The 16th Congress of the ANM party taken place on Saturday created various questions in the political field of Armenia.
Perhaps for the political actors these issues were clear and explainable but for the politically active society this congress was mildly said a cause for becoming more confused and embarrassed. No one could understand in the ANC what actually happened within the ANM. Was this change of leadership and power? The congress didn’t give response to this question. So why did the chair of the ANM Board Ararat Zurabyan and deputy-chair Khachatur Kokobelyan resign. Does this mean that this strong structure of Levon Ter-Petrosyan got so glutted during these 2 and a half years and frustrated due to the failure of realizing a government change, that a crisis started right within the structure? During his speech at the ANM congress Levon Ter-Petrosyan didn’t mention a clear argument about what had happened. He only mentioned that during the recent period the RA government has tried to have certain influence within the ANM and attempted to fragment the ANC and the ANM. “The reality is that the Armenian authorities have tried in recent months to exert influence within the ANM and cause a rift between the party and the Armenian National Congress,” he said. “But thanks to the vigilance of the majority of ANM board members, the subversion was exposed on time and the threat of the split within the Congress was completely neutralized.” And right after the resignations they brought the reason that Kokobelyan resigned because he has had certain objections regarding the political course of the ANC. He suggested replacing the unclear policy of the opposition with a more concrete and understandable political course. “As of the various rumors regarding the internal changes within the ANM it is perhaps stipulated by the fact that in the face of Kokobelyan certain people view him as a serious political opponent,” stated the head of the media service of the ANM Karen Karapetyan. Neither the congress of the ANM nor Levon Ter-Petrosyan was able to respond to these questions. Nevertheless, as a result of the Saturday congress Aram Manukyan was elected chair of the ANM board and a new party board was elected, which also included Vano Siradeghyan and A. Zurabyan. The latter was following the elect from the lobby and Kokobelyan didn’t even participate in it. There is a well-known opinion that for many years the wings of Ter-Petrosyan and Siradeghyan have always existed. This time, however, in accordance to the newly elected board all the members are in full control of Ter-Petrosyan. And it is no accident that during the congress, outside in the lobby and in the hall a quite contradicting environment was dominating. In particular, for the members of the ANM chapters were not quite sure what’s going on within their party? So what does Levon Ter-Petrosyan want? The last congress differed from the previous ones because it created many questions and left those unanswered. And the delegates were embarrassed rather than encouraged. It is no secret that the ANM is the locomotive of the ANC and indeed it would like to maintain its current weight in the ANC. The opposition ANC will sooner or later encounter the necessity of having a new leader. Or maybe each of the 18 parties of the ANC would someday decide to become the key force within the movement. And it is evident that within the ANC there are people, who are having big ambitions of becoming leaders and they have the experience of long years to be leaders. Regardless of the fact that most of the incliners of becoming leaders in the ANC have been worthy but within the NC this struggle is noticeable. And it’s possible that the developments within the ANM were a result of this struggle and inclinations. And now the party has become more controllable. Besides that it is almost excluded that there will be extraordinary elections, which would cause new changes and developments within the ANC. A part of the questions originated as a result of the ANM congress related to the speech of Ter-Petrosyan and the ideas brought up by him. The guests of the event were thinking that Ter-Petrosyan would also advert to the process of the NKR conflict resolution to the visits of mediators and other key international players to the region. The last rally of the ANC was on April 6. So the delegates thought that Ter-Petrosyan has a lot to share with them. Instead of clarifying the situation Ter-Petrosyan’s speech created new questions. First by passing the internal political issues Ter-Petrosyan only spoke about the NKR conflict and the 5 realities of Armenia he connected with the conflict resolution. Ter-Petrosyan rejected as pro-Azerbaijani an international plan to end the Karabakh conflict and urged Armenia’s leading political forces to thwart its realization by helping him topple Sargsyan. “Serzh Sargsyan … is opting for a solution which … is not favorable to the Armenian side and, speaking more strictly, jeopardizes the existence of Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said at the time. Ter-Petrosyan similarly blamed Sargsyan for “the prospect of a disgraceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict” when he addressed thousands of supporters in the capital in March. Ter-Petrosyan said nothing on Saturday about his take on the basic principles of Karabakh peace proposed by the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. He asserted instead that unlike the United States and other Western powers, Russia has “vital interests” not only in the Karabakh conflict zone but the entire South Caucasus. “This means that Russia holds the key to the settlement of the Karabakh conflict and even Turkish-Armenian relations,” he said. “My impression is that Armenia’s authorities are not conscious of that yet, whereas Turkey and Azerbaijan are assessing the reality more correctly, as evidenced by their recent active contacts with Russia,” he added. After this thought many people remembered the September 21 speech of Ter-Petrosyan made in 2007. It is when he expressed his wish to return to politics. “First we should clean our own barns and through a public way fail the plans of the incumbent government, to prevent their reproduction, restore the constitutional order in the country, strictly fight against corruption, abuse, establish a real democratic, legal and social state by perfectly understanding that the future of Armenia depends on the power of the country,” after a 10-year silence mentioned Ter-Petrosyan in 2007. So what made the first president change his opinion in three years? All the sudden he now decides that the NKR conflict resolution can happen without the restoration of the constitutional order, fight against corruption, nepotism, establishment of a truly democratic state. Perhaps the right thing is the resolution of the NKR conflict and in 2007 he wasn’t quite thoughtful about his statement. Ter-Petrosyan didn’t give any further details on what had made him change his attitude. Will our country have the desirable development if the NKR conflict is resolved and the Armenian-Turkish border is opened? Will our country be able to develop in the same conditions of corruption, nepotism, abuse, etc? His allegation on the fact that the war is possible any time as long as the NKR conflict is not resolved also created a massive debate. Does this mean that by this Ter-Petrosyan fortifies the possibility of war resumption by trying to defend his opinion that the priority issue currently is the immediate resolution of the NKR conflict with the compromise version? Indeed he didn’t mention which the possible compromises are. And this makes the political circles claim that Ter-Petrosyan is indirectly advocating for the political course of Serzh Sargsyan. The latter after becoming President put aside the internal issues and in order to cover the disputable election results immediately got on the resolution of the NRK conflict and the rapprochement of the Armenian-Turkish relations. Regardless of the circumstance whether the incumbent President failed or succeeded in any of those issues one thing is clear for sure Serzh Sargsyan hasn’t or doesn’t wish to annihilate he corruption, nepotism and abuse mentioned by Ter-Petrosyan. He tries to fill in the field of his occupation with the NKR conflict resolution and sometimes the Armenia-turkey relations. By the way, right after the congress certain ANC members stated that they don’t agree with the thoughts of Ter-Petrosyan. Zhirayr Sefilyan and Karapet Rubinyan didn’t agree with the thought that without the resolution of the NKR conflict Armenia cannot develop economy-wise. Sefilyan found this view nonsense. Rubinyan said that he didn’t agree with that. By the way the latter didn’t get elected in the ANM board. Among the 28 elected ANM board members are political prisoners Ashot Manukyan, Aram Bareghamyan and Harutyun Urutyan.