ATTEMPTS OF "DRIVING ARMENIA INTO A CORNER" TURN OUT A FAILURE

The presidential elections and the subsequent events of March 1-2 were a serious test to Armenia's international rating and reputation earned in the course of many years.
The difficulties that fell to our country's lot recently became the subject of the biased attention of the superpowers having serious interests in the region. The struggle between the authorities and the opposition was some way or another linked to the convergence and conflict of some of those key interests.
We began tasting the first bitter fruits of this phenomenon in the post-election period when no single day passed without the visit of delegates representing some European or international structure. Offering their help to the forces that were leading a sharp struggle against one another, the organizations which were simultaneously acting as mediators were actually imposing their conditions not only on the direct parties to the conflict but also - on Armenia.
During the whole post-election period the great number of delegates representing Western countries never tried to answer the question whether the protest actions organized by the opposition leader might be considered a normal phenomenon in their countries in view of the fact that the pro-Government candidate received 2.5 times more votes.
They were not interested in such "details"; the important thing was that there was "distrust of the election results". As to whether such distrust was real or artificial, dramatized and envisaged for a foreign spectator, our guests were no longer interested in that.
Even after L. Ter-Petrosyan chose the territory nearby the French, Italian and Russian Embassies as the site of the ‘decisive battle', aiming to arouse an international interest in the dramatization of the protest actions, nobody asked these people why they were endangering the uninterrupted work of the foreign country representatives.
Instead, the films shot from the windows of those embassies were spread all over the world, and there started the raffling of a well-staged scenario. The first part of the presentation of such scenario was Ter-Petrosyan's March 11 press-conference.
However, Ter-Petrosyan's chances began diminishing slowly, along with lifting the state of emergency in the town of Yerevan, forming a broad political coalition and publishing the reform program declared by the latter. The demand previously imposed on the opposition by the PACE Monitoring Committee to respect and recognize the decision of the Constitutional Court the final clarification of Russia's attitude towards the authorities in Armenia also greatly contributed to it as well.
Unlike some Western guests, Deputy Foreign Minister and State Secretary G. Karasi n publicly refused to meet with L. Ter-Petrosyan. In this way, the senior Russian official showed his country's clear-cut negative attitude towards the scenario of making Armenia a target of international pressures.
It became obvious that the scenario of giving the opposition freedom of hands and suppressing the authorities to maximum possible extent will not work in Armenia even if it becomes necessary to threaten the country with the prospect of terminating the "Millennium Challenges" program. In such conditions, the sketches of the second part of the "soap opera" concerning the Armenian elections and post-electoral developments became visible.
This time, after rendering such "great services" to the international community, the opposition leader has to moderate his ambitions for power and simply become an ordinary lever for imposing certain foreign policy issues on Armenia.
The "Moor" has done his job: he has harmed our country's international rating and reputation, questioned the outcome of the elections and provoked an international intervention. Now he can go away for ever if the Armenian authorities demonstrate a clear-cut attitude towards the forces which funded the skillfully dramatized performance.
In their recent statements, the international structures emphasize all the time that the OSCE Observation Mission considered the Armenian elections mostly in line with the international standards, i.e. legitimate. However, their final report is still to be published. Before that, NATO is to hold its summit in Bucharest. Within the frameworks of the summit, Armenia and Azerbaijan may resume the interrupted talks as well.
However, on the eve of staging the second part of the international political "soap-opera" concerning the Armenian elections and post-electoral developments, President-elect Serge Sargsyan paid a working visit to Moscow. The unconditional support of the Russian leadership creates the strong basis that may make Armenia feel more confident in confronting the possible international coercions.
The scenario of staging a "colored revolution" in Armenia or, in case of its failure, driving our authorities into a corner and imposing serious concessions with regard to different international issues is reaching a deadlock in a slow though consistent manner.
ARMEN TSATOURYAN

| Home | >>

E-mail article | Discuss article new!

Discussion

53 days before | remove (5) | reply
Rafael wrote:
Let me ask AT something? First at western countries onbe doesn't have 15% of the voting a questionable...this was what happened in Armenia. Also the people who gathered in the grigor lusavorich square were peaceful protestors, if they were the same looters as the looters at night why didn't they storm Euromotors, a luxury class dealership which was maybe 100 meters away or any other place nearby???

RSS © Hayots Ashkhar

Headlines for March 25, 2008

ATTEMPTS OF "DRIVING ARMENIA INTO A CORNER" TURN OUT A FAILURE
ARMEN TSATOURYAN 1
The presidential elections and the subsequent events of March 1-2 were a serious test to Armenia's international rating and reputation earned in the course of many years. The difficulties that fell to ...
PROPOSAL FOR DIALOGUE ADDRESSED TO EVERYONE
GEVORG HARUTYUNYAN
As a result of long-term discussions and negotiations, on March 21, four Parliamentary Parties, the Republican Party "Bargavach Hayastan", "Orinats Yerkir" and ARF Dashnaktsutyun signed an agreement on ...
PRESIDENT-ELECT PAYS HIS FIRST VISIT TO RUSSIA
Yesterday morning Armenian President-elect SERGE SARGSYAN began his working visit to the Russian Federation. S. Sargsyan had a meeting with Russia's President-elect DMITRY MEDVEDEV, First Assistant to ...
FOREIGN DIPLOMAT - A DEMONSTRATOR?
KIMA YEGHIAZARYAN
This Is Called "Mission" The March 21 gathering of Levon's supporters (in which the activists were participating with flowers, candles and photos of the "political prisoners") was different from the ...