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  • Armenian Government Acts Too Late

    ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT ACTS TOO LATE

    Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
    March 31 2014

    31 March 2014 - 9:57am

    By Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza

    The latest events in Armenia have marked a breakthrough in relations
    between the government and the opposition. Meetings of Prosperous
    Armenia (BHK), Armenian National Congress (ANC), Dashnaktsutyun (ARF)
    and the Heritage played a prominent role in the shift of tone. They
    formed a common agenda through consultations and focus on changing
    the government.

    The opposition parties met at the National Assembly (NA) on March 19
    and decided to start collecting signatures to organize an off-schedule
    session of the NA on April 28 to vote non-confidence. According to
    leader of the ANC fraction at the parliament Levon Zurabyan, the vote
    of censure would be only a step towards progress. The final goal is
    the resignation of President Serzh Sargsyan.

    These events formed a new situation in Armenia. It is notable that
    opposition has taken the lead in political processes. The rising
    political activity of the opposition and its consolidation, joint
    efforts of the four parties and the I am Against civil initiative to
    oppose the accumulative pensions system have weakened the perennial
    argument about its invulnerability and domination. The power basing
    on the philosophy of "we are many, so we are stronger and, thus,
    always right" is now trying to keep up with the events.

    The new political reality may be the reason why Prime Minister Serzh
    Sargsyan has proposed a dialogue with the I am Against movement: "A
    civil society dictating its rules is forming in Armenia. This means
    that the government needs to correct its work. The position "all or
    nothing" is unacceptable for us and young people of the civil society.

    We are ready for a dialogue and we admit that our laws are not
    perfect."

    In response, members of the movement said that the Constitutional
    Court should express its opinion about the accumulative pensions on
    March 28. Activists say that it would be wrong to go for a dialogue
    with the government before the Constitutional Court makes its decision.

    The prime minister's initiative was also announced to provoke a
    schism between the four parties and the I am Against initiative. A
    similar idea can be seen in declarations of lower-rank politicians and
    publications of government-controlled mass media. These reports claim
    that "volunteers" among BHK leader Gagik Tsarukyan's bodyguards were
    involved in the events of March 1, 2008. Meanwhile, the position of
    BHK in formation of a temporary commission to investigate the events
    that happened six years ago seems weak. The ANC itself most likely
    has evidence that Tsarukyan was not involved in the March 1 crackdown.

    Otherwise, considering the radical position of ANC in the March 1
    case, it is obvious that the organization would not cooperate with
    BHK. According to some media sources, the government has woken up to
    break the most influential and powerful non-coalition BHK.

    Perhaps efforts of the government to break and weaken the movement
    is justified. However, in the light of activating opposition, these
    actions and the prime minister's readiness for compromise would most
    likely be ineffective. Those actions would probably be late.

    http://vestnikkavkaza.net/analysis/politics/53300.html

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