– Both the government and opposition are satisfied with the 1677 resolution adopted by the PACE. Certainly each of the parties expressed their subjective opinions and eventually it is not clear what the stance of democracy in Armenia is.
– Usually in the political life each of the opposition and government allege that they are the strongest power. The government is expected to say that the resolution was good for them, and the opposition would say that it was bad for the government. Each of the parties can find definitions in the PACE resolution which are good for them and they can point out. The PACE does not have any resolutions where it would say that Armenia is a hell or paradise and that’s all. As for democratic institutions, such institutions cannot be established in one year. Such institutions are a result of democracy culture, elections, rotation of government and culture of management. In England the first democratic act was adopted in 1215. However in the beginning of the 20th century the women and poor were not allowed to vote. Democratic procedures cannot be taught to the society like in school. It doesn’t matter how long you tell to people what democracy is; they will understand the meaning but will act otherwise. For instance, I know that smoking is bad but I smoke. Corrupt people know that corruption is very bad for the society but they take bribe to hire people. In other words, we should develop institutions. Institutions are developing in Armenia; there are elections, rotation of government, despite the fact that the latter is being done very slowly and the elections are violated and even the events of March 1 happened in this context. However the president of Armenia is not Kocharyan’s or Ter-Petrosyan’s son now. Sultan’s traditions don’t exist in Armenia. As for Azerbaijan, it is still OK there, but there are countries such as Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan where everything is different. Also there is another example, namely the example of Georgia, where there has not been any legal change, I mean all the presidents they came to power succeeded through a revolution and kicking out the previous one. In a word, we should build such institutions in Armenia, and still expect that it may happen in one year because the PACE ahs adopted some resolution for that purpose. Certainly the PACE, journalists and people like me should support this process as well.
– You said that rotation of powers happens in Armenia and despite some other countries the president of Armenia is not one of the sons of the ex-presidents. However the opposition in Armenia has not ever come to power through elections.
– Who said that? The problem is that who you think the opposition are. You think the opposition are the ones who drastically don’t accept anything, including the legitimacy of the elections of the president, parliament and the mayor. They don’t accept the entire political system. There are not such opposition powers in the West. Certainly there are such people in the West but they don’t come to power. Let’s remember the presidential rival in the US when people thought that Gor had won the race with Bush, and I think Gor believed he had won too. They brought a case in Florida state, in the court where the brother of Bush used to work, and surprisingly were informed that the winner was Bush. After that Bush started a war with the reasoning that there were chemical weapons, but they didn’t find anything. Some Arabs attacked some buildings, and as a result of that you don’t know why they attacked Iraq and Afghanistan. So what did Gor do? Did he run out to streets and did he say he did not recognize the results of the elections? No, because there is a tradition of democracy, which is the tradition of recognizing elections. This system does not exist in our country yet but we can’t say that there is no competition in our country. There is competition within the authorities, and this competition is rather strong. During the parliamentary election 2007 the Prosperous Armenia Party, i.e. Robert Kocharyanm, and the Republican Party of Armenia, i.e. Serzh Sargsyan, were in a strong competition. And the person who was not president could take the victory from the pocket of the person who had the power of being the president. It happened within the system.
– Would the situation with democracy and mature society be better if Ter-Petrosyan recognized the outcome of the elections?
– Yes. First of all the events of March 1 would not happen. Generally the issue of rotation should be acceptable by the society as well and people should think that sometimes it is OK if another person is in the place of this person. As I remember since 1995 none of the opposition powers has recognized the outcomes of elections. The say they will recognize the results if they win. And this is a problem which is bad for the political system. Our society is divided, there are people who believe the elections were falsified (the number of such people is not so big). France was in shock for about 150 years since 1789 because people did not accept the fact of the government’s rotation. In order the political system can continue working and building its capacity, the society should recognize the results of the elections. If the politicians recognize the results of the elections it will help the process too. In order to reach this goal there should be political parties which are not established for one time use. Political parties should work all the time, be represented in the region be respected people. We don’t have such political parties. Imagine a citizen from a village who is not satisfied with the current policy (in fact most part of the society is so). So what can this man do? Where can he go to express his discontent? There are no serious political parties to go to. Once in five years someone comes and says that cares about people, and later happens what is supposed to happen in such case. This is the reason why people are disappointed, The Western people don’t have to wait for elections and bear this.
– The opposition has established an alternative government, which has commissions of almost all sectors, which will work to solve specific problems and develop recommendations. Does this mean that the opposition is giving up on demonstration struggle and is turning to a passive method of struggling? In other words, does it become a constructive opposition as the government people say?
– They understand all I said here too. In a word, they are trying to work too and they are founding commissions to work too. I don’t know whether they will succeed or no. Till now no one has done that in Armenia. In order to work in the regions they need a lot of money and other resources. They need serious experts, and in some cases even to pay them and bring from abroad. This is expensive too. They need hard work and loyal staff. Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters are extremists and they want everything and now. They also need to have electronic media, they need money for this too. If the ANC or any other power manages to become a political power like that, it will be great.
– After the adoption of the decision on the amnesty the opposition claims that this happened due to the pressure of the European structures and the governmental forces, on the other hand , declare that this happened exceptionally by the good will of the Armenian president. In your opinion, what was the outcome of the insatiably awaited amnesty on part of the society?
– Their argument is once again on terms. What does pressure mean? In fact politics doesn’t except pressure and people do certain things by often influencing on each other. Do you think the presidents and prime ministers of western countries yield because they are good people? Or do you think the government is changed over there as they don’t wish to be eternal sultans? No, there is a political pressure and that’s how the mechanism works. Of course, the amnesty was granted due to the pressure of the opposition and the European structures. The social forces also influenced as only the opposition is not enough. The opposition was rallying, people were flocking, newspapers were complaining. The west was pressuring as well. They were telling them to behave themselves. I don’t consider this pressure a negative thing. Yes, it was a pressure. How else could it be? If in politics people rely only on the fact that the politicians will do everything properly and rightly because their moms raised them well, then nothing will work at all.