Yesterday, during the reception dedicated to the 16th anniversary of Independence of the Republic of Armenia, which was organized by ANM in Tigran Mets hall of Armenia-Marriott hotel, the RA first president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan presented his model for the development, management of Armenia in his speech, which lasted about 20 minutes. We are presenting his words without any changes herein:
“15 years is both a very short and a very long time in consideration of the history of our Armenia. If we don’t say anything, it is enough to remember that our new independent state has had a life, which is longer by five times than the life of the Armenian first independent Republic. We understood that independence would be a difficult way for us not only on the way of reaching it, but also in the future since it was not ordinary independence; it wasn’t an attempt to get free of colonialism either. The problem was not only the political independence, but also changing all the systems of the social order – transition from the communistic ideology to democracy, transition from the planning economy to free market economy, a change from no foreign relations to creation of a new system of foreign relations. In addition, it was also a way to having our own army, our own state institutions. Certainly it is hard to explain to people what objective problems (those exist now too and will exist during dozens of years too) we had on our way. We haven’t spoken about the fact that despite all these things, which were characteristic to all the Soviet republics, we also had the Karabakh war, 300.000 refugees, we had a disaster area, where 500.000 people suffered. I cannot imagine a state stronger than our state, which could achieve, under such heavy cruel load, what our people and our state achieved. Today, by saying all this, I want to highlight that even the 16th anniversary of Independence seems ordinary, non-anniversary, but in consideration of the upcoming presidential elections I consider it a crucial year. We are faced with an alternative. We have two ways. One is to keep what exists now. Namely, a totally corrupted and criminal administration of the state, specifically of the authority, the relations of which are not governed by the law, the wish of the people, political dialogue, but by the rules and traditions of the criminal world, a totally mafia-controlled, entirely structured regime, which now has already driven us down to the level of such regimes of the third world, when the existence of such authorities does not promise anything that we may ever go out of that situation. Thus, today the problem is to destruct the system and get rid of that situation. And now about the most important issue: 16 years have already passed, in our tenure – 8 years, less – seven and a half years, in the tenure of these ones – more, and I have to highlight with pain that our people don’t have the consciousness (maybe it is our fault that we could not explain to them, make them understand it) that the greatest problem of the Armenian people, Armenia, our state, on which both the future of Armenia and the wealth of our people, prosperity of our economy depend, is the settlement of the Karabakh issue. If this consciousness does not exist, I think there will be no need to do anything: we will have to go our homes, sit and wait how Armenia is becoming a country of the third world, the main capital of which will be exporting labor. We don’t have anything else. Today our labor already makes a big part of our budget and GDP, if not the essential part. I didn’t say this so that you lose your hope. Armenia has resources; the greatest resource of the RA is its openness to the world, if our borders are opened to Turkey, to Azerbaijan, to Iran. Don’t be mistaken, we don’t have a way with Iran. Meghri is not a way for economic development. The way is the railway of Julfa. If we continue being closed like this, we will become natural economy, which end may be more catastrophic. We will lose not only Karabakh, but will also have to think about keeping the territorial integrity of Armenia. I think this is the biggest crime of these authorities. During these 10 years the issue of the Karabakhi conflict settlement has become almost hopeless. If you pay attention to the feedbacks, you will see that their stance is becoming more categorical. They are not going to make compromises any more. I don’t know what is possible to do to go out of this situation. However, once more I say that I don’t consider this situation hopeless yet. It is possible to try to return to the group of normal countries. I see the solution of all the other problems, it is possible to fully destruct this corrupted system, it is possible to recover rule of law in Armenia, it is possible to make the courts, prosecutor’s office and Police be institutions, which do their real functions, but not serve only for the purpose of hiding the crimes of these mafia-controlled institutions and serve only as a tool for political interests. It is possible, and it is very real, to recover the democratic freedoms in Armenia. Today we have authorities, which are closed, barricaded