Our society is not ready to struggle against corruption and crime, even more, it is ready to serve criminals and corrupted persons that have money and can pay them well. Let’s remember what happened when two hunters that were sent to the forest by Henrik Kochinyan died under snow. There is no sense to speak about the reasons why the mentioned hunters went to the forest. What did the society do after the incident? What happened? What the parents did? They said that they didn’t have any complaints connected with Henrik Kochinyan. Now some political parties are trying to fight against criminal ties with the authorities. Theoretically it sounds well. The method of the mentioned strategy is clear; they are publishing names of officials that are connected with criminal groups, however, it is impossible to struggle against those criminals; they don’t have the power. The only way that makes it possible to struggle against crime and the criminal groups tied with the authorities is to stipulate a criminal group that is not connected with the authorities, but has money and power in the society to struggle with another criminal group that is tied with the authorities. In this framework the head of “New Times” party, Aram Karapetyan, thinks that the leader of “Prosperous Armenia” party, Gagik Tsarukyan is not tied with the criminal groups and suggests him to join them and struggle against the criminal ties with the authorities. In fact, Aram Karapetyan thinks that Gagik Tsarukyan is not connected with the mentioned criminal groups and wants him to collaborate with them. “The name of Gagik Tsarukyan is missing in my lists”, said Aram Karapetyan concerning our note and added, “Even if Gagik Tsarukyan had ties with the criminal groups in the past, it is in the past and he seems to be clear now. And now it is time to figure it out whether he is keeping with the ones that are struggling against the criminal groups or the ones that are advocating those groups”.
We talked to Aram Karapetyan last week and the “Prosperous Armenia” headquarter had not answered anything yet. However, recently journalist Aram Safaryan (he joined the “Prosperous Armenia” recently) diplomatically refuted the mentioned suggestion and hinted them that Gagik Tsarukyann was busy and couldn’t be involved in those actions. By the way, the leader of the NT was waiting for Gagik Tsarukyan’s answer so that he could find it out whether the latter was going to advocate the anti-criminal actions or stay in ties with them. We couldn’t ask what Aram Karapetyan thinks now since he is missing from the city and will be back on Sunday. We were informed by Aram Karapetyan as well that he didn’t have the name of NA deputy Levon Sargsyan (nickname- Lyovik of miller) in his lists either: “As for Lyov, personally I don’t have any information that would show that he has criminal ties. I can’t accuse and criticize anyone until I don’t have proven and justified facts. For publishing names we should have concrete information”.
Currently the society is waiting for new names impatiently. However, as soon as a name of a corrupted official is published people are getting less interested in him and following that disappointment people are waiting to learn new names. The “Intelligentsia Forum” that is the initiator of the mentioned anti-criminal activities published new names this week: Andranik Margaryan, Hovik Abrahamyan, Hrayr Karapetyan (ARF board member, former regional management board head of Aragatsotn region). As we know, neither of the mentioned politicians have answered to those announcements and spoken anything since they think that their information is baseless and it is just provocation. Concerning the mentioned information Hrayr Karapetyan says that the ones that spoke those things are either their former colleagues or just people that are trying to provoke him. Nevertheless, neither of the mentioned politicians has applied to court to bring a case. There are several reasons for that: a) the names are published without any concrete facts, b) are published by people that don’t play a key role in politics, c) the society does not think that corruption and crime are such bad things, d) those that are considered criminals don’t care about what the society thinks about them since their status does not depend on what the public opinion, e) oligarchs and officials are in good relations with the police and other relevant structures. Accordingly, hardly any politician that has a good role in politics may call the name of an oligarch since they are afraid that one day something may fall on their heads from the sky. As for the heavy things that are sometimes falling from the sky, it doesn’t happen by chance. Definitely this is the reason why the participants of the mentioned action are thinking well before publishing names and are choosing the names, which people know very well and it is not so dangerous to call those names.
We were informed by the head of the NT that they have more serious plans too, but are waiting for the moment when they will be given an opportunity to speak on TV so that they can totally publish the full list of the officials tied with criminal groups and the relevant information that they possess. However, that information does not make people active and the society is following that news in the same manner as it is following the developments in sports.