People in Armenia are protected with their status and financial potential

Interview with Avetik Ishkhanyan, head of Helsinki Committee Armenia

-Mr. Ishkhanyan, the murder attempt against AIM party leader Paruyr Hayrikyan on January 31 has generated certain political developments. Who was interested in isolating Hayrikyan from the elections?

-In case of terror against politicians usually governments are the first target for critics. I am sure that this incident was not in the interest of first of all president Sargsyan. But is the government Sargsyan only? Aren’t there any other groups that might be interested in changing the status-quo and generate instability? I am not informed of the structure of the powers within the government and I cannot make conclusions.

-The incumbent president is speaking of a secure Armenia but the incident against Hayrikyan shows something else. What will be the future developments like? Can this incident be a ground for delaying elections?

-First, the president is speaking of a secure Armenia, thus admitting that the country we have now is not secure. I am pretty skeptical if they will be able to create a secure Armenia. It is about the health condition and wish of Paruyr Hayrikyan whether to delay elections or no.

-What do you think about the pre-election campaign in general not taking into consideration the incident with Hayrikyan?

-My impression is that compared to previous elections, this time the society is not interested in elections. I think the reason is that compared to the elections before, this time the society has expectations as the main political powers are not participating in elections. In Armenia elections in general are disputable and only the fact that the government has not changed though elections means that either the government has been so good since 1991 that people did not want to have another government or elections have been violated. I don’t want to go into the details of announcements of international election monitoring organizations; we can come to interesting conclusions only be analyzing the facts. Such facts are the real change of government in 1998, which was followed by parliamentary election in 1999. The political power that won elections in 95-96 with official reports, was not able to overcome the level of 5% in 99. Thus, a political power that had only three people in the parliament took over the administrative resources and took the power, and since then has been on power during the past 15 years. There are many facts like these.

-By saying government do you mean transformation to the criminal and oligarchic system of rule?

-No, I would not give such estimation. It was a simple palace revolution through internal agreements. The oligarchic system started giving roots in 90s, and in the future it even strengthened more.

-Is Levon Ter-Petrosyan the father of that system?

-Of course. At that time there were monopolies and were under the protection of the government. Just at that time the economy was not developed, there was no fast economic growth in the world economy and distribution of capital was to start. Later it was even more strengthened. Our people are connecting their hopes with presidential elections in case when the biggest problem in Armenia is the difficult situation after elections, which is every time followed by violence, conflicts and is dramatic. In 2008 this dramatic process transformed into a tragedy and resulted in 10 victims. The problem is that after every election in Armenia there is pressure on the part of international organizations. In the parliamentary elections the government did their best not to let post-election crisis take place in Armenia. How did it start? The second largest power with majority of votes following the parliamentary election was Prosperous Armenia party, thus it was the biggest “trouble” for the government. I think this was the reason why persecutions were launched against Vardan Oskanyan after the parliamentary election. With this attempt they tried to eliminate him as one of the most influential politicians in the arena, and also harm the reputation of the PA. What happened in the negotiations between PA, ANC and ARF? I don’t know and cannot say anything. But the fact is that as a result of those negotiations, which were not transparent, one after another they refused to participate in elections. In fact after their refusal to take part in the election we had a situation, which was not election but more simply voting. Election is a higher understanding. I respect all nominated candidates but I am sure that they don’t have enough resources to be able to control electoral procedures.

-Is the lack of alternative the reason of the society’s indifference? The nominated 8 candidates at least provide diversity of candidates.

-In fact there is illustrative diversity but they cannot generate real competition. There could be real competition in case of the participation of influential parties in elections. As I said, none of the nominated candidates has enough resources, financial and human, to take care of the campaign procedures throughout the country. I mean they cannot have enough proxies, campaign headquarters and commission members. I believe those people do not have such resources.

-Is it the reason why the president said based on the campaign flow of the recent days that he does not see a competitor?

-The impression is that the ruling power, notwithstanding the lack of competition, formally is doing civilized campaign. However, it is certain for everyone that all problems have been solved in advance. The only problem here is providing participation of at least 5-% of voters in election in this situation of indifference. I don’t think voters will participate in elections normally if the government do not use administrative resources.

This situation shows the level of political crisis in Armenia. The behavior of opposition parties is not understandable at all as they failed to give clear and transparent explanation why they failed to participate in election. In Armenia there are tough political and economic problems. Are not those parties concerned of these challenges and problems in the country that they decided to give up and not to run for power? Even if they understood that they would not be able to reach any goals as the elections would be violated, there is a question then why they exist and generally why did they mobilize people if they would give up. What is their next step? Maybe the reason for them to give up is different. Did they refuse to participate in elections in exchange with the mandates in the parliamentary election?  Will representatives of the former radical opposition get into the government? The society does not have the answer to these questions and maybe they are still skeptical about them.

-Has the society left alone?

-Many people believe the failure of the main opposition powers to participate in elections is abuse of voters’ rights. I would say these powers are ignoring their supporters.

-Is it because of political crisis and lack of political culture that during the pre-election campaign period some of the candidates slammed other candidates in critics?

-In all countries in the world during elections sometimes debates may cross the limit of politeness. Anyone involved in political competition should be ready for this.

-Do you think there may be election depression and people may become even more indifferent?

-This time hardly there may be political crisis or depression as during the past elections. But it is quite different to say which of these situations is better – election depression or indifference to elections? Maybe indifference is the worst stance because in case of depression people may get a new wave of courage, but in case of depression they stay out of the game. Maybe political crisis can bring to a new situation and stimulate new powers born from the scratch.

-Is the human being protected in our country?

-In Armenia the human being is protected as much as they have social status and money. People are not protected with law.

-Why?

-The question you are asking is the one that has brought to this political collapse. Powers tend to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. When somewhere the power is not limited, people fall in bad situation.

-Who is the human being for the power?  

-In Armenia the human is not a subject but an object. It seems to me that the government are living their life, and ordinary people theirs as there is no connection between these two. I think the government sincerely believes in good work done by them because their groups and people that surround them flatter and praise them, and they do not tell the truth and reality. My question is whether the citizens of the country feel as citizens or subordinate people. A very small part of our society feel as real citizens and others feel as subordinate. This is where their psychology is formed. The government representatives have the same psychology too. Last year I saw something very interesting in the parliament. Every faction member had the photo of his/her faction leader attached on the wall of the office. These party people, whether they are representing the ruling power or no, they feel subordinate to their party leaders.

Interviewed by Marine Martirosyan