ASSESSMENT – EXTREMELY POSITIVE
- Hence expiring his second term of office, on April 9 President Robert Kocharyan will hand over his power to his successor, the President-elect Serge Sargsyan.
What did the 10 years of the activity of the Republic’s second President give to the state and the people, what did we manage to do during these years, what problems do we have in the field of foreign and domestic policy, that are to be solved. Political scientists, the time, the history and, of course society will answer all these questions. Before that, in response to our questions, native MPs are trying to give assessments to the outcome of Robert Kocharyan’s tenure.
Artak Davtyan
MP belonging to RPA faction
“If I evaluate President Robert Kocharyan’s 10 years’ activity with one word I will evaluate it as “extremely positive”. This is my conviction. Let’s remember the opinions heard in 1998 when this authority was being formed.
They used to say that the party of peace was leaving and the party of war was coming. They also used to say that this authority wouldn’t stand long, that very soon Armenia would appear under the pressure of international community, that the country will become a target of economic and political sanctions, etc. The former senior, average, and junior officials even made a demarche, something that was really intolerable.
They also used to say that the country is deprived of any prospect of development, and it hasn’t got any internal resources to counteract the domestic and foreign challenges, and that it is unable to confront the problems linked with Armenian Turkish relations and Karabakh conflict.
Time showed that even in such circumstances we managed to sum up our potential and develop our economy. Unfortunately, during those 10 years we didn’t manage to use our total potential, but Robert Kocharyan proved that we can advance certain tasks and goals, we can make steps and show results.
After 1998, at moments decisive for the country, we managed to overcome all the trials, because we had a strong, patriotic and (which is most important) a self-confident President like Robert Kocharyan.
Of course no one can say that everything was perfect during the past years. But in the meantime it is intolerable to overlook all the positive steps.”
“What can you say about the country’s democratization, the reforms made in the sphere of European integration?”
“As you know in 2001 Armenia became a member of the Council of Europe, something that is a serious achievement. In 2003 our country became a member of World Trade Organization, permanently extending cooperation with many authoritative European structures, particularly NATO and European Union, as well as the United States and our strategic partner, Russia.
And no matter how disapproved we are from our electoral processes, beginning from 2003 all the international organizations have recorded significant progress in this sphere as well. The Presidential elections of 2008, according to the European observation organizations and CIS observers, was a step forward as compared with the Parliamentary elections of 2007 which was estimated by the same organizations as “mainly in line with the European standards”. It is another question that the “radical” opposition took to the streets together with their supporters, disputing the election returns; it is from the sphere of the colored technologies.
As for the tempo of the economic growth, in my opinion we have touched upon this topic many times. Had some years back someone told us that Yerevan would be like this, that it will have such substructures, that it will realize one of the most important modern town building projects, about which we could only dream during the Soviet times, no one would believe.
Moreover, the investment field, in Armenia, the business-atmosphere has reached such a level that the world’s biggest companies and why not our compatriots in Diaspora implement serious business projects in Armenia. Not to overload you with numbers, I will record only one index: during LTP’s last years of power the gross domestic product was less than it is today, only in the field of construction. No comments, I think. Those sad events of March 1-2 of course ruined Armenia’s rating, but they also displayed that the country and its force structures are accomplished. In essence, one more time it was proved that Armenia is neither the Serbia of 2000, nor the Georgia of 2003 or Ukraine, to do whatever they want, behind attractive and shallow words.
One of the attributes of the state and the supremacy of law is the right use of force, something that the before mentioned countries lacked. It is one of the most important institutions in the condition of the accomplishment of state. In my opinion without that we would have faced worse consequences.
Manvel Badeyan
MP belonging to RPA faction
“The first thing that I would like to underscore is the significant economic growth that we recorded during Robert Kocharyan’s years of power. It would never happen in and off itself, had the authorities not created corresponding atmosphere, in the legislative field, in tax and custom administration mechanisms, and in terms of the atmosphere of trust, for the entrepreneurs. Besides that, the challenges from the point of view of the national security have also been neutralized. I mean, firstly the foreign challenges particularly linked with the settlement of Karabakh conflict.
What we didn’t manage to implement totally? In my view firstly it is the absolute democratization of society. Today, 10 years after 1998, unfortunately we can’t say that Armenia is an exclusively democratic country. We didn’t manage to fight clan; we didn’t manage to accomplish our political domain, the parties didn’t strengthen, we lack a constructive opposition, but it is a matter of time.
But I must repeat that if we try to sensibly estimate the situation, we must admit that Robert Kocharyan proved that our reserves, our opportunities are much more than we can presume and in any case, be it a blockade or a political blackmail, the country can develop with higher tempo. And, this is, of course the evident achievement of the last 10 years, which cannot be denied, something that is Robert Kocharyan’s triumph, beyond a shadow of a doubt.
To be continued
- LILIT POGHOSYAN
ASSESSMENT – EXTREMELY POSITIVE
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