Ter-Petrosyan’s mysterious visits and responsibilities

On June 8-14 the first president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan was in France. During the recent period neither Ter-Petrosyan nor his spokesman or teammates gave any comments on the visit. They only fixed that Ter-Petrosyan is in France and that’s all.

Of course, there was certain information publicized in the media, according to which Ter-Petrosyan had a meeting with the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, however later they neither confirmed nor denied this information. This secrecy of the visit and also the mystery around that originates certain questions. Thus, it is known that Ter-Petrosyan and his teammates are struggling for democracy and liberty. It is similarly known that such national struggles require transparency and publicity as a basic principle of democracy. However, the only information we have about Ter-Petrosyan is that he paid a five-day visit to France and even his loyalists don’t know what exactly Ter-Petrosyan was doing there.

INSTRUCTIVE EXPERIENCE OF POLITICAL SPECULATIONS

From “October 27” to “March 1”

“I don’t think it is possible to conduct an independent investigation of March 1 developments and disclose the guilty ones during the power of these authorities. They will act the same way as they did in connection with “October 27.” Levon Ter-Petrosyan announced during the meeting in front of Matenadaran on June 20.    One should be very naпve to think that this parallel made by the leader of Armenian Pan National Movement was accidental. Absolutely. The presidential candidate who suffered defeat during the presidential elections is well conscious that his “pan-national” movement is gradually extinguishing, that is why he is using an experienced method to prolong the revolutionary struggle.    Considering “productive” the long process of speculating the inquest stage of “October 27”, Ter-Petrosyan will try to take on “March 1”. Together with his companions-in-arm and the propaganda machine he will start a process of speculations, trying to mislead the people by convincing them that “March 1” will never be disclosed.    We have already closed the page of “October 27”, but the activists of Armenian Pan National Movement, by Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s leadership open a new page of political speculations, for which they can’t find a better option than “March 1”.    By the way the motivations of 1999 and 2008 tragedies are the same. The night get-together in the Ministry of Defense, hours after the terrorism of 1999, October 27, in the parliament, and in general all the events following it, display that Armenian Pan National Movement use all the possible and impossible means to stage a coup.    The same thing they tried to realize, by organizing a mass disorder in the center of Yerevan on March 1. That day Ter-Petrosyan and his team members were trying to seize power, by persuading their “peaceful demonstrators” not to leave the streets and to continue the battle.    The announcements made by Levon Ter-Petrosyan testifies to the fact that he will use “March 1” to nourish the society by further political speculations.    After more than one and a half month LTP suddenly remembered and “appreciated” the “heroism” of the victims of “March 1”. He even announced that these victims must be honored with the title of hero. Because they were martyred for the sake of the establishment of freedom and democracy in Armenia. But the fact that these people died “for the sake of” his revolution and that he shoulders responsibility for their blood, is never touched upon. But why did he suddenly remember about the victims and about honoring them with the title of hero?    This important nuance is very important for political speculations. The same way as in case of “October 27” the victims were honored with the title of hero and the case “is still not disclosed”, “March 1” case will also not be disclosed until these authorities are in power.    There is another nuance, which is also not less important for further political speculations for LTP. During his speech he announced that the authorities must pay 1 million dollar’s compensation to the families of “March 1” victims.    Let’s forget about the fact that this person’s life is estimated by cents and dollars. The goal of this announcement is clear. Thus LTP involves the relatives of the victims in the process of his political speculations.    Besides that by now the expression “claimants of March 1” has not been yet heard, something that was very often heard in connection with “October 27”. To be more precise – after six months when Aram Sargsyan was dismissed from the position of the Prime Minister and the “claimants” immediately appeared.    Most probably there will be one very small difference between the political speculations of “October 27” and “March 1”. If in case of “October 27” LTP states in his speech that “Jhangiryan has found a link between the murderers and the presidential residence”, in case of “March 1” the same LTP, sitting in his castle, in conditions of “house arrest” has already found out and announced who is the principle criminal.    If the special investigative bodies by now didn’t arrest him for several hours or conduct a 10 minutes’ questioning, of course this person could have that much time to find out who is the only “guilty one”. All this is really ridiculous and meanwhile very boring.”

KIMA YEGHIAZARYAN

Internal Bleeding: Crisis has turned “Armenians” against “Karabakhis”

Old one,but still interesting..

