Tuesday, June 16, 2009

ARF, politics in Armenia, and, ... Money?

Recently, there has been alot of innuendo, and straight up reporting, of discussions and tensions between the ARF, Heritage, and HAK.
There is a ton to say about this. I can see why this is happening, and more specifically, why it might, might, might make sense, for now, for HAK and the ARF to link up.
Some of this comes down to the age old, unanswerable question: does the end justify the means??
The fact is, I do not trust the ARF, on multiple levels [that is not to be confused with the ARF actually being unable to gain trust - that is a definite possibility, under the right circumstances]. That being said, again, there are some circumstances under which I can see the liason being advantageous to Armenia, in the longrun. And that is the ultimate goal.

Lragir recently published a piece with Q+ A with the ARF - what struck me the most was the following segment:
I think that there are points, which need clarifications. For example, the point 8 of the platform is “to eliminate economic monopolies and bring into the tax field the major business”.
Wow. I would have thought the first huge thing to disagree with would be #12, demanding the immediate resignation of SS, and other issues would be secondary (or maybe point 12 is not even a sticking point). Sad, but not surprising, that finances are the first consideration. Not surprising because there are whisperings of how certain elements associated with the ARF are involved in money-making enterprises with the present government. This theory, this hypothesis, would explain why the ARF became part of the coalition to begin with, why it was so hard to 'leave,' and the choice of sticking point now.
For those who do not read Armenian, the phrase on the flag is "Mah kam Azatutyun." Death or Freedom. There is nothing "Free"about what is happening now in Armenia. Either the ARF has changed from what we knew it to be, they think this is Freedom, or the ARF, as we knew it, is in fact, dead. And reading over the options, it seems these are not mutually exclusive. Logically speaking.

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