enshrined for Armenia. It is the methods towards achieving
those goals that may be different, and the purpose of the elections
is to enable the political faction to try and convince the people by
their electoral programs that by choosing this or that methodology
we can pass that path more quickly and more effectively.
Perhaps, a program-based campaign will be a success; however, it is
early to speak about the programs unless the official campaign starts,
the candidates are nominated, registered and have their pre-electoral
booklets published. All this is still to come.
And in general, I think that certain political trends are already being
sketched in our reality. The first are the factions which are ready
to work and act in the field of self-critical constructivism. They
have demonstrated by their activity that they are able to bear
responsibility for the country and society. They include the RPA
and PAP.
The second group includes the factions that preach fanatic hatred and
negativism and have adopted the practice of a total anti-campaign. They
have a problem in terms of seeing themselves in the mirror, and they
must be accountable enough to apply the tactics of compromising the
others in relation to themselves and only thereafter try to measure
others’ corn by their own bushel.
The third group includes the political factions that will try to
maneuver between obvious favoritism and obvious marginalism. These may
be both the ARFD candidate, and the candidates representing "Rule of
Law", NDU as well as the People’s Party; they can and will probably
propose their candidacy."
"From time to time we can hear that the Karabakh issue must not be
‘speculated’ during the upcoming elections. Do you think the candidates
have the right to overlook the problem?"
"Naturally, it will be impossible to overlook the Karabakh problem
for the simple reason that this is a strategic issue maintaining its
actuality in society, and the voters must clearly know what approaches
the candidates have with regard to this issue. The opponents often
accuse us of speculating the problem, arguing that the anarchy and
the unpredictable developments may be destructive for Karabakh. Of
course, their formulations are offensive, and mildly speaking, have
nothing to do with politics.
Our approach is plain and clearly formulated. That is, first: the
international ratification of Karabakh’s right to self-determination,
second: the NKR-RA common land border and communication
facilities. Third, the Karabakh issue cannot be resolved at the
expense of the RA territorial integrity. And fourth: international
guarantees for security and humanitarian and economic assistance by
the international community. I believe this is a very honest approach,
and our society is well-aware of it.
Other political factions which are trying to solve a problem of
political reanimation, mean unilateral concessions by Armenian side
when they pronounce the word Karabakh; they do not clearly formulate
their approaches and make hints that it is necessary to cede Karabakh,
but they are not honest enough to announce about it and are trying to
disguise their intentions between the lines, thus misleading the voter.
Moreover, they are trying to set the two groups of our people against
each other, by saying that all the problems of Armenia are due to
Karabakh.
Let’s cede Karabakh, and we will have two TV sets instead of one,
there will be 2 kilograms more sausage in the refrigerator. Thus, by
treading on the people’s social "corns", they are trying to exchange
Karabakh for certain social privileges, as if it were some currency.
Our people, to their great honor, have condemned such approaches
from the outset and are ready to keep on the alert for a couple of
more years, but they will never try to solve certain problems at the
expense of their own security, dignity and future, especially at the
price of violating Karabakh’s right to self-determination."
"One of the newspapers plainly stated that under the rule of the
Armenian pan-National Movement Armenia, with its industry, ranked
as the 8th state among the CIS countries (calculated per capita),
whereas now it ranks as the 10th state."
"Many people have been juggling the economic indices. But I think it
is obvious that the political juggling, i.e. trickery, will not work
during the upcoming elections."