Lies and Excuses?

Its interesting, on today’s news on Azatutyun Radio, there is an interview in Prague with Eduard Sharmazanov. There is a prologue to the interview, which rhetorically points out that every single election, on just about every level in Armenia in the past 20 years, has resulted in the re-election of the incumbent. And, that, if we assume that they were free and fair elections, then that means that the majority of Armenians were satisfied with whomever was in power/party, and voted for that person/party again.

Now, I don’t know if he heard that preamble before he started talking, or how the interview was edited. But, Sharmaznov did state that the HHK, the ruling part of which he is a member, has made steps towards more free and fair elections, and that these steps have been applauded by external, European, organizations.

This just seems like a load of crap. For many reasons. So many.

But what really got to me today, what went through my head while I was listening to that piece, was – well, if you admit that you’re moving toward free, fair, democratic, non-corrupt elections, that means you aren’t there now. And if you’re the party that is ruling now, and won the most recent elections, that means you won in non-free, non-fair election(s), which means they were corrupt.

Which means you just admitted that you won illegally.

If you are truly interested in having free and fair, democratic elections, then you not only put into place a ten, twenty, one hundred, log-fold more changes (than you think you have already) in the election system, in preparation for the next set of elections, but you do everything possible to address and correct the illegalities which exist in the system now, and find and hold responsible those who perpetrated the fraud within your party, and outside. That is:

-hold responsible those MPs who have been and are, even caught on camera, voting fraudulently in parliament
-hold responsible those MPs who are illegally holding the position of MP and are active businessmen
-find and hold responsible those who were involved in the fraudulent election practices in the elections of the past 4 years…

These are, of course just a start, and necessary, but not sufficient.
For f**k’s sake, cheating MPs are caught on camera, and nothing is done.

On another note, while I’m still sitting here listening to Azatutyun, I am impressed by Anna Israelyan’s tactful way of bringing up Vahagn Hovnanian’s ties to Kocharyan – and perhaps, just perhaps, that this relationship might afford him some type of protection. He, of course, avoids answering the question, or truly addressing the issue. He starts with a vague response about the confused, mixed- up, immature state that things were/are in.

Is this an apology, or an excuse for his relationship with Kocharyan?

S.O.S. Քաջարան-Բացառիկ գերակա շահ

From TheEcolur

What did you just say?

Now, I'm not one to seek out and watch interviews with Armen Rustamyan, or any other Dashnak for that matter. Wait, that's not true, sometimes they're fun. But, honestly, I had no intention of watching the recent Armen Rustamyan interview on A1plus' PS show, as I have a million other things to do currently. But a friend told me about a specific part, knowing it would catch my attention, and she was right. See for yourselves.

At 23:59 min, in a discussion regarding March1, 2008, the PACE monitoring committee, and HAK's work, he actually has the cojones to say that hey, in reality, it was Zaruhi Postanjanyan and I who did what was necessary to get things done at PACE for March 1. He says the prisoners (I'll clarify that in a second) would have been released anyway eventually, HAK tried to take credit for it, but it would have happened anyway, what effect did HAK have? What work did HAK do? Wow.
He's becoming almost as clueless as some of my other favorite characters - Vartan Oskanyan, Seyran Ohanyan, et al... Let's take a step back from the politics of the situation -- It's not even about HAK, and how much work they did behind the scenes, or Heritage, its about the fact that tens of thousands were out in the streets, and the work they did, and the commitment they had, the sacrifices they made - and the fact that the ARF was NOT out there, was not with, or behind the people. The mast majority of the ARF is located outside of Armenia, and couldn't give a rats a** about March 1, and those who were in Armenia were toasting it up in the coalition for quite a while. Even when they were out of the coalition, they were still in it. And they're still sitting on Santa Kocharyan's lap.*

Now, I didn't really want to watch the video, as I mentioned, and I really only paid attention to the last five minutes or so. One would think, that given Rustamyan's insistence that he was an active part of the duo that did the work to get the "prisoners" released, he would at least call them political prisoners. One would think. But...

at 23:07 Rustamyan refers to the political prisoners as "prisoners"
at 23:25 the interviewer, Aram Abrahamyan, refers to those imprisoned for political reasons after March 1 as "political prisoners," in trying to clarify who Rustamyan is referring to, and Rustamyan's response? "those prisoners"

Even now, even in this context, even in trying to support his point, he is unable to refer to them as political prisoners.
Unwilling, unable, ordered not to....

I suggest the ARF go back to doing what they do well, things like, oh, off the top of my head, actively voting for Nikoyan as head of Parliament. But dont worry, no one realizes that the ARF could have (gasp) voted for the Heritage candidate, or just abstained from the vote. And don't worry, everyone believes the ARF is opposition, because only two days after actively voting to put Nikoyan, one of the characters so heavily involved in the cover-up of March 1 as head of the NA, the ARF put in a tongue in cheek vote of no confidence in government. That was really, really convincing.



*I imagine it goes something like:

--Santa Kocharyan: And what do you want this year for Xmas, oh little political party?
----ARF/BHK: Santa, I want a molybdenum mine, and my friend wants a copper mine. Oh, and can I have a factory, too? And a car dealership? And a...
--Santa Kocharyan: That's a lot, little one!
----ARF/BHK: But Saantaaa, looked at all the times I had fake fights with the HHK, and made a mockery of the system, and ignored and trodded further on the downtrodden... Please Santa? I've worked so hard to get people to be so confused and hopeless and demoralized...
--Santa Kocharyan: Okay, we'll see. One mine for now, let's see how you do until Xmas. Maybe next year if you keep up the good work... We'll see...