THE STATE CANNOT ENDLESSLY TOLERATE TRANSGRESSIONS

On February 26, President ROBERT KOCHARYAN gave an interview to H1 TV Channel, touching upon the country’s current internal political situation

“These elections were characterized by another dangerous phenomenon, when servicemen and some law enforcement officials began to interfere in the internal political processes. Of course, not in such volumes as the Opposition is trying to present. Anyway, what’s your attitude?”
“A few months ago Levon Ter-Petrosyan announced that his tactics was to dismantle the state structures, and they were trying to carry out large-scale work in that direction; they divided into groups and organized meetings with different officials in different agencies, trying to involve them in politics. The conversation is also about the representatives of the law enforcement agencies. There were very few cases. I was notified of almost all the steps; we were aware of the whole process, and the people they applied to reported that L. Ter-Petrosyan and the activists of the Armenian pan-National Movement were using such dangerous methodology. Those attempts failed, and the existing rare cases immediately found a response.
These are steps against the Republic of Armenia, against our statehood. In the course of many years, we formed and accomplished the state structures, and suddenly there appears a person, a political entity, attempting to destroy all our achievements in a goal-oriented manner. At this point, it is even possible to give other characterizations, but today, I would like to refrain from that. The impermissible actions should be condemned, and some people should be held liable for them.”
“Nevertheless, some of the Opposition representatives continue their protests; in particular, L. Ter-Petrosyan’s team is going to raise a surge of long protest, and the logic is such: to try to achieve some success through a long-term instability. What measures are you planning to undertake?”
“Two weeks before the elections he announced that he was already the elected President. In this way, he drove himself into a deadlock which, actually, is very difficult to break. What steps are left to Levon Ter-Petrosyan? To gather his proponents, announce that the elections are falsified and keep them at the Theatrical Square by using some tricks: actually, all that is going on at present. This is, first of all, a disrespectful attitude towards those people, especially his closest ones: when a person is sinking and is trying to drag his closest people with him.
In general, there is such an impression that this person was evil for the country, but currently he is a greater evil for those who surround him. Instead of helping those people to overcome the situation (by the way, they are also in need of psychological aid), he is, on the contrary, deepening it more and complicating the process of overcoming it.
The state, of course, cannot endlessly tolerate transgressions. Today is the sixth day an illegal demonstration is being held. The Police were obliged to undertake measures. They haven’t done so up to date for one reason: I was urging them to demonstrate patience and try not to exacerbate the situation, hoping that reasonableness would finally win, and the people would come to the their senses. And I think six days is enough for coming to one’s senses. We’ll be patient for some time. But I repeat there is an end to such patience, because it may develop an atmosphere of distrust towards the law enforcement officers who allegedly cannot call the wrongdoers to order.
That force exists; the opportunity exists as well. I just repeat we realize that there is also a mass of misguided people at that square. When watching the films, you are under the impression that a very untalented performance is being shown at the Theatrical Square.”
“Those strange events began taking place three days ago. A number of people are being arrested in Armenia; some of them are also politicians. The press currently reports that there are political prisoners in the country, that’s to say, these are political arrests. What’s going on?”
“Yes, there are arrests; relevant reports are being made both by the Prosecutor’s Office and the Security Service.
I would divide those arrests into three parts. The first includes those which are related to the elections; all the irregularities are registered, and you can find them on the Web sites of the Police and the General Prosecutor’s Office. And all the people responsible for those irregularities should be punished. They include both the Opposition representatives and the representatives of the Republican Party of Armenia.
The second group includes the people who are arrested on grounds of being dangerous, i.e. for carrying weapons, and during the whole process, the pro-Opposition activists, the team-members of that particular candidate were actively communicating with the armed detachments. They are actively trying to draw them in political processes. You know that some of ‘Yerkrapah’ members were really involved in the process. There are organizations of veterans which are also involved in it, and the state cannot overlook that factor. When the Security Service Agencies register armed people at the Theatrical Square, they are also obliged to take measures towards rendering them harmless.
I can say that both yesterday and today large-scale operations were initiated towards rendering such groups harmless. Quite a large amount of arms and ammunition has already been confiscated, and some people have been arrested. These are steps towards protecting the security and tranquility of our citizens. These are quite serious amounts, with the involvement of quite dangerous individuals.
The third group of people includes those who currently provoke such situations, people who have been ignoring the law for six days and continue organizing illegal demonstrations and marches. We are obliged to protect the rights of other citizens; these are not the only people living in the town of Yerevan. Hundreds of complaints are being heard from the surrounding buildings. The largest among the three groups is the one that simply poses a threat to our citizens and our political stability. I mean the armed people.”
“Nevertheless, polarization remains the most serious problem of any election. After all, as a result of elections, society is split at least into two parts. In our case, several parts are even possible. And after the end of the elections, the most important task is to mitigate, if not to eliminate such polarization. What steps are being planned in that direction?
“Armenia has a newly elected President who has declared that he is the President of the whole nation and not only those who have voted in his favor. This is also implied by the Constitution.
And I have no doubt that in terms of his character and approaches he will be that kind of President. Of course, more active measures may be required for mitigating the polarized political arena. I think that will be done, but it is necessary to neutralize the extreme manifestations. We are planning different types of measures to be implemented in future, and I believe that when the new Government is formed, the people will see that the wining President is going to involve broader circles in the activity of the Government and not only the Republican Party and ‘Prosperous Armenia’. That will the first signal for everybody to realize that the elected President has a willingness to involve broader circles in the process of governance, and we certainly anticipate the public to make a relevant assessment on the political forces which are attempting to destabilize the situation.”

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