Comments on: Silent protest action in Yerevan

By: Nor

Nor — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:49:57 +0000

To AH:
And one more thing…. do u honestly think that Serzh got 53%?? honesly?? LOL… Its so funny.. What kind of people would vote for a person who makes them go to meetings or threatens to mark the people absent if they dont show up, or fire people from their postions?? This is the basic definition of Araj Hayastan…. Araj to Strkutyun…..

By: Nor

Nor — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:38:59 +0000

to AH:
what do u mean didnt abuse the power… LMFAO… Have u watched Haylur?? Isnt that abusing?? Have you watched any other channel in Armenia that show Serzh more than anyone??Why hasnt the opposition been given air time to say its thoughts?? ABUSING THE POWER…. lol.. and when someone takes the whole state budget and spends it on Campaign, that isnt abusing, is it?? ITs called having the power. WOW… And u say relieved of their duties at work, while during his campaign, Serzh received people and made contracts and blah blah blah..and one last thing… Are u honestly that BLIND enough not to notice that there arent any laws in armenia for the ruling elite?? I mean come on.. And as i said, matter of time, and we shall see Serzh get out. Now, he hasnt just gotten a state from another leader, but what he got is equal to a destructed house, which i have a hard time believing will ever be constructed by HIM….

By: Nor

Nor — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:28:53 +0000

To AH:
Loool, so when there are elections, and they are flawed, u forget to mention the word democracy, but when there is the attempt to assasinate someone, you democracy just stands up… LOL.. dont make me laugh man.. The assasination that I meant wasnt meant directly. more like, he flies and the plane goes down, something like it. And the coalition, yea, i think most of the Armenians living in Armenia do “qmcicaxel” at the idea of making a coalition of people that are the oligarchs of Armenia. I mean, we have an opposition who says “o the current govt is this, is that” and then when having the main opposition asking him to join them, he goes for the current govt. Thats not much of a coalition.. LOL. The head of Dashnaks, Whatever his name is, he is a relative of serge, and Dod, dont even get me started on that idiot, cant even put 2 words together. So, at the end, my conclusion is that the govt that will be formed will go down and the whole thing is gonna crash. I mean, honestly, they ban protests but people still go out there despite knowing the fact that they might get arrested… People have woken up… and As we did learn from Levon’s example, one who sits at the throne like this, With protests and in Serzh’s case, with deaths, will not enjoy it and the only way to make people calm is to GET OUT. No matter how or when, but we will see that happen.

By: AH

AH — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:26:54 +0000

HMZ – “From the moment of registration, presidential candidates who are in state service or work in local self-government bodies shall be relieved of their duties at work and shall have no right to make use of the advantages of their position.”

The Armenian PM is not in state service, as defined by the Armenian civil code. The subsequent verbiage in 78.1 only relates to the case in which the PM or speaker of the parliament is an acting president.

Thus, the CC ruled correctly, both from a legal as well as common-sense manner.

LTP purposefully brought this red herring argument up after the elections. It is a misinterpretation of the law, designed to undermine the state process.

By: mathisking

mathisking — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:41:32 +0000

In our case when elections have been rigged in order to avoid sharing power with any coalition (per RK recommendation), and only when it become clear is society is deeply concerned about elections fraud and post-elections oppressions of basic human rights coalition has been brought up as a last resort for creating illusion of popular support, however this trick is rather obvious for any unbiased person, and makes things less moral if it is possible at all.

By: hmz

hmz — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:13:22 +0000

AH: do you read Armenian? Then look at the Electoral Code Article 78.1 on official elections.am website in Armenia

http://www.elections.am/images/docs/_code.pdf

which clearly states that the PM can run for President only if he is the acting President.

By the way the official English translations is available at

http://www.elections.am/images/docs/elcode.pdf.

This was discussed in the Constitutional Court, of course, but the Court never explained its stance on the issue, effectively avoiding it.

By: AH

AH — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:56:12 +0000

I don’t want to get philosophical, but how sure can you (or anyone, or in any society) be that the coalition NO LONGER represents the majority view, given that elections were about 1 month ago.

What about coalitions that form 1, 2, or 4 years after elections?

You cannot have a society holding elections once a month to see how the political winds or people’s feelings have changed, even if you could measure it precisely, which obviously, none of us can.

By: mathisking

mathisking — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:50:32 +0000

I am not sure that i understand what “the moral authority of coalition” stands for, if most of the people believe that coalition does not represent their opinions on how the state should be run, or how one should conduct the elections, etc.?

By: AH

AH — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:35:11 +0000

Mathisking: I did not say stable electorate (by the way I agree with your analysis and arithmetic). I said moral authority. And I think there is no doubt, like I said above, that the coalition represents a majority of voters.

As far as coalitions “should” be announced before elections, I agree that lots of things SHOULD happen before elections. However it is very common for coalitions to form, once various groups grab some piece of the pie. As the electorate becomes more sophisticated, they can demand of their candidates lots of pre-election promises, and then hold them to it. Few did, either in opposition (campaigning on hate, vilification of authorities is easy, but not very productive) or authorities did this, unfortunately.

This can be one of the lessons learned, though I do not share your horror at what happened.

By: mathisking

mathisking — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:18:55 +0000

Coalition should be announced before the elections, to make clear to people what should they expect from their candidates. That way they wouldn’t regret about giving their votes to candidate who dresses himself as an opposition and then makes a 180-turn.

