After the alleged crisis during the past 2-3 weeks we still don’t know whether there was crisis in the country during that time or no. For example, now when I am writing my article I am thinking whether I will be able to find petrol at any gas station when going home because on my way to work I could not find any.
However, our officials, especially the prime-minister say that there is no crisis. Even he says that the publications in media trying to imitate that there is a crisis are a small provocation. “There were media companies, including foreign companies, which were doing their best to imitate that there would be a deep crisis in Armenia and prices would grow. They were doing their best for this purpose. This is a primitive provocation, which purpose is not weakening the government but the country because during emergency situations governments don’t weaken but become stronger. We understand the goal of such media companies and such provocative publications are out of the interests of our society,” said Tigran Sargsyan during the recent government session. It turns out that there is no crisis and everything is fine. However when an ordinary citizen trusts the officials and their announcements and does not plan the next day, takes out his car and appears near posters writing “there is no petrol”, it is a big problem for them. “Has there been any shock in the society? Has the normal routine life of our citizens been shocked during these weeks?” asked Tigran Sargsyan during the government session.
The government was disappointed not only about the media, but the opposition as well. “Unfortunately our opposition tried to win political dividends in that situation by comparing the situation with the past, which was very funny. I am sorry for that situation,” he said concerning the announcement of the Armenian national congress concerning the crisis in Georgia and its results in Armenia. Tigran Sargsyan also compared our opposition with those of our neighboring countries to show that their behavior is not so good: “It is very important what the behavior of the society during a crisis is. Let’s see what the behavior of the oppositions of Georgia, Russia, Azerbaijan and the US were during this crisis, and then compare it with the behavior of our opposition”.
It is a very interesting comparison if we don’t take into consideration several factors. First, it is not right to compare the situation with that in Georgia and Russia because they were in war. As for the US and Azerbaijan, it would be better to compare their governments with ours than the oppositions. At least these two countries have announced about their approach to the conflict but indeed our government is still keeping silence. Besides that in those countries there has not been such crisis and there were no people there who would even think about using that opportunity, mix the petrol with different pesticides and sell for one thousand dram per liter.
Now let’s see what has advised the opposition which has made the government so angry. It turns out that the government has taken the advises of the opposition long before. During the presidential elections, when Levon Ter-Petrosyan spoke about developing relations with Turkey, he was accused in treason. And now the government is saying that the fact that the Turkish president has accepted the invitation to watch the soccer match in Armenia is a big achievement.
There is one more thing which is more paradoxical. The opposition, which is accused in organizing provocations and getting political dividends by the prime-minister, has delayed the opposition’s rally on September 5 and strikes in the North Avenue by explaining that they have done this in order not to harm the international reputation of the country and not to be an obstacle of developing relations with Turkey. As for the ARF, which is a part of the government, has not changed its mind to organize actions of protest during Gul’s visit. They haven’t changed their mind even in case when in the interview given to Radical newspaper the president of Armenia said that those who perform negative attitude to them would have done it to him first. By the way, ARF member Hrayr Karapetyan said that they are not going to do violence or break anyone’s head. Everyone understands that the main purpose of the invitation is not the match. During the recent crisis it was evidently seen what it means to have closed borders. In fact the economic security of our country depends on Gul’s visit. We should confess that this issue is more important than the petrol, one liter of which is sold for one thousand dram (even the worst quality).
It turns out that the opposition agrees with the government in terms of historically important issues, but the ARF, which is a part of the government, does not agree with it. The problem is not whether the decision to invite Gul was good or bad, but the approach and reaction of both opposition and pro-government parties. Such cases are really rare in the history.
We wander whether the prime-minister will draw comparisons with the coalitions of other countries during the government session if the ARF, unlike its assurances, shows impolite attitude to the guests. Let’s see what will happen. It will be really difficult to make such comparisons because almost there are no such examples.