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Outside Eye: A non-Armenian's view of life in his adopted home

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  • Outside Eye: A non-Armenian's view of life in his adopted home

    ArmeniaNow.com, 2 April 2004

    Outside Eye: A non-Armenian's view of life in his adopted home

    By John Hughes
    ArmeniaNow Editor

    I've just returned from Tbilisi, where Georgia's political air is fresh with
    change and promises being fulfilled by an opposition's hero. Returned to
    Yerevan, where the pollution of threat is about as much as this "Opposition"
    can muster, relying on names that are now sunk by whatever weight they might
    once have carried.

    Not since last year's presidential elections has there been any public
    demonstration of discontent against Robert Kocharyan's government. In his
    sixth year at the helm the Ship of State has sailed mostly smoothly, if one
    ignores the considerable fact that it has left many behind in its voyage
    toward prosperity.

    But there is excitement in this capital today. Arrests are being made.
    Beatings appear connected to efforts to discourage an uprising. Phrases such
    as "change of power" are making sound bites and copy.

    Now, the opposition is again doing what it does best: opposing. And
    achieving what it does most effectively: nothing.

    After failing a year ago to build a platform that supported change, the
    opposition is again calling for revolution, with no clear direction toward
    which it would lead one.

    Let's say that, like the revolution by their neighbors last autumn, this
    opposition charged into Parliament (as they are somewhat subtly threatening)
    and took over. Then what?

    It's a question I posed to young, bright friends here - adults who are not
    satisfied with current leadership, but who are not inspired by the
    opposition's impotence and inability to unify itself, much less a nation.

    One of the twenty-somethings repeated a commonly held view that: "Armenia
    doesn't have an opposition. It only has those who are in power, and those
    who were formerly in power."

    And the currently in power must surely realize that last year's crooked
    elections were hardly a mandate of the people, so they appear to be taking
    the opposition's threats seriously, no matter that the growl comes from a
    toothless predator.

    Government efforts to quell these new rumblings only legitimize so much
    empty rhetoric, and reveal the small-mindedness of leaders who probably
    should be kicked out, but hold their posts by default.

    If you've followed previous opinions on this page, you know that views here
    have been far from complimentary of the presently empowered. But: Who is
    served by a movement in which discontent masquerades as policy?

    Left without resistance what would the opposition do?

    As close as it came to winning last year's election was to put up a
    candidate who was thought to be a mirror of his adored father but turned out
    only to be a shadow. Now he and others of unproven leadership ability are
    asking the masses to follow them through the gates of revolt to . . . where?

    Georgia 's "Rose Revolution" proved that discontent can produce change.
    Already, new leadership there is taking action against wrongdoing of the
    previous administration.

    But among Armenia's opposition, the goal seems merely to be to empty the
    First Chair and then hope for someone to fill it.

    Sometime within the coming days, Marshal Baghramian Avenue will be blocked
    by villagers bussed in to Yerevan to demand their rights for better
    leadership. And they probably deserve it. But there is little reason to
    believe that the "Faux Revolution" would achieve anything more than revolt.

    ---
    http://www.a1plus.am
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