It’s been awhile since everything has been going on in a wrong and strange way. The reasons of that may be sought in the widespread “ruralization” dominating in our country.
Unfortunately, it has become a normal phenomenon in our society when the intellectual and professional people are replaced by “morons”, “jerks”, or more accurately to say “rural mass” (no offense to villagers or farmers). Some pessimists think that this ruralization of our society is no longer preventable and noting can withstand this process. Many of those pessimists would probably stop thinking the mentioned way if they were present at the meeting organized by the “Alternative” Public and Political Initiative on February 3, where they were speaking about the creation of a new mentality in our country, where everybody will occupy a role he/she deserves.
“Alternative” has no alternative
The meeting of the “Alternative” Political Initiative took place in the largest hall of Armenia Marriott, during which not only all the seats were busy but it was also no space to stand there. About 1000 people came to this meeting. The “Alternative” Public and Political Initiative has two proposals for the international organizations which will observe the parliamentary election on May 12, and one proposal for Armenia. First, the observers should not visit several polling stations during the voting day but should choose 100-120 polling stations and “observe the process from the beginning till the end.” According to the Alternative, in this case it will be possible to compare the results of the polling stations with observers and polling stations without observers, and “the real picture of electoral fraud will be clear”. The second proposal of the “Alternative” refers to the news that this or that international organization is likely to spend a sum for the promotion and establishment of democracy in Armenia. “We suggest that they buy airtime and give quotas to the forces which have problems. We know from the previous elections that the privately-owned channels offer astronomical prices. It is clear that an oligarch can afford to pay for airtime, whereas many political forces cannot. In addition, the potato advertisement has broken the balance,” stated Nicol Pashinyan and added that international organizations should accept this proposal if they are really interested. And one proposal for Armenia. It is necessary to give a clear evaluation of the distribution of goods and services before the election, which is illegal. The “Alternative” Public and Political Initiative agrees that forces which are carrying out such activities should not be allowed to participate in the election. “It would be a legal approach.” “If no such steps are taken, we should not think about the election that is imposed on us, our election should be alternative. The election should be held, the results should be released, the results should be implemented through other mechanisms,” the “Alternative” believes. On February 5 the members of the Alternative Public and Political Initiative Nicol Pashinyan and Petros Makeyan held a press conference February 5 at the Friday Club. On February 20 Alternative will kick off a series of rallies to lead people to the square and “return the prerogative of decision making to the public”. The basic principle of the Alternative is to wage an ideological struggle and work with those who are ready to replace the strife for being the first by the good will to be the last, their companion is the citizen of the Republic of Armenia. For the Alternative it is not important what results are released after one poll or another, or how a question or another is solved in the EU. “We have our model of the state, we want to set up a state which is identical to people, such as Tigran Mansuryan.” The representatives of the Alternative say thus they differ from other movements, they do not act against, they act for the sake of something, and lay at the heart of their struggle “a definite model of the future, not only denying or rejecting the reality but showing what kind of a project we lay at the heart of our activities.” The Alternative proposes distinguishing voting from election and states that the election has already set off, the Alternative takes part in the election and endorses the idea of nominating 41 opposition candidates in 41 constituencies. “It is not important what status each will get after this political process, the future status of our ideas is important,” stated Nicol Pashinyan. About two months and a half is left until the parliamentary election. The initiators of the Alternative state that their struggle is not determined by the election. “We want to form new mentality, new consciousness. We will go all the way to bring into being our ideas.” “We have always made statements and undertaken actions for Arman Babajanyan. With a group of heads of a number of media we tried to hold a live debate with the Prosecutor General or any other representative of the Office of the Prosecutor General on the Public Television but the leadership of H1 Channel refused giving elusive explanations,” said Nicol Pashinyan. He says H1 channel shot the meeting of the Alternative on February 3 but, in fact, did not report on the meeting. “Either they shot the meeting for the special services or were waiting until everyone would leave the hall to televise the empty hall. But it did not do,” Nicol Pashinyan concludes. He says H1 is the flagman of propaganda of Gagik Tsarukyan, Serge Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan in the society. Therefore, it is not accidental that the central topic of one of the first rallies of the Alternative will be the state of the freedom of speech in Armenia.