By interacting with different levels of Armenian society every day, taxi drivers get a lot of confidential information. According to many drivers, National Security Service workers have tried to get some information from them pretending to be an average passenger. Sometimes NSS workers work as taxi drivers with the purpose of getting information. Taxi drivers know very well what’s going on “behind the curtain” of the political stage and this time I talked with taxi drivers about Armenian politics with the following question: Who do you see as president of Armenia during the 2008 presidential elections?
“I have driven people responsible for fraud”
Despite his disappointment in Armenian elections, driver Gegham compares Armenian politics with a spring. Our country is currently at the last end of the spring, it can’t go back. It’s that bad. But I believe that the country’s situation is going to get better and we’re going to jump like the spring. That jump will help Armenia a lot,” he said. As for the question as to who he sees as the next president of Armenia, Gegham said: “It doesn’t matter; my voice isn’t going to be heard. I see how my friends cheat on me, I drive people responsible for fraud and have heard them talk about it: Why should I believe that they’re going to accept my vote?” says Gegham and adds that there is no presidential candidate in Armenia. “Let’s say I go to the elections to vote. Who can I vote for? Tell me, what’s the solution? I go and vote against each candidate, but then they commit fraud, so what’s my ballot worth?” As for oppositionist leaders, he says: “Is there really an opposition? They only say that they’re the opposition, but there is no ideology. Where is Stepan Demirchyan, Aram Sargsyan? The people don’t know anything about them. They say they are with the people, but the people don’t even know if they are here or what they’re doing. They’re looking for criminals, it’s a lie; I see criminals everywhere, but nothing has changed. My taxi hits a car and I get penalized; they hit cars and nothing happens. Organized crimes are called “crimes”, so they should really fight against themselves and not get the people involved.” With that said, Gegham says that the least he can do is vote for the current president of Armenia. “The only good thing about the current president is that he doesn’t go beyond the limit. He can’t be worse than he is now. He showed who he is to the people and the people know that he’s bad; but in any case, someone will come and we will find out how bad he is during the eight years, just like this president.” According to driver Gegham, Armenia is moving towards capitalism and only a revolution can help save the country. But the revolutionaries will be the next generation because the current political figures of Armenia “aren’t revolutionary enough”. As for parties, he said: “That’s just business. They have money and buy people.”
“Political figures are like us”
Forty-eight year old taxi driver Seryozha is certain that the only presidential candidate is leader of the “Inheritance” party Raffi Hovhannisyan. “Do you know why? Armenians from the Diaspora can’t be immoral like Armenians; they’re more civilized. But I don’t think that they’ll let Raffi become president because there are too many leaders in Armenia. If they do let him, he’ll change a lot of things. People like Raffi place a lot of emphasis on patriotism and they’re not like the current authorities who are giving away the country’s resources, swear by the name of this country and do the opposite of what they say,” says Seryozha and decides not to speak anymore because he doesn’t have time to predict the next president because he has too many social/economic issues.
“It’s a lie when they say that society is politicized. When a person sits in my taxi and starts complaining about his daily life, he doesn’t care about the presidential candidate or politics because his family is in a poor condition due to poverty. He barely pays me the money for the ride and I feel that he didn’t sit in a taxi because he was lazy to walk, but rather he is physically unable to move. People are tired, I can assure you.
Driver Mayis is drives with fear on the dangerous streets of Yerevan. He’s over 50 years old and tries to stay in tact with Armenian youth.
“I like to listen to rap and sometimes I dance to make my children laugh. I think that this country will really become a good country when people start respecting one another. Everyone complains, but nobody tries to look deep inside to find the reason. A person steals and says the country’s not good, a person fails and blames it on the country, gossips and curses and the country’s not good. Our political figures are like us and we blame the authorities for the bad discipline of our children. We’ve lost our moral values, but we demand that the authorities be moral. I see mothers sit in taxis to go pick up their children from school, but first they go to the hair salon, then put on so much make-up on them, excuse me, they wear short skirts showing their “butts”, it seems as though they’re going to a beauty contest. They spoil their children, buy them cell phones and blame the authorities. Once they showed a program about the president’s family. You should have seen how modest the president’s children were. He has a lot of money, but he doesn’t spoil them. A person is disciplined in the family. Why don’t they talk about the president’s family? I’m really amazed to see that people don’t want to mention the good things about this country. Whenever I start talking about the good things, they call me pro-government and start talking behind my back. I’m not pro-government, nor oppositionist, nor the so-called centralized, like Tigran Karapetyan says. I don’t like him because he keeps on gossiping. It doesn’t matter who the president will be because things will never change as long as people continue to blame the president for everything. The people will always complain no matter who comes to power.”
According to Sargis, 49, Armenia needs a smart and strong president and sees Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan as the candidate.
“We need someone like Vazgen”
Driver Vartan says: “There is no presidential candidate because they’re all alike and none of them deserves to be president. The worst thing will be to see Arthur Baghdasaryan from “Rule of Law” party stay in power. He’s horrible, so is Artashes Geghamyan-a cheater. Geghamyan is doing everything to reach fame and not the people. I really hate seeing current political leaders announce the number of party members they have. The residents of our street sent a letter to one of the party leaders to help us. They collected our passports and then said that they would solve the issue. I didn’t give my passport and became their enemy. I don’t want to go along with the “I’ll help you if you help me” principle. I want to live in a legal country. If that oligarch is going to do something for us, he doesn’t have to collect the votes and then do that. He can simply pay the taxes to the state and the state can take care of the job. It was better when Vazgen Sargsyan and Karen Demirchyan were in power. I don’t really care about elections or politics for that matter, but I had a good feeling when Vazgen was in power. It was like I had faith and I felt strong in my own country. We need someone like Vazgen. Vazgen was a fighter, an artist, a writer and overall a good person. We really need a president like Vazgen. Vazgen was a hero and even elders wanted to be like him. It’s not always that the people like a leader when he’s alive, but Vazgen was different; everyone liked him. But the current authorities are only thinking about themselves.” As for taxi driver Norair, he’s certain that the majority of people aren’t going to take part in the upcoming elections, so the people can commit as much fraud as they want.
“They can commit as much fraud as they want because they can even do that if the people actually vote. Kocharyan won’t run for president, Defense Minister Serzh Sargsyan will block him with a single blow, Geghamyan is nothing, it’s dangerous to talk about businessman MP Gagik Tsarukyan, Demirchyan is going to stay under the shade, while Aram Sargsyan is once again going to say ‘they committed fraud”.
Driver Garik sees Defense Minister of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan as the next president of Armenia.
“He’s ready to go. He’s strong, smarter than everyone else and can come to terms with everyone. He helped out the young Armenian chess players reach victory and is still helping them,” he says.