Published since 07.2002
Published on July 18, 2008
100 DAYS IN OFFICE: SERZH SARGSYAN CELEBRATES FIRST LANDMARK AS PRESIDENT
- “You had the right to vote for someone other than me, but I have no right not to be your president. We should not become divided, we should not create partitions between one part of our people and another, we should not stay indifferent to each other’s concerns and pain and should not cease to be mutually available. Even if a wall of misunderstanding stands between us, I urge you – let us eliminate that wall.” This is what Serzh Sargsyan said in his inauguration speech as he was sworn in as Armenia’s new president on April 9. In the hundred days that followed these words, the new administration declared a new strategy of reform and introduced some changes particularly in the tax and customs spheres. In a televised address to the nation on the occasion on Friday, President Sargsyan spoke about achievements made “in all spheres of activities” and said: “I don’t say patience is needed – believe me I can’t wait myself. I want to see our problems -- injustice, indifference, corruption and poverty -- solved as soon as possible.” While Sargsyan’s teammates and supporters mostly positively evaluate the period of his 100-day presidency, the opposition takes issue with such opinions. How much of the “wall of misunderstanding” has been actually eliminated in these 100 days? Not a lot, Aghasi Yenokyan, a pro-opposition analyst says, and gives a brief estimation to the president’s words and action as “a temporary show.” “In order to eliminate the wall, the president first should have initiated two things – to release all political prisoners and ensured an objective investigation of the March 1 events,” Yenokyan says. “And finally he should have agreed to early presidential elections. Had he accomplished the first two things, I am sure in the event of a pre-term election he would have enjoyed an increased public trust.” Opposition Heritage parliamentary faction secretary Stepan Safaryan says he does not see any change. Otherwise, he says, the political prisoners would have been freed, public trust would have been increased and the March 1 probe would have been conducted. In his address Sargsyan also answered critics: “Unfortunately, some people speak with skepticism about the work being done today. I am going to disprove their pessimism with my perseverance. What is being done is not a “safe driving month” or “clean hands” arrangements. Our work will not be limited to any “100 days”. We will turn this manner of work into a norm of life,” the president underlined in his address. The Armenian press extensively editorialized on the first landmark in the president’s five-year term. Aravot daily editor Aram Abrahamyan writes in the Friday editorial: “The continued imprisonment of opposition leaders and activists greatly complicates the president’s activities in all spheres both domestically and in the international arena. But let’s also see the positive in these 100 days. Steps have been made towards reforming the work of tax and customs bodies, and police.” Iravunk newspaper editor Hovhannes Galajyan opines in his article “Saga about 100 Days of the President’s Solitude and about August 1” that politically Sargsyan has remained in solitude during the first 100 days of his presidency and expounds on his thought: “Naturally, the president and his team are facing a daunting task of shifting solutions from the administrative area into the political one… Only then will the intention of ‘system reforms’ receive its blood and flesh.” Armenian Public Television ran a film on Sargsyan’s 100 Days in Office on Thursday evening. The film also carried evaluations by media managers and reporters. Thus, Mediamax news agency director Ara Tadevosyan says: “We should frankly believe in all those programs that he and the government bring forward.” And Hraparak daily editor Armine Ohanyan says: “People are ready for a new life, for new steps, are ready to once again give a carte-blanche, to once again pin a hope on these authorities for something to change in their lives. It is not so that society constantly wants upheavals… No, what society wants is simply to have a good life.” And the Aravot editor advises that what the president has not managed to do within 100, he can still accomplish within 1,000 days. “To ensure freedom of assembly and independence of media. If he manages to do that within 1,000 days, then I’d say ‘Bravo!’,” Abrahamyan concluded.
- Gayane Mkrtchyan
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Today in Armenian history- 1894 Birth of Vahan Totovents (writer). He was murdered by the Soviet Secret Police in 1937.
- 1914 The Central Committees of Taron and Sassoon present the reform program to three embassies in Constantinople.
- 1938 Birth of Perch Zeytuntsyan (playwright) in Cairo (Egypt).
- 1988 The USSR Supreme Soviet, relies on Article 78 of the Soviet Constitution (prohibition of any territorial changes to a Union Republic without its consent) to deny the 1988 02 20 petition by the Autonomous Region of Nagorno Gharabagh to rejoin Armenia.
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