I hope The Armenian Observer (Ditord) won't mind, but I'm reposting a blog post of his which quite nicely follows my earlier post. You have to see the original post, if only because of the amazing photo series he chose to go with the post. Wonderful.
Here it is, in full, below:
"Armenia’s past and incumbent presidents – Levon Ter-Petrossian, Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sargsian, couldn’t force themselves to come together and celebrate the country’s Independence Day on September 21th.
"September 22 marks another anniversary. 14 years ago today Armenia turned back from the path of self-rule and democratization as a result of flawed Presidential elections in 1996. Levon Ter-Petrossian relied on use of force against opposition protesters to hold his grip on power.
"The three of them had much better relations back then.
"Robert Kocharian was the tame President of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, who would use every occasion to congratulate and speak highly of Ter-Petrossian.
"Serzh Sargsian was the Minister of Interior and National Security, one of the key officials who helped Ter-Petrossian fabricate his victory over main opposition candidate Vazgen Manukyan and keep it too, relying on police and security service forces. Similar tactics were used by Sargsian and Kocharian to claim victory in 2008 presidential elections and break-up the rally of Ter-Petrossian supporters during the March 1 violence in the streets of capital Yerevan.
"Ter-Petrossian and Robert Kocharian can’t stand each other and have reacted fiercely to each other's critical public statements since 1998, when Kocharian ousted incumbent Ter-Petrossian and became president.
"In recent months there are also speculations about worsening relations between long time allies – Serzh Sargsian and Robert Kocharian.
"One thing they have in common, however, is their determination to take the power away from the people of Armenia as much as possible. That’s where they have been and will remain a ‘dream team’ and that’s what the biggest tragedy of this country is.
PS: Check out this Washington Post editorial which appeared in the wake of the fraudulent presidential election that was held in Armenia 14 years ago today and proved fatal for the country’s post-Soviet history.
why is everyone so obsessed with the president (sargsyan) nowadays -- can someone explain this to me? i thought that the cult of personality was deemed obsolete after brezhnev's death. is this what's so fashionable in the elitist circles of the quasi-intelligentsia in armenia?
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this, Adrineh, and no, I absolutely don't mind the repost.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - everyone is obsessed with Sargsyan, because of the style of government in this country. You see, nothing, NOTHING happens in this country without presidents involvement.
ReplyDeleteHence, all comments, criticism goes to the President. So it has happened, that now Sargsyan is the president.
"NOTHING happens in this country without presidents involvement." --
ReplyDeletenothing will happen if we believe that everything is in sargsyan's hands. surely the digital network system isn't and look what a revolution of thought (and public debate) is happening on the margins of public television and radio -- the media that's controlled by the government.
Observer, what do you mean when you say "nothing happens in this country without the president's involvement." Do you mean nothing politically? Or more generally, in other facets? Because I'd like to agree with Anonymous and say that it's possible for change to happen without the president's (or any other ruler's) involvement, but rather from the people, from the bottom up, instead of top down ;)
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