Most people in Armenia think that the authorities are not elected by the people, but rather are appointed by powerful countries. This has gone so far that there are politicians proud to be backed by other states.
For example, recently head of New Times (NT) party, Aram Karapetyan said in his interview given to our newspaper, “Personally, I think that Russians will target on Aram Karapetyan. As for the US, they will look for a candidate that, despite being pro-Russian, will advocate their main principles, which are democracy, free market, and who will consider that there are several million Armenians in the US. I think that the US has already made their choice”. Based on what he said, we may assume that candidates are not proposed by local people, but by geopolitically powerful states. So, maybe what the opposition says concerning fair elections and public vote are fake too, maybe they are ready to do the same to reach their goal advocated by other states. We understand that big countries have their interests in the world, but that still doesn’t mean that they have deals to decide who will become president in other countries, at the same time, in some cases against the public will. According to head of Christian-Democratic party, Khosrov Harutyunyan, this mentality may lead to negative results. “Our society doesn’t really pay attention to the fact that some politicians are backed by foreign special services and are supported by other states. We say that Bush invited someone to the US, another politician was invited by the Congress and that we should wait until he returns and decides what to do. We are not concerned about the fact that this is all about the Armenian authorities. I want to have a president that will not serve other countries, but will first protect my strategic interests”, said Kh. Harutyunyan and asked what we should do if the US or Russia don’t like the next elected president. As for Aram Karapetyan, he doesn’t worry over this. He says that we shouldn’t mix patriotism with geopolitical interests. He says that even Iran, which is the most developed country in the region, wants to rely either on Russia or China. As for big countries, they do their best to spread their influence on other countries. “There is a tendency in the world now, according to which big states try to spread their influence on other states because they have a problem surviving in the world as a powerful geopolitical state. This is the reason why they want to bring up their own candidates. Now Armenia is a state that was founded by non-professional people and it’s not developing the right way. All Armenia has is pseudopatriotism, because the weaker we are the more other countries will develop their interests in our state. We are weak now. If we become stronger, they will still continue to develop their interests here, but in that case they will have to consider our interests too”, said Aram Karapetyan. The head of NT thinks that all candidates who will try to lead Armenia to development and make it an important geopolitical state should be considered as Armenian candidates. “They call me a candidate proposed by Russia, a Russian spy, but you see that these authorities are the ones that give strategic businesses to Russia. If I can develop Armenia, I am an Armenian candidate. If anyone from another country does that, he/she is an Armenian candidate too. If someone grown up in America does that, he is Armenian candidate too. There are people that say someone is an American candidate, someone is Russian… They are some kind of product produced in this or that country”, says head of NT and brings up the example of Singapore, “The prime minister of Singapore was invited from England, he hadn’t seen Singapore before, but he managed to develop that country better than anyone else.” According to member of “Republic” party (which is the most pro-Western party) Suren Surenyants, this fact shows the degradation level of our political field. “Some people are waiting for the moment when the “Russian Czar” will appoint someone after Kocharyan to rule here, others are waiting for a call from Washington to start political processes. This is not a normal process and it will continue until a new political team is formed here and the goal will not be to serve others, but protecting our local citizens and their rights and freedoms”, says S. Surenyants. The head of this party, Aram Sargsyan paid such visits to the US and each time announced that there would be a revolution in Armenia soon. In spite of this, S. Surenyants says that only Armenians can start a revolution here and no one should rely on Russia or the US. “Russia limits the freedoms of Armenians and can’t fight for people’s freedoms here. We shouldn’t rely on the West either, because they can only support us, but can’t make any changes for us. And all those politicians that consider the foreign factors more important than our people, can’t be considered as Armenian candidates”, thinks S. Surenyants. “Republic” party is considered to have a pro-Western orientation and one year ago there was a conflict between party members and the reason for that was the disagreement with whether to move towards Russia or the US. Concerning this S. Surenyants said, “Please don’t mix pro-Western orientation with the condemned policy of asking for help from them. Our party has a pro-Western orientation, but we are not going to bring someone from there to solve our internal problems here. And if there are parties or politicians that think so of us, they are mistaken”. We asked about this from the deputy head of Armenian Movement party, Andranik Hovakimyan, who said that our political powers tend to get a “good hint” from other big states. “This is not a geopolitical problem that parties advocate, but they know that they can move forward only if being supported by either of them. This is the reason why they try to act like the big states want them to”. As for head of NDU, Vazgen Manukyan, he says that Armenian politicians are manipulated either by Russia or by the US. But he doesn’t see anything dangerous in this tendency. “The danger of Armenia doesn’t come from outside, it comes from the inside. They shouldn’t say that others are guilty for their own mistakes. Foreign powers don’t want to do anything wrong for Armenia. The only country that wants to do something bad in Armenia is Armenia. We are the ones responsible for the bad condition we are in; other countries are not to blame. Everyone is to blame, including me”, said Vazgen Manukyan.