 

“For the first time in my life I did not say I am Karabakhtsi [Karabakh Armenian]. They asked me where I am from, I told from Abovyan,” ArmeniaNow photographer Anahit Hayrapetyan tells about how every photographer and journalist in the neighborhood of the Myaskinyan monument on March 1 was asked about their descent in a fierce search for Karabakhtsis.

Disinformation was spread that the troops that dispersed the sitting strike in the Liberty Square spoke the Karabakh dialect.
But it was not an occasional matter: it was the expression of xenophobia generated by LTP’s movement, whose number one enemy turned to be the Karabakhtsis.

The next day, March 2 a taxi driver crossing the damaged Mashtots avenue was showing me the shops explaining which belongs to whom, trying to justify the looting: ‘this is Lfik’s, this one belongs to a Karabakhtsi.’ Lfik is oligarch Samvel Alexanyan who is from Aparan [town in the North-West to Yerevan]. But what do the Karabakhtsis have to do with this? The driver continued – the Karabakhtsis have to be driven out.

On March 2 morning near the site of the fighting a man surveying the rubble saw soldiers on guard and said to no one in particular, but in their direction: “Karabakhi dogs”.
This is not a single case as it has become a common point of view during the last commotion.

The negative attitude toward the Karabakh Armenians appeared when the politicians from Karabakh who were brought by Ter-Petrosyan to solidify his power against the oppositional forces, overtook it and began using the fruits of the clan system Ter-Petrosyan had created. If the system is based on clans people protest against the clan in power. In former times the target of protests was the All-Armenian Movement and its leader, then those who forced Ter-Petrosyan’s resignation. The system remains the same; if tomorrow the Akhakalaktsi Armenians [Akhalkalak is the provincial center of the Javakhq region in Georgia, populated predominantly with Armenians] overtake the power they will get the use of it.

LTP turned the negative attitude toward the Karabakh Armenians into hatred, declaring the authorities Tatar-Mongols and saying: “Because of these two, 15,000 people have moved from Karabakh to Armenia, mainly Yerevan, within the last ten years. Each of them has been given a position. It did not suffice, and now it’s the sphere of business given to them (it’s unclear who has checked the figures).”
Enmity was the main weapon of the leader for five months, when he stated the only mistake of the years of his rule was bringing the two politicians from Karabakh, the only thing he apologized for (he even defended the clan system he created by saying the 1995 Constitution was better than the amendments adopted in 2005); he declared all the deficiencies in Armenia originated in 1998, he refuted there were election frauds and state robbery before that, presenting the years of his rule as ideal times. For a protesting crowd the words of the charismatic leader were unquestionable and undisputed truth.

Explaining the problems of the state with persons alone and blaming those persons in deadly sins (perpetrating the October 27 assassinations to cede Meghri), he inspired faith in the mass. They believed ‘go till the end’, and also made keeping power a matter of personal security for Sargsyan and Kocharyan.

Levon Ter-Petrosyan and his supporters increased the number of their voters by growing the hostile rhetoric of the campaign. Levon Ter-Petrossian stated Serzh and Robert have served the Turks with servility for a long time. On the other side he called traitors and scum all those who did not join him and instead of opening cracks among the authorities, as he said, created deep breach of enmity in the society: if the leader calls somebody a traitor the mass is ready to destroy. (In the newspaper “168 Hours” singer Shushan Petrosyan told with horror she received letters that called her a traitor for supporting Serzh Sargsyan and threatened to kill her children; she said she did not take her son to school for two weeks because in fear of the threats. And the post-election demonstrations that passed by Vazgen Manukyan’s office scanned ‘Vazgen – a traitor!’, because their leader had stated so.)

However, a primary target remained the Karabakis, in a way that drew comparison ethnic fascism in the 20s-30s in Weimar Germany, where corruption, oligarchy, depreciation, monopolization of economy were blamed on the Jews. (The Constitution adopted in the Weimar Republic in 1919 resembled much the 1995 Constitution adopted in Armenia, where the strong centralized presidential system did not allow for society’s participation in decision-making and facilitated to the oligarchy and the monopolized economy that brought the Nazis to power as a solution to the crisis).

The anti-Karabakhi prejudice reached its climax during the post-voting rallies in February, when a professor in Opera Square [the Liberty Square, the Theater Square] underlining their Karabakhi descent publicized the names of those rectors of universities who have to be punished amid the ardent shouts of the mass. And another speaker stated: “The Armenians in this square are thrice more in number that the Karabakh citizens. Long live the Armenians!”
Armenians of non-Karabakhi descent began writing in blogs as a means of protest calling themselves Karabakhis as Turks called themselves Armenians after Dink’s assassination.

