Epress.am News from Armenia
Armenia’s former foreign minister, member of Free Democrats, a political party established early this year, Alexander Arzumanyan has the utmost respect for all those who were in Liberty Square for eight days last week — but he never understood what was the point of the opposition Armenian National Congress’ round-the-clock rallies, the former Armenian National Congress (HAK) member told Epress.am.
“It was a political entity’s demonstration, which if it was saying that opposition parties have to rally together, then there should have been discussions organized previously and those parties should have been part of the decision. [HAK leader] Levon Ter-Petrossian declared at the Mar. 1 rally this year that from now on the square is a civic forum where everyone makes decisions, but that’s not what happened. Respecting the purpose and demands of those gathered [in Liberty Square], I, nevertheless, couldn’t picture what the [Armenian National] Congress wanted, and what were the purpose and demands of the nonstop rallies. Because it wasn’t that clear, since after each demand it was said that we’re not maximalists and it’s possible to make concessions. That’s a little incomprehensible for me,” he said.
The rhetoric that was heard at Liberty Square, Arzumanyan believed, was quite contradictory.
“That is, they made calls to unite on one hand, while on the other hand, they said whoever is not here is a traitor, whoever is not here is afraid. It seems to me that such rhetoric prevented broader inclusion in the political arena. This is a very serious internal contradiction, when on one hand,… they say come, but when someone comes, they say he’s come to initiate a PR campaign and to have his photo taken with the people. That’s a little unacceptable for me. The question shouldn’t be posed initially in such a way that you’ll come, you’ll join the Congress. This is not only Congress’ issue — it is an issue for all opposition forces, and here, we have to discuss, meet, offer solutions, and perhaps those solutions will be found. But to say that I’m doing it, come, join me — well, it’s just not right,” he said.
Arzumanyan noted that HAK invited him to participate in the civic forum that took place in the afternoon on Oct. 8 in Liberty Square; however, he was had a previous engagement and had no choice but to decline the invitation. The opposition bloc then suggested he participate in the next forum (if the nonstop rallies continued past Saturday), to which he agreed; however, as it is already known, the rallies wrapped up on Saturday.
The former foreign minister then spoke of his political activity, stating that he left the Pan-Armenian National Movement (HHSh) in July 2010 and then also HAK, but he continued to have an active presence in political matters.
“I have never missed a picket outside the prosecutor’s office — we were there every Friday [to demand the release of political prisoners]. I participated in all the HAK rallies, especially considering that a new wave began and this year’s Mar. 1 rally drew a large crowd. The people had a great many expectations. Beginning after that was a process — the process of dialogue — of which I have already given my assessment. I am deeply convinced that it’s better to resolve every issue through dialogue — and not through confrontation. But I had also noted that this dialogue should have been guided by as wide as possible of a mobilization and also by rallying the entire opposition. Unfortunately, this wasn’t tied with the dialogue; rather, the rallies were suspended during the dialogue process. Only one, two rallies were held, and there was no attempt to gather together the entire opposition, which, it seems to me, was not so right from a tactical standpoint,” he said.
In the opposition activist’s opinion, only the authorities benefited from the dialogue.
“I think that the latest resolution adopted by PACE, that the chapter to March 1 can be considered closed, was a product of this dialogue. That is, we gave them [the Armenian authorities] this opportunity — to appear before the international community as a democratic government, who are engaged in dialogue, have no more political prisoners and so on,” he said.