It would be perfect if SS+AB+ARFD+Bargavach had formed a block before the elections and got together 50+%, however for whatever reason they decided to do not that. One possible reason is that they were afraid of loosing votes exactly because of phenomenon, when the result is less than arithmetic sum of variables. I bet if one would conduct a poll about political preferences today, the block would get way less than 50%. So the block is just a cover-up for the deep shit SS got itself now.

By: mathisking

mathisking — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:21:23 +0000

To AH:
I dont think in voting process is that simple math: 50%+20%=70%.
I mean if people would know that Baghdasarian is going to join SS he will gain 5% max. So in this case 50%+20%=50%.So i am not sure that coalition have moral authority in that sense. I am sure that the only party with stable electorate is ARFD. Whatever they gain is clearly their votes.

By: AH

AH — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:56:09 +0000

NOR: “PM cant run for President while in office”

This is incorrect. In Armenia (as in every country I can think of; pls provide one counter example) the PM is allowed to run. This is a willful attempt to muddy the waters.

“This is the only way i see the solution to the problem.”

Sorry, NOR, but I believe in democracy, not coups, assassinations and forced resignations. Your dreams may come true re: Serj, but the reality is that now (with the coalition), the existing government has a moral authority (Serj’s votes + Artur’s + ARF by any reasonable estimate is >50%) to rule in Armenia. Respecting the state, and respecting the state processes (however flawed), my inclination, and thankfully the inclination of most, I believe, is to give the process a chance.

By: NOR

NOR — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:02:59 +0000

NOT to reopen the borders… CORRECTION***

By: NOR

NOR — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:01:30 +0000

At AH
The majority in the parliament are the elephants and there comes the Bargavach Hayastan, Dashanktyutyun, Orinac Erkir and Zharangutyun. Only Zharangutyun voted against the bill, while all the others in the coalition did for it. What does this tell you?? When you put the basic fact that PM cant run for President while in office, and CC denies your claim, I think it tells everything about a government.. Its corrupt, Its too stupid to coverup its own mess, and its too obvious that its surrounded by oligarchs.. And some may say Levon is this, Levon is that, but he is the one who has most experiance, higher than all those politicians put together and this coalition is just a matter of TIme, as it is gonna split and dissappear. And Russia doesnt solve anything nowadays, It may have been years ago, but not anymore. Russia does everything in its power to make turkey to reopen the borders, which will mean bye bye to its military base. There is too much dirty politics going around, but with conquering Karaback, I see Armenia suffering more than Karabagh itself, having in mind the unrecognized state… So, its just a matter of time before Serzh either resigns or gets assasinated … This is the only way i see the solution to the problem. I mean, we saw the same thing happening in 1996, and what did Levon do?? They made him resign…. Lets just wait, patience is all we have.

By: Tigran Kocharyan

Tigran Kocharyan — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:46:50 +0000

Mernem qez,copy-paste!!!!:))))

By: Observer

Observer — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:20:21 +0000

Ամենաթարմ անեկդոտը:
Ոստիկանները կանգնեցնում են շրջանից եկող մեքենան`հարցնելով
-Էս ուր եք գնում,միտինգի?
-Չե,ցավներդ տանեմ,Արթուրիկի կարմիր խնձորն ենք տանում:)))

Քայլելու ենք!

looooooooooool

By: Tigran Kocharyan

Tigran Kocharyan — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:19:42 +0000

Քայլելու ենք!

By: Onnik Krikorian

Onnik Krikorian — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:06:48 +0000

Well, if a revolution has the support of the majority of people then it doesn’t matter whether its for or against anything. We can agree or disagree with those aims and objectives but a popular mass movement — even one that is politically partisan — is valid in reflecting the will of the people.

However, that DOESN’T exist at the moment. Most Armenians don’t care about Levon’s attempt to dress up continued attempts to come to power as a non-partisan civil movement (actually organized by his team) and they certainly don’t want to see more hatred spread by him against a government that is not going to cave in and which can only lead to new violence.

The people are the victims here and in the past 17 years of independence, Levon Ter-Petrossian, Robert Kocharian and Serge Sargsyan are responsible. What’s the solution? Well, for one, evolved democratization and not a coup d’etat which would see the old elite replace the new one, and many of the same people responsible for the situation merely switch sides and perpetuate the system some more.

Both sides are hypocritical and need to compromise. On the one hand, Ter-Petrossian has to move on and not aggravate the situation while Sargsyan needs to now seriously deal with many outstanding problems created by the first president which continued under the second. Civil society and the media also needs to become more responsible and independent from either.

By: AH

AH — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 04:48:12 +0000

Agreed Onnik. That is why I think a revolution has to be FOR something, just not AGAINST others. And vart, be careful with your revisionist history. Serj hasn’t passed any laws: the parliament has. And as far as victims in society, again, not clear. The number of political assassinations/ repression/ media closures/ fear in society were pretty scary in the mid 90s. And not at all clear to me that the authorities have more responsibility in the 8 deaths than the coup organizers.

Just for the sake of “another perspective”: LTP has appeared front/center 2 times in the last 15 years in Armenian politics. Both times, tanks were brought into the streets and force has been used. Coincidence?

By: Onnik Krikorian

Onnik Krikorian — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 04:22:44 +0000

Incidentally, what I’d like to see is a GENUINE pro-democracy movement that represents the concerns of the masses — that is, one that seeks change from a government which has not taken them into consideration and for the radical opposition to stop trying to destabilize the situation in the country so they can come to power at any cost.