The 5 month-long political trainings resulted on March 1 taking the form of the Molotov cocktails and metal bars. The mass attacked the police shouting: ‘Turks, Karabakhis go away!’ They say the spirit of the Armenian people was broken that day; but if something was broken then maybe that was the spirit of xenophobia.

Unlike Germany, where xenophobia was targeted against an external element, the ‘other’ for Levon is his native – xenophobia aimed against part of a mono-ethnic nation. Just like nationalism searches for enemies for crises among other ethnicities, similarly the ‘pragmatists’ radically denying national projects, search for an enemy to blame the crisis on, inside the nation. A poet woman, renowned intellectual inspired by the hatred of hundreds of thousands says Karabakhis are unable to run a state (LTP openly hinted on giving back Karabakh stating Karabakh is not a Kosovo and is unable to reach independence; he told in an interview Armenia has to restitute the damage caused to Azerbaijan). Thus, LTP supporters appearing in the name of liberalism became enemies of self-determination simply because those self-determined belong to their own ethnic group and because helping them ‘makes the country’s conditions hard.’

Unlike in Germany, where the one who created a non-democratic system and the one who appropriated it were different people, LTP was both the creator of the system and the betrayer of those who get use of it; that is, he is two in one, he wants to oust a clan to replace it with another, but never change the system he has authored.

Those who want to take the power are in the list of detained, 80 percent of them belong either to the All-Armenian Movement or are former officials from Republic party. And a wanted businessman Khachik Sukiasyan used to be the favorite oligarch in times of Levon’s rule, who, despite not being deprived of his incomes, had partially ceded his position to Gagik Tsarukyan. Many of the detained and other supporters of Levon have accumulated millions while in power and have not been punished, because they were replaced by people who equally get use of the system.

LTP was a version of the acting authorities ambushed behind the status of opposition, who having stated he is a tool to change the power turned the mob filled with hatred into a tool to provide the comeback of the old clans to power. Having cited the ‘Let there be no other sacrifice but me’, he sacrificed others, safe in his castle himself, with the coming threat hanging in the air ordered the demonstrators to stay and called for arms and resistance through his comrade-in-arms Pashinyan to hang another deadly sin to the authorities – shooting on people.

The system in ambush manifested itself not in words, but in deeds as it distributed bribes to voters and commissions and resorted to violence on election day equally with the authorities (a week ago head of LTP’s Ani headquarters was sentenced to 7 years in prison for beating Serzh’s representative). And LTP who declared himself a president elect in the first run even before the ballot boxes were opened, revealed the fight to follow would not be for justice, confusing the growing mass.

Experiencing the barbarism in history is not the most secure way to understand it, but is more efficient than the history textbooks, when you understand how the image of the enemy is created because of crises and injustice.

The times of slaughtering one’s own people have passed, but the possibility of persecutions and losses still remains and it is predictable, LTP would begin a hunt for ‘traitors’ and thousands of Karabakis would become deprived of homeland and would wonder to the country that would not accept them with pleasure if the region is returned.

And the danger remains: two days ago a neighbor to an acquaintance of mine refused to allow a nurse to give her an injection because the nurse appeared to be of Karabakh descent.
As long as Armenia of the 1995 Constitution (as the Weimar one) has not been reformed, as long as the clan, corrupt and oligarchic system persists, the energy of hatred and zeal to destroy the ‘enemy’ still threatens the country and the threat of war with Azerbaijan grows in parallel.
Vahan Ishkhanyan

http://www.armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&AID=2922&lng=eng&IID=1180&start=30

