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THIRD OPTION OF SARGSYAN-HOVANNISIAN MEETING
JAMES HAKOBYAN
13:13 21/02/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/index.php/eng/0/comments/view/29022
Republican Vice-Chairman Galust Sahakyan told aravot.am that RPA
postpones today's rally on Freedom Square. The reason is of course
Raffi Hovannisian who stated yesterday that he is going to meet Serzh
Sargsyan on the Square to receive the power from him. Hovannisian
appealed to the citizens to go to Freedom Square.
Actually, Serzh Sargsyan rejects the proposal to meet at Freedom
Square. Earlier, Raffi Hovannisian had rejected Sargsyan's invitation
to meet in president's office.
Ex-candidate for president Hrant Bagratyan called on Raffi Hovannisian
and Serzh Sargsyan on Facebook to meet because if everything goes
otherwise, the society may choose the path of rebellion which will
bring about clashes. Hrant Bagratyan notes Hovannisian and Sargsyan
tend to dialogue.
Actually, both of them rejected two possibilities of dialogue. Will
there be a third option? The point is that there is the possibility of
a dialogue through delegations representing the leaders. Armenia has
the experience of dialogue which, of course, was not in a
post-election period, but in a politically heated period in 2010.
Then, Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Serzh Sargsyan didn't meet personally.
The famous incident involving ANC young men was the cause or the
reason of interrupting the dialogue. ANC said interested in continuing
it, but Serzh Sargsyan didn't cede winning time to ease the home
political tension, which was becoming dangerous for him.
The current situation is different, but one thing is sure: the
dialogue must be held between the first figures and in public. One of
the reasons of the failure of the previous attempt of dialogue was
because it was held through delegations and in almost complete
secrecy. The society was urged to believe.
After all, if the opposition makes compromises and agrees to dialogue,
the system should compromise too and hold the dialogue with the
opposition's rules, in other words, dialogue in public. Though, in
Armenia this rule can be conditionally called oppositional because the
Armenian opposition has been almost as shady as the ruling system.
There is one more issue here: Raffi Hovannisian has stated that he is
the elected president and Serzh Sargsyan should hand the power to him.
On the one hand, it is clear that if his statement was not so
unequivocal, he would have not ensured many people at the rally, but
on the other hand, it limits the activities leading to the situation
of "death or power" in political and direct sense of the expression.
Independently from the possible meeting with Serzh Sargsyan, Raffi
Hovannisian will need to gradually enlarge the course of future
political fight, which means that it is necessary to get rid of
pathetic vocabulary and start a dialogue with the society, moreover,
if there is no clear strategy to offer at the present moment. Many say
that it lacks at this moment. In other words, for Raffi Hovannisian,
it is a strategic issue to form a competitive and representative
movement which was not completed in case of Levon Ter-Petrosyan.
JAMES HAKOBYAN
13:13 21/02/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/index.php/eng/0/comments/view/29022
Republican Vice-Chairman Galust Sahakyan told aravot.am that RPA
postpones today's rally on Freedom Square. The reason is of course
Raffi Hovannisian who stated yesterday that he is going to meet Serzh
Sargsyan on the Square to receive the power from him. Hovannisian
appealed to the citizens to go to Freedom Square.
Actually, Serzh Sargsyan rejects the proposal to meet at Freedom
Square. Earlier, Raffi Hovannisian had rejected Sargsyan's invitation
to meet in president's office.
Ex-candidate for president Hrant Bagratyan called on Raffi Hovannisian
and Serzh Sargsyan on Facebook to meet because if everything goes
otherwise, the society may choose the path of rebellion which will
bring about clashes. Hrant Bagratyan notes Hovannisian and Sargsyan
tend to dialogue.
Actually, both of them rejected two possibilities of dialogue. Will
there be a third option? The point is that there is the possibility of
a dialogue through delegations representing the leaders. Armenia has
the experience of dialogue which, of course, was not in a
post-election period, but in a politically heated period in 2010.
Then, Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Serzh Sargsyan didn't meet personally.
The famous incident involving ANC young men was the cause or the
reason of interrupting the dialogue. ANC said interested in continuing
it, but Serzh Sargsyan didn't cede winning time to ease the home
political tension, which was becoming dangerous for him.
The current situation is different, but one thing is sure: the
dialogue must be held between the first figures and in public. One of
the reasons of the failure of the previous attempt of dialogue was
because it was held through delegations and in almost complete
secrecy. The society was urged to believe.
After all, if the opposition makes compromises and agrees to dialogue,
the system should compromise too and hold the dialogue with the
opposition's rules, in other words, dialogue in public. Though, in
Armenia this rule can be conditionally called oppositional because the
Armenian opposition has been almost as shady as the ruling system.
There is one more issue here: Raffi Hovannisian has stated that he is
the elected president and Serzh Sargsyan should hand the power to him.
On the one hand, it is clear that if his statement was not so
unequivocal, he would have not ensured many people at the rally, but
on the other hand, it limits the activities leading to the situation
of "death or power" in political and direct sense of the expression.
Independently from the possible meeting with Serzh Sargsyan, Raffi
Hovannisian will need to gradually enlarge the course of future
political fight, which means that it is necessary to get rid of
pathetic vocabulary and start a dialogue with the society, moreover,
if there is no clear strategy to offer at the present moment. Many say
that it lacks at this moment. In other words, for Raffi Hovannisian,
it is a strategic issue to form a competitive and representative
movement which was not completed in case of Levon Ter-Petrosyan.