The famous incidents of October 23 mildly said have registered surprising results. Almost all the political parties unanimously condemned the violent acts held by the RA police. However the police claimed that the opposite happened and that a dozen of protesters have attacked them. The main question being discussed in political circles was, “Who benefited from this?” It’s not an accident that even the governmental forces call the actions of the police “stupid”. It is also interesting that none of the high-rank police officials has so far submitted the responsibility of the incident despite the fact that such people show up even during terror acts.
Yesterday almost all the NA political forces condemned the incident of course to a certain extent, which occurred a few days ago between the policemen and the representatives of the opposition. They were also trying to understand, who were the ones, who benefited from this story.
“If all the participants acted in the framework of the Constitution then I find the actions of the police impermissible and the police still needs to comment whether the opposition run was held in accordance with the law or not. It is their job to comment on that not ours – the politicians,” said the head of the RPA Parliament faction, Karen Karapetyan. “If the police has acted beyond its authority then it must be punished. Even if it’s an RPA member, who violates the law, he/she must understand that we are all responsible to the law.” Perhaps the most noteworthy comment, which Karapetyan made, was that the incident wasn’t profitable for the RPA because it harms the image of their presidential candidate. He also didn’t exclude that the incident was instigated on purpose, to raise the image of the opposition and degrade the one of the government, which fully fits within political technologies. To the question whether such a behavior of the government, including the organization of “Golden Summer” on October 26 doesn’t mean that the government elite is in panic, Karapetyan answered, “Panic is originated only when you see that there is no ground for reproduction. In this case our party has quite serious resources and the bright example of that is the parliamentary elections 2007. I think really little time is left and very soon you will see that we speak about things, which we really can do. Our means are enough to have an impressive victory. The party, which clearly identifies its resources and means, doesn’t need to organize such incidents to harm its own image.” Moreover, the head of the RPA faction ensured that the instigation of such incidents is to make the opposition look good from the side.
According to an ARF MP Alvard Petrosyan “it’s impossible to think of a more negligent act than this.” “Having known the practice of 1994 they shouldn’t have done something like this. I am expressing my opinion as an independent citizen, who has witnessed and felt this negative impact and reaction. I think this was the most negligent step ever,” she said. To our question why the government has done such a negligent thing Petrsoyan answered, “I don’t know whether it is the government or some negligent officials. I don’t think it is the fault of the government.” We have asked Petrosyan why their party representatives didn’t go to the police on the night of the incident together with other party members since the ARF condemns the police deeds. “My leg is broken. I couldn’t go. The presence or absence near the police is slightly artistic. I don’t think that everyone, who went there really cared so much of the victims. I am the one, who has personally felt such violence. I don’t think it would be wise on the part of the government to initiate this mess because they need the calm environment to prevail on the threshold of presidential elections. If I was able to go to the rally I would definitely go because it is interesting for me. What does this mean? It doesn’t mean that the people, who are present at the Liberty Square, are for Ter-Petrosyan and support him. Everything is not so simple especially in Armenia.”
Yesterday an MP of the Prosperous Armenia faction, former journalist of the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper, Naira Zohrabyan when talking to us mentioned that their faction hasn’t yet discussed the incident of October 23. According to her any violence against journalists is unacceptable and condemnable. “If there was public disorder registered I have decided to apply to the Ombudsman and other relevant bodies to receive answers regarding the incident,” she said.
While the NA political forces were yesterday trying to find out who’s in charge of the incident the Secretary of the “Heritage” faction, Stepan Safaryan, announced from the NA session hall that the incident was “organized by the hands of the President’s administration and that the executive government didn’t benefit from it.” According to Safaryan he has the right to express his subjective opinion. “Otherwise the cynicism, by which they are able to forbid the MPs abide with their functions, comes to prove that the order was made in a quite conspicuous and serious way,” stated Safaryan. We asked the chair of the same faction, Raffi Hovhannisian why he hadn’t gone to the police station like other political party representatives. As a response Hovhannisian said that he had other matters to attend and that his faction members were there. “The civil responsibility level is not measured by absence or presence,” he said. According to the “Heritage” the incident comes to prove that certain circles of the government are panicking and they are trying to spread this environment of fear among citizens to infringe their constitutional rights. “Everybody and first of all the governing parties must understand that this is a challenge made to the public and must receive a similar response,” reads the announcement of the Heritage.