“I don’t think there may be any honest person in Armenia, who can go against and not to endorse us. It is a pity that there are a lot of scoundrels but believe me that the bigger our movement is becoming the less scoundrels there are”.
This is a part from Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s speech on February 23. When I am reading this part my heart is beating faster. I don’t endorse Levon. My wife, relatives, friends, children and me – all we are scoundrels.
My friend says that his daughter takes part in their actions and does not attend the classes. I asked him whether his daughter was a Levon’s supporter. “No, what are you saying man? But if she goes to her classes the others will say that she is a scoundrel”.
During the campaign I passed nearby the Opera house and heard Ter-Petriosyan’s speech: “This rally and the demonstrations have shown that the separation line is clear now; on the one side there are honored, free, brave, hero citizens, the Armenian people, and on the other side the scoundrels of the nation”.
During the entire campaign period the media supporting Levon was drawing a separation line to separate people into two groups – scoundrels and heroes, the “honored people” and betrayers of the nation. It was making us nervous, but there was no reaction. Now there is some reaction: I can see how the honored man of the nation is trying to take the rule.
Levon Ter-Petrosyan announced during the campaign that he had already won the rival. He declared himself as a winner before the election would take place by using the falsification mechanism worked out by him during 13 years and using the disappointment of people offered a revolution escalation. Shavarsh Kocharyan says that it is the same scenario as they did in 1996: at that time they were saying they would not give the power even if their opponents got 100% of the votes, and now they are saying that they will win and take the power even if they get less than the 50% of the votes.
Levon Ter-Petrosyan said that their supporters would stay in the Liberty square as long as they need until they can take him to the president’s office on their hands.
During the rally they criticized everyone who were not with them – Serzh Sargsyan, Nicals Sarkozy and other people who had congratulated the newly elected president, even the international organizations and monitors who had estimated the election positively, they collected signatures demanding the Catholicos to resign and called everyone who were not with them betrayers.
Another person, an academician of physics, said that his student, who had become scientist, had invited him to Levon’s pre-election headquarter and Ashot Manucharyan tried to convince him to help a group of other academicians to joint their movement, but he refused and his student said, “You have chosen the way to slavery”. He was shocked because he had trained that student during many years and now he insults him because of Levon.
The next day they announced that all intelligentsia representatives who hadn’t joined them were bad people and had chosen the way to slavery.
Once I met a representative of an independent media in a bus. He was coming from the rally and he was speaking actively and said that he wanted changes. As for me, I had forgotten that it would be better to change something in the country since Levon had called me a scoundrel.
Those people who are shocked by this situation are not participating in the rallies, they don’t have places to express themselves and they don’t have access to newspapers; those who have computers they express their discontent with electronic means. One of such people has written the following: “Write, speak about this disease all the time, open the eyes of people, I know that it is difficult, I know that they are protected by different conventions, they have strong support from everywhere, but we shouldn’t keep silence and I don’t want to keep silence either as the country is undermined,” one of them wrote.
In addition, political analyst Anush Sedrakyan has compared Ter-Petrosyan with “the Christ” during a round table on the radio Liberty.
“I heard that, but it is not the end yet. A journalist had a speech during the rally on the 20th and said that a person saw a dream in 49 and was told that in 40 years the Levon the 7th king would come and eventually everything would be good with the Armenians”.
Furthermore, “when they speak about Charles Aznavour, by their methods and lie say that the reason of the cold and dark years was the war, and say that Vazgen Manukyan is a coward, when they hear them saying that Levon is a god and Sargsyan is a satan, what can we think? (it’s about manipulating the crowds)”. “It is very hard to struggle against them; they can say such things that there will be no limits. They say that who is against Levon is from Serzh’s office”.
During a forum people have discussed how to express their votes: “Let’s gather all those people who are neither with Serzh nor with Levon. This is what we should think about and if we want to do that, we should hurry”. “We need to look for supporters in politics. We can’t do anything without such support”.
“Levon’s supporters and others may think that it is organized by Serzh’s supporters. Thus, we should clearly show that we are against both Levon and Serzh”.
It is late to look for a second party, the elections are over and now the voice of the third party is dumped by the two poles in politics; it can be heard only too late after a tragedy”.
ArmeniaNow reporter
P.S. To note, Vahan Ishkanyan has published this article long ago, before the March 1 events (on February 29).