After the conflict between Georgia and Russia, when Armenian politicians started discussing the issue, prime-minister Tigran Sargsyan spoke about the Georgian opposition with great respect and said that the interests of the state were more important for them than the inner political issues. He showed that he respects the oppositions of Azerbaijan and Georgia, their conduct to protect the state interests by all means unlike the Armenian opposition.
It is clear that by saying opposition the PM means the movement led by Levon Ter-Petrosyan because after the presidential election other opposition parties became a part of the power directly or indirectly. Specifically, after the presidential election ARF member Vahan Hovhannisyan resigned from the vice-speaker’s position with the substantiation that the election was falsified but later due to Hrant Margaryan’s charming smile the ARF joined the coalition “for the sake of Karabakh and constructive policy”. The conduct of the LS and its leader cannot be considered as one of the brightest pages of our new history. Also, it is due to attention how Artur Baghdasaryan was criticizing Serzh Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan, after which he managed to convince everyone with beautiful phrases that he prevails the state interests and combined those interests with the private ones by joining the coalition. Another bright oppositionist, Artashes Geghamyan was breaking the stone by criticizing the government. However, after the election he came down and explained his decision with the fact that he prevails the national interests over his private ones. The same thing concerns Aram Gaspari Sargsyan and others too, who were scared of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s return.
On Friday, during the opposition’s rally the issues of Karabakh conflict became a reason for temporary rest of the opposition. We will not go through Ter-Petrosyan’s substantiations, the failures of Armenia’s foreign policy, revision of balanced policy, possible geopolitical developments and Karabakh issue, but will focus on his announcement stating that this cleptocratic government, represented by president Serzh Sargsyan, instead of focusing on the problems of the state is focusing on their legitimacy and efforts to keep the power. “The most important thing is Serzh Sargsyan’s weakness and the adequacy of using that opportunity. Due to tools such as lack of legitimacy, corruption and vulnerable moral image Serzh Sargsyan is a treasure for the West. Would any other leader of Armenia agree to “hug” the West, develop relations with NATO, turn to Russia with his back and make Russia be alienated from Minks group, support the establishment of a committee of Armenian and Turkish historians, thus driving the issue of the Armenian Genocide and its recognition under question, agree with the suggestion to conduct trilateral negotiations with Azerbaijan and Turkey, and eventually sell Karabakh?” he asked.
A situation has been created when someone says that a state official or politician has committed an awful sin or moral failure people think that it is possible. Accordingly it is easier to believe the accusations against Serzh Sargsyan. On the other hand, it is not good to freeze the movement in such difficult situation and allow the president, as they said, to sell Karabakh and be busy with legitimacy issues. Logically the opposition should protest and be more active not to let such deal come true. Ultimately what Ter-Petrosyan said in his speech at a past rally, does not make his decision logical. The mentioned announcement is the following: “If you remember in one of my past speeches I said that we prefer the national and state interests over anything and announced that in case of military danger to Karabakh I will ask my movement to stop the political struggle and be involved in the national movement. Due to the fact that the settlement of Karabakh conflict is close and it is equal to a military danger, I think that it is essential to do this petition. Certainly I don’t mean that we should stop the movement generally, but stopping the mass events such as demonstrations and marches for some time.”
Even though Ter-Petrosyan asked not to come to conclusions at once and read the entire text of the speech first, but after reading this speech the impression is that the story is the same and all opposition parties are ready to respect the state and national interests and let them sell Karabakh. It means that they are ready to leave the government alone with their fatal mistakes. Definitely this suspension of the opposition’s actions will last longer than two months because definitely they want to be free of accusations in being an obstacle for the government’s actions in the future. However it is worth mentioning that peaceful events and marches such as the recent one are not an obstacle for our statehood. On the other hand political marches cannot be considered as psychological pressure on the government because the authorities have got used to such demonstrations which have been lasting for several months. Furthermore, the fact is that the government still continues persecuting oppositionists, judges them and still keeps them in cells shows that they are not afraid of making more and more mistakes. Maybe it was not by chance that Ter-Petrosyan came up with this speech just before the Russian president’s visit to Armenia. Maybe it is a compromise with an expectation to get an adequate answer. If this expectation concerns releasing political detainees, it is understandable. “I want to disappoint those who suspect and want us to fail: it is not serious to look for components of deal or retreat in our decision,” said Ter-Petrosyan. Maybe it is not serious, but it is not logical for sure.