Tweet
Mediamax, Armenia
March 23 2011
Commentary
Raffi Hovhannisyan is not Israel Hakobkokhyan
by Ara Tadevosyan, Director of Mediamax
Raffi Hovhannisyan-Levon Ter-Petrosian-authorities `triangle'
continues being in the center of our society's and media's attention.
The situation not only fails to find its solution, but also gains new
coloring, moving farther from healthy logic.
Of course, Levon Ter-Petrosian has grounds to state that Raffi
Hovhannisyan's hunger strike is of an `ostentatious' nature. When we
receive a press release from `Heritage', which contains a few pages of
names of people, who have expressed their `support' for Raffi
Hovhannisyan on the Freedom Square, we ask a question: does the hunger
strike aim at really inviting the attention of the authorities towards
the problems of the people, or does it aim at `receiving support'?
Raffi Hovhannisyan is also right, when he opposes ANC leader, saying
that the hunger strike is not of a religious, but of political nature.
It is natural that a political struggle is impossible without steps,
which will attract people's attention, and a hunger strike, no matter
how disputable a method, is one of those steps.
It is even more difficult to understand what the authorities, and
personally Serzh Sargsian should do. The demands of Raffi
Hovhannisyan's hunger strike are not distinct (naturally, this is done
intentionally) and in those conditions the possible actions of the
authorities are really limited.
What should the President of the Republic do? Recall how once upon a
time he urged famous boxer Israel Hakobkokhyan to stop the hunger
strike and do the same thing in Raffi Hovhannisyan's case? Of course,
not. Israel Hakobkokhyan was not a professional political figure, but
an offended famous sportsman, and by approaching him Serzh Sargsian
was acting like a human being and not as a political figure. The same
is not applicable to the case of Raffi Hovhannisyan, who is a party
leader and should clearly realize the political consequences of all
his steps. It is natural that the authorities cannot urge the leader
of `Heritage' to stop the hunger strike, promising to speed up
reforms. It is at least naivety to expect that.
I believe that there is only one way out: all political forces should
tell the society that they are going to elections and will take up all
the permitted steps to achieve the best result: rallies, processions,
hunger strikes, etc. It should be very clearly stated that `yes, we
are launching a political battle against each other'. Of course, they
should try to make the political struggle as civil as possible.
Nevertheless, the political struggle has its rules, and perhaps God
and Christian virtues should not be mentioned in the context of that
struggle that often. In any case, political figures will be doing what
they consider right, and we can keep Christian virtues pure of
excessive speculations. And this concerns all the vertexes of the
`triangle'.
Ara Tadevosyan is the Director of Mediamax.
From: A. Papazian
March 23 2011
Commentary
Raffi Hovhannisyan is not Israel Hakobkokhyan
by Ara Tadevosyan, Director of Mediamax
Raffi Hovhannisyan-Levon Ter-Petrosian-authorities `triangle'
continues being in the center of our society's and media's attention.
The situation not only fails to find its solution, but also gains new
coloring, moving farther from healthy logic.
Of course, Levon Ter-Petrosian has grounds to state that Raffi
Hovhannisyan's hunger strike is of an `ostentatious' nature. When we
receive a press release from `Heritage', which contains a few pages of
names of people, who have expressed their `support' for Raffi
Hovhannisyan on the Freedom Square, we ask a question: does the hunger
strike aim at really inviting the attention of the authorities towards
the problems of the people, or does it aim at `receiving support'?
Raffi Hovhannisyan is also right, when he opposes ANC leader, saying
that the hunger strike is not of a religious, but of political nature.
It is natural that a political struggle is impossible without steps,
which will attract people's attention, and a hunger strike, no matter
how disputable a method, is one of those steps.
It is even more difficult to understand what the authorities, and
personally Serzh Sargsian should do. The demands of Raffi
Hovhannisyan's hunger strike are not distinct (naturally, this is done
intentionally) and in those conditions the possible actions of the
authorities are really limited.
What should the President of the Republic do? Recall how once upon a
time he urged famous boxer Israel Hakobkokhyan to stop the hunger
strike and do the same thing in Raffi Hovhannisyan's case? Of course,
not. Israel Hakobkokhyan was not a professional political figure, but
an offended famous sportsman, and by approaching him Serzh Sargsian
was acting like a human being and not as a political figure. The same
is not applicable to the case of Raffi Hovhannisyan, who is a party
leader and should clearly realize the political consequences of all
his steps. It is natural that the authorities cannot urge the leader
of `Heritage' to stop the hunger strike, promising to speed up
reforms. It is at least naivety to expect that.
I believe that there is only one way out: all political forces should
tell the society that they are going to elections and will take up all
the permitted steps to achieve the best result: rallies, processions,
hunger strikes, etc. It should be very clearly stated that `yes, we
are launching a political battle against each other'. Of course, they
should try to make the political struggle as civil as possible.
Nevertheless, the political struggle has its rules, and perhaps God
and Christian virtues should not be mentioned in the context of that
struggle that often. In any case, political figures will be doing what
they consider right, and we can keep Christian virtues pure of
excessive speculations. And this concerns all the vertexes of the
`triangle'.
Ara Tadevosyan is the Director of Mediamax.
From: A. Papazian