FOR THE RESPECT OF DEMOCRACY AND SURVIVAL OF THE ARMENIAN NATION

http://www.petitiononline.com/yerevan/petition-sign.html
We, the undersigned citizens of Armenia, diasporan armenians and human rights militants , not affiliated with any government bodies or with the marginal opposition groups, state the following:
The events of March 1, 2008 in Yerevan, Armenia are an attempt of a rebellion, which had nothing to do with peaceful opposition actions. Witnesses confirm that the police and the authorities in general refrained from resorting to force as long as possible. The state authorities patiently waited for 9 days for the unauthorized demonstration to end, but the marginalized part of the opposition led by Levon Ter-Petrosyan continued illegal activities with calls to overthrow government with revolutionary means. This was a Gandhi on surface, Bolshevist in essence “singing and dancing revolution” to quote Ter-Petrosyan himself. The actions of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters ended in deaths (both among the protesters and police forces), burning and looting — something unseen even during the protests of 1988, when hundreds of thousands of Armenians were taking part in the demonstrations for the freedom of Nagorno Karabakh.
We strongly believe that now Levon Ter-Petrosyan is a direct threat to the statehood of Armenia.
The feeling of revenge, personal business interests and affiliations are the motives behind Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s scandalous comeback. While we criticize our government for many weaknesses and faults we strongly believe that Levon Ter-Petrosyan is the last person in the world to be interested in strengthening democracy in Armenia. The reasons for us to think so are:
1. Ter-Petrosyan was the first leader of the Republic of Armenia to practice large scale electoral fraud (elections of 1996, Vazgen Manukian being the real winner).
2. Ter-Petrosyan was the first one to use army against the protesters (after falsifying the results of presidential elections in 1996).
3. Ter-Petrosyan was the first to suppress free speech, by closing newspapers (some of us remember quite well policemen throwing computers out of the office windows of the “Yerkir” daily).
4. Ter-Petrosyan was the first leader in the Republic of Armenia to shut down a political party and throw its members into jail (the infamous “Dro” case).
5. Ter-Petrosyan was the very person under whose wing the oligarchic families were born. Actually all the current Armenian oligarchs became rich during Ter-Petrosyan’s rule. Moreover, while his supporters criticize oligarchs, the major donor for the Ter-Petrosyan’s campaign is another oligarch.
6. Ter-Petrosyan was the person who brought to power current Armenian authorities — who are now being called criminals and bandits by the supporters of the ex-president.
7. Yet the most important… Ter-Petrosyan is the very person who killed Armenians’ belief in justice, law and freedom of speech.
With everything said above, we urge our compatriots to stay sober and do not fall for the disinformation and PR-campaign started by Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters.
We call on the government of Armenia to conduct thorough investigation and bring to fair trial all instigators of disturbances and civil unrest. With enough evidence of complicity immunity should be lifted from Ter Petrosyan himself. In true democracy no one can be above the law.
Sincerely,

THE ANGELS AND THE CRIMINAL GANG

Yesterday Levon Ter-Petrosyan addressed the authorities proposing to honor the victims of March 1 tragedy with the title of a hero. Besides that “the families of each victim must get 1 million dollars’ compensation.”

 

Later he promised to represent the program of the future actions of the revolutionaries and immediately forgot about his promise. Instead he stated that Armenia’s cognizant society doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of the Presidential elections and the demonstration is aimed at informing the West about this fact. Estimating by sight, he decided that 200 thousand people were present in the demonstration and said that they will stand there “as much as they need to achieve their end”.

It turned out that the demonstration was aimed at prohibiting the European bureaucrats: “to treat Armenia with the principle of racism and from the point of view of their highest instances.” Levon Ter-Petrosyan is confidant that it is not the reputation of Armenia but that of the authorities that has been spoiled after February 19 and March 1.”No window was broken; no car was damaged until the authorities opened fire on the people. Nothing more.”

For a long time the speaker was trying to convince the participants of the demonstration that there shouldn’t be any law on “massive rallies”, because it contradicts the Constitution. But he had to add that the Constitution envisages restrictions on the rights, so there must be a law on the “restrictions on massive demonstrations”.

Touching upon the implementation of PACE resolution 1609, Levon Ter-Petrosyan said that the establishment of the temporary committee investigating the consequences of March 1 tragedy is very “insignificant”. Later he announced that “Gevorik from Armenian Pan National Movement” would be his representative in that committee.

From the proposals made in the resolution Levon Ter-Petrosyan separated and attached great importance to the demand to release the “political prisoners”.

“They are all victims of political reckoning. None of them has been charged with caring guns. They also confess that the police and even the troops have opened fire. We have been informed that the special subdivision of Nagorno Karabakh army has participated in this slaughter. In case this information is confirmed Bako Sahakyan must be announced “persona non grata” in Armenia.

L. Ter-Petrosyan was trying to convince the participants of the demonstration that the most sensible, brave and determined citizens of our nation are detained at the moment. And said that those who detained these people will soon find themselves in prison.

