Thursday, July 30, 2009

Waiting to see Shahnazaryan vs Oskanyan

This was the last line of a recent a1plus article - David Shahnazaryan said: "I am inviting Oskanyan to a debate so that I can prove that all that he said was not true and that he and Kocharyan are the ones most responsible for all this."

I mildly surprised myself in being excited at hearing this. Oskanyan has been making statements recently, and though they are numerous, and sound well put together, they all leave me with more questions about what it is he actually said (and didn't say, of course), and what it is he thinks he's saying and doing.
He's one of the few who was high ranking in the LTP administration, and moved up and stayed through the RK administration. And now, he's the head of a very posh think tank that promotes Civilitas (The Civilitas Foundation). Yet he has yet to really critize in any way the past and present factors in Armenia that jeopardize the foundations of a true Civil Society. While I appreciate discussions on Vulgarity, and involvement in the Golden Apricot Film Festival are wonderful, I don't see how these are making any waves. Though they do make him more visible.
In fact, he was quite visible at the ARF's recent Pan-Armenian forum in NK, where he gave a speech. I'm not quite sure what he said, but not for lack of trying (partial speech). I had similar troubles with his interview to 168 Zham. What I did see was him cleaning up the road behind up, and paving a way ahead...
In the interview to a1plus, it was the same issue yet again. When asked specifics, for example, regarding the reasoning behind the ARF's call for Nalbandyan's resignation as a way of punishing Sargsyan, he does not want to answer (around 16:00m).
Maybe he just got tired, he has taken on a lot.

In the context of the present NK situation, the actions of team Kocharyan-Oskanyan have started to come up more, as have those of the LTP administration. There seems to be a wave of hypotheses, trying to find some basis (and in some cases blame) for the current situation in the actions of the past.

Back to my original point. I'm looking forward to the Shahnazaryan vs Oskanyan debate.

4 comments:

Ankakh_Hayastan said...

Mr. Oskanian has declined to take part in a dialogue. After all, he was part of the system (and still is but as a civilian) so I'm not surprised.

tzitzernak2 said...

That's too bad. He may be a civilian, but he's part of a supposed think tank, giving political interviews, and speeches. Why can't he be part of a civil debate, and model the non-vulgar way political discussions should take place?

Ankakh_Hayastan said...

Well, he has chosen the fastest track to discredit his think tank. If you can't sit and talk to someone with opposing views and can't answer tough questions, then what's the point of your think tank?

Obviously, there is still some interest in what Oskanian says but he is squandering it quickly.

tzitzernak2 said...

There are some interesting characters on the board of the Foundation. I wonder how long it will take those unaware/naive to past and current developments to take a closer look...

I, for one, have LOTS of interest in what Oskanyan has to say. ;)