The campaign of presidential elections in Nagorno-Karabakh due on July 19 has entered into a conclusive phase, which has also created certain activeness in the political life of Armenia and media.
This once again comes to prove the belittling effect of the process of NKR, including the presidential elections, on the Armenian reality and the perfunctory judgments and approaches made in this regard. The Karabakhi reality and the presidential elections are reviewed in a stereotyped prism in Armenia. These stereotypes, often being quite artificial, may be very dangerous in terms of formulation of approaches. For example, for years the Armenian mass media outlets have been entrenched the idea that in NKR there is no opposition. The government conducts almost totalitarian control over everything and everyone. Every contrasting and differing idea is being persecuted, etc. In fact, it would be enough to go in Karabakh for a few days, observe the processes from inside to realize that these ideas, mildly-said are not compatible with reality. Yes, in Karabakh there is no institutionalized opposition but it is mostly because of the lack of internal developments not as much result of policies implemented by the government as the Armenian media outlets presents. However, as the stereotypical idea of opposition is the most important thing everything develops around that stereotype logic. And the presidential elections are a good occasion for that. During the presidential race due on July 19 the main competition proceeds between the incumbent president of NKR Bako Sahakyan and an NKR NA MP, former deputy-minister of defense, an NKR hero Vitali Balasanyan. It would be really exaggerated to claim that this struggle is very tense and active. At any rate, the pre-election campaign proceeding in NKR doesn’t create such an impression. An impression of election bidding mostly is created in social networks and in certain media sources of Armenia. In this dimension, Balasanyan is presented in the image of a hero. And we don’t mean him a hero of Karabakh war but as the only fighter of opposition in NKR. Perhaps, it can only be a positive thing that Balasanyan acts with the image of opposition and has oppositional views with the prospect of uniting the opposition groups of NKR, can be viewed only as a positive thing. But the campaign of the presidential elections of Karabakh shows that the flaws of the Armenian election bidding also penetrate into Nagorno-Karabakh. And the most dangerous flaw is the approach of the Armenian government “goals justify means,” which in the case of NKR contains foreign threats. For example, a few days ago over 100 liberators of Karabakh war sent an open letter to Serzh Sargsyan requesting him to mediate in the conduct of presidential elections. “It’s no secret that the influence of the Armenian government plays a decisive role in the presidential race of Artsakh. The Karabakhi voter takes into consideration the opinion of the Armenian government. In 2007 elections you have personally endorsed Bako Sahakyan’s candidacy, which significantly affected the latter’s elections. Many of us have trusted you and your judgment in regard of the fulfillment of our expectations. With that being said, the past five years have showed that Bako Sahakyan has not gratified our expectations and has strained from the key provisions of his platform… You also share certain responsibility for this because during his tenure Sahakyan has always had your support. In the upcoming presidential race we expect that you will use your influence over the authorities of Artsakh and deter them from using administrative resources and encourage them to conduct legal elections. Their attempts of using illegal methods contain lots of threats for the future of Artsakh,” read the statement. Besides being astounding this statement also contains certain foreign threats. The ridiculous thing is that the NKR warriors reiterate that Serzh Sargsyan has been using his levers of power over NKR authorities. And now they demand that the president used these demands to preclude the illegal actions of the government of NKR. And the foreign threat is that the warriors of NKR and citizens declare to the world and international community that Armenia fully has its impact over NKR. But we shouldn’t forget that the main playing card of Armenia is that NKR is a de facto independent state. Moreover, this fact is being forgotten and ignored by the majority of groups endorsing this or the other candidate. They don’t even maintain the internal etiquette of not interfering with the internal affairs of the state. Yesterday about 40 Armenian scientists of Armenia made a statement endorsing Vitali Balasanyan. They justified this with the fact that Balasanyan in his electoral platform, which stem from the recommendations of scientists to increase the support of scientists. It anticipates bigger allotments from state budget for the development of science. It’s hard to tell what kind of linkage there is with Balasanyan especially in light of the fact that his pre-election campaign relates to Nagorno-Karabakh. The same can also be said about the other candidate endorsed by the Armenian government Vitali Balasanyan. The government couldn’t find a better tool than the statement of the chairman of Syunats Artsiv NGO Khachik Asryan, which supports Bako Sahakyan. Of course, Asryan made the statement in the name of the NGO that belongs to him but he also works as a deputy-minister so it’s hard to claim that he could have made statements on his own without the permission of his superiors. By the way, in this regard, the most correct statement was the one of the Union of Yerkrapahs in response to the demand of the warriors of NKR war. “The Union of Yerkrapahs supports the judgment of the people of NKR and stands next to them but thinks that it cannot interfere with the internal affairs of an independent state, especially when we are speaking of electoral processes. The Union thinks that the attempts of endorsing any candidate in NKR would mean violation of laws and constitution. This is purely the power of the people of NKR and neither the Armenian government nor the opposition has the right to interfere,” reads the statement of the Union of Yerkrapahs. It’s hard to say what kind of effect this statement will have on the voters of NKR. More clearly, it won’t have any influence because in Artsakh people live their lives in a different way and the statements of Armenian groups about Artsakh are very far from reality. In about a week the presidential elections in NKR will end and the people will get back to their routine lives. And the best help to their lives would be abstaining from mediation. In this sense, the only meaningful statements of Armenian groups addressed to the Armenian and Karabakhi government was to allow the media outlets objectively and equally cover the presidential elections of Artsakh due on July 19.
Armen VARDANYAN