Epress.am News from Armenia
Human memory of past events is selective: nostalgia and the idealization of the past are unique for all of us, writes Aram Abrahamyan, chief editor of local daily Aravot (“Morning”), in his editorial today.
“For example, HHSh [Pan-Armenian National Movement] members believe that they completely right when they banned Dashnaktsutyun [the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, or ARF-D] and shut down this party’s news outlets. It seems to them as well that the elections of 1995, 1996 were fair, and truly free market relations were operating in the economy. Moreover, they’re sure that there was no kleptocracy during their time.
“[Second president of Armenia] Robert Kocharian’s supporters present their time in a likewise rose-colored fashion.
“In particular, former foreign minister Vartan Oskanian, in an interview with Azatutyun Radio [RFE/RL’s Armenian service], expressed an opinion that during the days of his leader, three of the National Assembly chairs — Karen Demirchyan, Armen Khachatryan and Artur Baghdasaryan — were not from the ruling party; also, prime minister Armen Darbinyan had no party affiliation. It’s true. Only that a question arises: what advantages does this have in terms of democracy? In what way were those politicians more independent than they could’ve been if they were Republicans? In what way was it limited, the possibilities of a non-party president putting pressure on party members and imposing his own will?
“And generally, during the second president’s term, Oct. 27 [1999 parliamentary shooting] and Mar. 1 [2008 presidential election protests] took place, the 1998 and 2003 elections and the 2005 referendum were rigged, A1+ was shut down — after all this, presenting Robert Kocharian as a great big democrat is, to put it mildly, an overstatement.
“About the economy. Perhaps purely in terms of figures and percentages, we truly prospered and flourished. But people were in a serious social condition both 10 years ago and now; the economy was centralized in the hands of a few oligarchs both then and now. To tell the truth, I haven’t noticed in our society a mass nostalgia for the times of Kocharian. That does, of course, exist among a group of current and former officials and businessmen.
“Now the situation is in no way bright. But that doesn’t mean that in 10 years [Armenian foreign minister] Edward Nalbandian won’t remember the situation today with warm nostalgia,” writes the Aravot editor.