Maidan and Armenian political perspectives
May 8, 2014 8:44 am
By Edgar Khachatryan
Edgar Khachatryan is the director of Peace Dialogue, a member of the Global Coalition for Conflict Transformation. He specializes in international peacebuilding trainings, consultancy and expertise in gender and peace processes, violence prevention, and post-war stabilization and recovery.
“Those who think there will be another Maidan in Armenia may have such a Maidan in their own backyard”, stated Galust Sahakyan, leader of the governing Republican Faction of the Armenian National Assembly, suggesting Armenian opposition parties should not be too excited about events taking place elsewhere. In order to understand how Ukrainian developments are viewed in Armenia, we first need to understand the political situation of a country that shared over seventy years of Soviet history, but which has currently chosen a different political path to Ukraine.
Not so long ago when negotiating an Association Agreement with the EU, Yerevan officials used to speak from high platforms about their commitment to signing the Agreement at any cost. The enthusiasm and convincing speeches of the Armenian authorities suddenly disappeared on September 3rd 2013 during a meeting with Vladimir Putin, when president Serzh Sargsyan suddenly announced Armenia’s “overwhelming desire” to join the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. Nobody in Armenia could understand precisely whose wish Sargsyan expressed during the meeting, since neither political nor public discussions had been held in Armenia on the subject.
Whilst people searched for an answer, the authorities immediately put their “independent and impartial” media into action to help people understand the situation better and orientate themselves “easily”. For days and nights the media kept reminding people about the advantages of having a powerful strategic partner in the region, about Russia’s role and importance in resisting military aggression from Azerbaijan and Turkey, and about Armenia’s happy and “fat” years in the Soviet Union. These beautiful images were occasionally followed by scenes of citizens on Maidan expressing their dissatisfaction with the Ukrainian authorities.
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The gas deal concerned not only the gas price, but also stated that:
2. The Armenian party guarantees that until December 31, 2043 no laws, decisions, decrees or other legal acts will be changed, cancelled or in any way violate the legal rights and interests of Gazprom OJSC, HayRusgazard CJSC and their respective successors as of the date of signing the agreement.
In reality, the gas deal conceals a different kind of agreement between Armenia and Russia: up to December 2043, Russia ensures unrestricted falsified elections and impunity towards such exercises. That is to say, Russia ensures that it will not allow changes of power in Armenia until December 2043, as this would contradict Russian interests. Thus it appears that, in order to protect its own interests, Putin’s regime protects the position and interests of Armenia’s ruling elite.
complete...http://www.transconflict.com/2014/05/maidan-armenian-political-perspectives-085/
"2043" is not a typo.
= new reply since forum marked as read
