One of the oldest, most complicated and, at the same time, most interesting games ever created by man is chess. The reason for that is probably because this game is much like our reality, where the “pawn” (soldier) can quickly become a queen or a bishop, while the king seems to be the weakest figure. It seems to be because no matter how weak the king may be, it still remains the most powerful since the game of chess only ends when the king is defeated. The game continues in all other cases.
Very often, the one that wins the game is not the smart one (which is mandatory, but not so satisfying), but rather, the one who foresees and plays psychologically. The reader may be surprised as to why I am writing about something which everyone more or less knows about. However, if we recall chess figure terminology, terms such as castling and sacrifice, time trouble, chess opening, the wall (like a labyrinth), etc. we can assume for a moment that these terms can also be considered as political terms. Since politics is also a game where there are winners and losers, I decided to start a series which will be called political chess. The authorities will play with the whites and the opposition with the blacks, or vice versa. However, we can also have Armenian and cosmopolitan political forces on the chess board.
The only difference is that I will be the one making the moves for the political forces. Since the most talked about topic in Armenian politics today is the constitutional amendments, we will focus on that.
White team
King – Robert Kocharyan
Queen – Coalition
Horse – strong structures
Bishops – geopolitical forces
Knights – media in favor of the authorities
Pawns – “state” political parties for and against the National Assembly
Black team
King – not sure (already the third year)
Queen – 21st alliance
Horse – opposing forces out of the 21st alliance
Bishops – geopolitical forces
Knights – opposing media
Pawns – unknown mass
Karen Kocharyan playing with the whites (pro authorities)
If we take into account that the opposition has spent the past 10 years pushing the same clauses forward, which are now included in the constitutional amendment packet (which has been accepted by the Venetian convention), this means that the current activities carried out by the opposition figures can not be criticized. The most passive and reasonable out of all oppositionists is Shavarsh Kocharyan. He doesn’t even say “no” and believes that the opposition must go against the authorities and not the constitution or the state. Pay close attention to the oppositionists who are not on the classic political field, but rather, they are oppositionists just for the sake of it. This means to say that they receive money from outside sources and take care of their families with that money. Those types of unknown political parties solve two problems by being formatted into the 15th, 17th and 21st formats: first of all, as we mentioned, they must steal their share of the “pie” and secondly, they must make sure that they are more or less on the people’s side, at least in documents which will be published by mass media. As for the opposition on the political field, we can not consider their fight as political because there is no ideology here. First of all, they are fighting for something that they have fought for throughout the years and due to that struggle, they can not come up with a reason for saying “no” to the constitution. Secondly, as always, this format will soon collapse due to the fact that the ambitious political figures will try to find a new leader, since they don’t have any ideology. If they don’t find a leader for themselves, then they will slowly yet surely disband and go their separate ways. They think that since it is the month of November, the same thing that happened in Georgia will happen in Armenia too. What they don’t understand is that change of power does not depend on the season, but rather, it depends on how serious the political figure is, as well as taking into consideration the presence of objective and subjective conditions. Unfortunately, those objective and subjective conditions are missing in Armenia today.
Oppositionist Karen Kocharyan plays with blacks
By saying “no” to the constitutional amendments, what the opposition is really trying to do is encourage us to say “no” to the existing regime which is violated and will continue being violated, despite the contents of the constitution. It is ridiculous to read some articles in the constitution such as the following:
Article 8: The Republic of Armenia recognizes and defends the right to own property.
Article 14.1: Everyone is subject to the law (nobody believes this).
Article 16: If the individual getting arrested does not get transferred to a prison by court order within the course of 72 hours, then he can be easily released. (This article was violated just a couple of days ago with the arrest of Vahe Grigoryan).
Article 17: Nobody can be punished by torture, inhuman acts or humiliation. Arrested individuals and prisoners deserve the right to be treated fairly and with respect. (the people who wrote this clause are probably up in the skies and they need to come down and see what is going on at the prosecutor’s office at the police station)
Article 29: each person has the right to hold meetings peacefully and without the use of arms (out of Armenia according to the “law about public meetings”.)
Article 36: parents are responsible for their children’s health, discipline, upbringing and education. (they have the right and are responsible but what they don’t have is the opportunity).
Article 45: Each person must pay taxes and make all other payments as stated in the law. (It would be nice to see the National Assembly MPs read this article a couple of times a day).
Article 65: The MP can not be involved in business, occupy a position in state or local autonomous bodies or trade companies, complete other paid work besides scientific, pedagogical and creative work. (I am not one to emphasize this article).
The most interesting thing though is that although they have a strong propaganda, the authorities are not repugnant to create a 22nd format where the people who create the propaganda do so so that the different political parties and organizations do not even recognize themselves. On the contrary, that sturcture is something more than just a formation. What an achievement! Besides that, it is evident that the authorities and the opposition will both be playing different roles in the media.
Chess interpreter: Karen Kocharyan
Despite how the constitutional amendment referendum will turn out, the whites have started out very actively and both have positional and materialistic advantages in the beginning, or as we say in chess-debut. As for the blacks, despite the fact that they claimed that they were going to be active, are now more passive and defensive. What can we say? After all, this is another way of playing the game. All we have to do is wait until the referendum and see whose game the audience will like more. The most important thing is to see who will win in this hard struggle.