Kocharian and Sargsyan. Tendency is the Same, But Situation, Different: Letter from Nikol Pashinyan

On Apr. 27, Epress.am sent a letter containing 6 questions to chief editor of local daily Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”), imprisoned journalist Nikol Pashinyan, as part of the campaign by local news media to ensure Pashinyan’s right to correspondence is not violated by sending him regular letters and awaiting his response. Today we received Pashinyan’s response to us. We will publish his response to each of our questions incrementally throughout the week.

Question: An opinion exists among the people, as well as in the press, that the policy adopted by the current and former (2nd) presidents differ from one another. Is this true? And what principled difference do you see between Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sargsyan?

Response: Arriving at 26 Baghramyan [the presidential residence address], Serzh Sargsyan tried to maintain the same policy as Robert Kocharian. That didn’t work out — for obvious reasons. The policy adopted by Kocharian was based on the [money] transfers by migrant workers who were forced to leave Armenia, and a huge part of the sums through known mechanisms flowed to the criminal-oligarchic system. The entire state governing system was carried out with such stolen funds. Double-digit ‘economic growth’ was being announced, though we all know that we’re dealing with hot air.

Serzh Sargsyan, by virtue of known circumstances, was deprived of this auriferous stream, the Millennium Challenges, and assistance from international donors. Football Diplomacy was aimed at overcoming this predictable situation was because it was clear that only such desperate measures could ensure foreign economic policy support for a crumbling economy and an illegitimate government.

After the failure of Football Diplomacy, Serzh Sargsyan again feels foreign more acutely financial-political problems, which they didn’t notice during the Armenian-Turkish honeymoon [i.e. the Armenia-Turkey Protocols].

This is the difference between Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sargsyan. The tendency is the same, but the situation, different. During Robert Kocharian’s term, the political opposition field was mined, while today there is a strong opposition, a de-mined opposition field. Today in Armenia, there’s a new public, a strong civic consciousness. There’s no difference between Kocharian and Sargsyan — there’s a difference between the 2006 and 2010 citizens of the Republic of Armenia.

Photo retrieved May 9, 2011, from the blog An Armenian Journalist Notes.