behind 17 TV channels; they want to show totally a different world to our people. We have seen that. It is the Soviet Union of Brezhnev’s times, and the current situation, in fact, is very like the stagnation years of Brezhnev’s era. Recently an idea was spoken that change of authorities is not possible in the RA since there is not crisis of authority. It is right, there is no evident crisis of authority; the buildings of the Northern Prospect are being built, new restaurants are being opened every day, new houses are being built, etc., but the crisis does not exist evidently. Evident, visible crisis is not dangerous. We have had energetic crisis and have overcome it, we have had a financial crisis – the entire economic system of the USSR, the ruble zone collapsed; we have seen that, it was overcome, we have had a crisis of war, we have overcome it. It is more difficult to overcome that invisible, undiscovered crisis, which is the stagnation. Stagnation, which brings to full rotting and stagnation of the state’s bases. The USSR was dissolved not in 1991, but was collapsed during the stagnation years of Brezhnev’s era. It turned out that the state was a toy, did not have bases any more, the water had rotted those bases. Today the situation is like that, it is the most dangerous situation since it is not seen, the people don’t understand it, and it is difficult to make people understand it since the TV companies are closed, the newspapers are not able to overcome that barrier. Anyway. It was the one of the ways. The other way is through finding our dignity, letting the people be the owners of their state and recovering all the institutions of the state, which I mentioned before. It is possible to do, even though the authorities are very strong. They are very strong with their low enforcement bodies, especially with their state office, I mean from the president to the prime minister, ministers, governors, community heads, and plus all the high ranked officials of the law enforcement bodies. I don’t include, as it is said, the oligarchs in this group; it is totally another subject. Don’t be mistaken, refuse to use even this word, it is both insulting and a wrong term, which was imported by a politician from Russia. It is a totally wrong term. They are entrepreneurs, businessmen, and they are not the ones these authorities are relying on. If you want to know, the businessmen are the victims of these authorities. They would be happy to work in accordance with the law, being respected by the society and respecting themselves. They can’t gain respect with benevolence. Don’t think that those people don’t pay taxes. They pay, maybe they pay more than they would have to pay according to the law, but those taxes are not going to the budget, but you know to whose pockets they are going. Eventually we should be able to bring to the consciousness of the people to understand what the improvement of their situation depends on. First, working out the corruption system, second, settlement of the Karabakh conflict, third, raising the blockades, fourth, developing normal, positive relations with the neighbors, and, eventually, which is the most important, our people should understand that by selling their votes for 20 or 50 dollars, they should know, that the authorities are extorting 5000 dollars from them. They are extorting the future of their children, eventually, they are extorting the destiny of this country.
Now I will speak about myself personally. I know what expectations you have today. I don’t hide, I can’t behave myself affectedly either, I am following the processes, all we understand that it is a decisive situation; we understand that we should go out of this situation. Everyone has understood correctly what the key is: the only way to get rid of these authorities is uniting all the political powers, healthy civic, intellectual, spiritual powers with one joint candidate. There is no other way. The experience of these 10 years has shown that all the other ways don’t bring to success. Now I would welcome everyone, who would fit the role of that joint candidate and could unite all the powers with him, and I would support that process with all my power, my influence. As for me, today I don’t have a decision yet. I am still examining, I am still weighing, I am still making inquiries; my approach is only political, I can’t be led by emotions, adventure is not characteristic to my nature. Until I don’t know the effectiveness of my steps, I will not make a step. Certainly, there is change of the environment, moods, but according to my estimations it hasn’t, as it is said, reached the necessary condition. And it is difficult to do since, as I said, the TV enters the houses of 2 million Armenians through 17 TV channels every day. Yet we have to find the ways of overcoming it. I said that I don’t have a decision yet, and when I make a decision – yes or no, I am sure that I can give you my explanations, which may be persuasive to you. Don’t suspect concerning one thing, which is that if I see that I can have a helpful role for taking the people and our country, our state out of this situation, I will do my best”.