He separated former vice Prosecutor Gagik Jhangiryan from the “political prisoners”. “The only thing this man did was to speak publicly about the breaches during the presidential elections. Nothing more. In fact the reason of harassing him is his intention to disclose “October 27”.

Ter-Petrosyan announced that if all the political prisoners are released before the discussion of Armenian issue in PACE he will appeal to PACE not to use the previewed sanctions against Armenia.

Later he addressed President Serge Sargsyan: “It is a crazy thing to create a problem in Armenia, which will continuously make the people furious. Isn’t it possible to solve this problem in one day with one telephone call? After that we will have a dialogue with the authorities. In this dangerous situation neither the authorities will be able to work properly nor can the peaceful demonstrators fulfill their obligations. Dialogue doesn’t imply bargaining. Our peaceful, legal movement recognizes the created political reality and is ready to settle the issues in a civilized manner, with the accepted norms of the political struggle. Because the created situation is due to the elections, then, what we really need is new presidential and parliamentary elections.”

GEVORG HARUTYUNYAN

L. TER-PETROSYAN: TRAITOR VS. A PRO-OPPOSITION FIGURE

As SAMVEL KARAPETYAN is convinced

 

“Currently we often hear discussions on the political outcomes of achieving reconciliation between the authorities and the opposition. What considerations do you have in this regard?”

“The present-day opposition has a long way to pass to become a normal opposition. We have forces which are actually traitors disguised behind the veil of the ‘opposition’. They are not representatives of the opposition; that’s OK, but let’s open our eyes. There is a group of people who have fallen under their influence and become their scapegoats not being intellectually perspicacious and far-sighted enough to differentiate the things in between.

Do we cheat ourselves by calling him an opposition leader etc. It is, by the way, a multi-layered opposition. There are people who are representatives of the ‘blind opposition’; there are people supporting the opposition but never becoming scapegoats, and there are people who are simply traitors – a force undermining the state behind the veil of the opposition. How can I consider Ter-Petrosyan a pro-opposition figure?

We should just say to him, ‘you are not a representative of the opposition, and your deeds are peculiar to a traitor rather than a pro-opposition figure. If the time, day and hour of the liberation of Shoushi was concealed from you, what gives you the right to consider yourself as someone concerned by the country’s fate?’ The most cherished and brilliant page of our history is concealed from the President, whereas he should have organized and sponsored all that.

We call the things and phenomena by their names. We should say ‘It was done secretly because you would have impeded the process. So, what do you have to do in our country? Who are you and why do you unite people around you? Why do you cheat the people?’ If the cheated people are told all those things in an accurate manner, 100 will immediately reduce to 20. Why don’t you say that this person is a traitor? Are you afraid of the masters? Is it Washington or Tel-Aviv you are afraid of? If you are afraid, then say it.

Wasn’t it under the flag of Israel that Levon was making his speech? Would Alexander Arzoumanyan have become a Foreign Minister hadn’t he had a Jewish wife? Who are you, after all? Who are you? What have you in common with us? Go to your Israel. Let an Armenian live freely in his homeland?”

“What about your friend Ashot Adamyan? In what group do you see him?”

“Ashot Adamyan is a true and extremely honest cultural figure. He wants people to avoid cheating and eating up everything. All he thinks about is this, ‘I don’t want to leave this country, so don’t annoy me.’ He wants to create. The state should give that kind of people the opportunity to create, without annoying him to such a degree that, finding himself at a loose, he may think about leaving the country. He is simply annoyed.

By the way, I am annoyed too. The activity we are engaged in (preservation, measurement and inventorization of monuments) bears no relationship to the country’s situation. A few day’s ago, one of the representatives of the government was trying to explain to us for an hour that the country was in a complex situation. I said to him, ‘Levon’s masters are waiting for new storms. I hope you were able to resist.’ As regards the registration of the monuments of Western Armenia, he gave an uncertain promise to assist in those activities next spring.

Of course I agree that the country’s situation is bad; I agree that Levon’s masters give us no peace and want to undermine and destabilize the state. Yes, that’s true, but what does it have to do with our work. Even if Levon comes to power, our work must be done.

Why do we go to Tsitsernakaberd on April 24 and lay flowers on the monument? It is for commemoration, isn’t it? What does our organization do? We fix both the monuments and the tombs (tombstones and pieces of khachkars) of our lost motherland and the murdered people. If we do not want to do that, our laying flowers is nothing more than a lie and deception.

ANAHIT YESAYAN