Dean of the Sociology department of the Yerevan State University and leader of the “Dignity” party Lyudmila Harutyunyan was the speaker during a press conference held at the National Press Club on Friday.
The topic of the discussion was political/social developments in Armenia and in its neighboring countries.
According to Mrs. Harutyunyan, after 1996, Armenia went through a peaceful period during which it could have strengthened its independence, statehood and solved other important issues. So, ten years later, we cn ask ourselves: how did we do? L. Harutyunyan gave the answer to her question, saying that the state has solved its issues while stabilizing, but society hasn’t been able to. Society hasn’t been able to get stronger.
“Society wasn’t able to make the Armenian authorities dependent, rather society stayed dependent” said Mrs. Harutyunyan.
Harutyunyan thinks that Armenian society is immobile when it comes time to solve important issues and considers that as the major problem. According to the speaker, only one level of society has solved its problems-owners. This has led to the fact that the authorities aren’t afraid of society. Harutyunyan is certain that the authorities are also to blame for the weakness of Armenian society. The state functions to strengthen society, but the authorities don’t need a strong society.
Mrs. Harutyunyan considers the current opposition, which had to lead the society, as weak and non-ideological. “The issues of the current opposition remain unsolved,” she said and mentioned that the opposition isn’t abel to mobilize Armenian society.
As for the weak ideologies of the political parties, it’s not only characteristic of the opposition, but also other parties.
“What we have is a consolidation of parties without a serious ideology,” said Mrs. Harutyunyan and added that that’s dangerous. According to her, the union of parties only serves for election purposes and it’s accepted to call them “electoral machines”. Meanwhile, that same consolidation is just what the opposition needs and if the opposition doesn’t unite as one, then Armenians will stay with whatever they have.
The speaker also touched upon the influence that foreign countries have on Armenia’s internal affairs.
“Some Armenians think that Europeans will bring us democracy, while others think that the Russians will, others think that the authorities will establish democracy and the rest think that the opposition will,” said Mrs. Harutyunyan and placed emphasis on the organization of public gatherings for the purpose of public discussions on these issues. Afterwards, she drew her attention to the fact that “all institutional changes are made under the pressure of the West”. Those changes include the laws, projects fighting against corruption, etc. “It’s all done by the West; all we have to do is obey the laws, but Armenians don’t do that,” said the speaker, who thinks that Armenians should solve most of the issues. “Each of us has his own destiny,” said Harutyunyan and placed emphasis on the role that mass media play. “Mass media only talk about two main issues-the Armenian Genocide and the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. It seems as though none of those issues depends on Armenia. The first depends on the roles of different countries, while the other depends on the OSCE Minsk Group,” said Harutyunyan and added: “There is no third issue that we can’t solve ourselves.”
There were obviously questions about the upcoming elections in Armenia. Mrs. Harutyunyan believes that the proprietors have the highest expectations from the elections. Armenian society hopes to see fair elections. However, according to the speaker, not only does Armenia need fair elections, but also the Armenian National Assembly must have a “mass of critics with an alternative mentality”, which will be able to change the Armenian reality.
For the time being, Lyudmila Harutyunyan doesn’t know for sure whether or not her party will take pat in the upcoming parliamentary elections, It will probably be clear in two months. However, if some parties take control of all the pre-election campaign headquarters, then it will simply be absurd to participate in the elections. In response to my question as to whether she wants to struggle or not, Mrs. Harutyunyan replied: “I want to and I’m struggling by talking about these kinds of things. This is also a way to struggle.”