Turning point
Could this be a new turning point for civil society in Armenia? I have been hearing through many friends and peers that the demonstrations at the Liberty Square were dispersed and that people were beaten by police and that LTP has been under house arrest for over several hours ... but what is interesting is that people have finally come together and in big numbers to voice their collective concerns about the regime and the leadership of their country. I have not been to these sites and I have not seen any rioting on the streets myself, and the worst part is that I have not seen any news coverage of the events on the media.
The events started at 6:30 a.m. this morning, by 3:00 p.m., we saw the first police press conference aleging that they only attacked after the demonstrators started throwing rocks and yelling out words to overturn the government... They showed footage of guns and sharp objects collected from the surrounding areas of the Opera claiming that they were tipped on he arrival of truckloads of arms and other metal harp objects. To my disappointment, none of the TV stations attempted to cover any of the action that was taking place on he streets (near the French embassy and now at the Shahumyan square). H2 was off the air until early afternoon. H1 was broadcasting cheaply dubbed films, Shant, Shoghakat, Gentron, ALM, Yerevan, Hayrenik TV and Armenia TV (owned by Cafesdjian) were all carrying on with their cheasy video clips, reruns of poor imitations of American game shows, and more dubbed foreign films. Only Yerkir Media had the courrage to air footage and voice out their outrage of what was taking place in our country.
I am not sure what all this will lead to, but I know that Armenia will not have the same apathetic society it had for the past several years.
I am hopeful that the people will prevail and will build its country to have a more fair and just political and judicial system... or at least it will die trying!
The events started at 6:30 a.m. this morning, by 3:00 p.m., we saw the first police press conference aleging that they only attacked after the demonstrators started throwing rocks and yelling out words to overturn the government... They showed footage of guns and sharp objects collected from the surrounding areas of the Opera claiming that they were tipped on he arrival of truckloads of arms and other metal harp objects. To my disappointment, none of the TV stations attempted to cover any of the action that was taking place on he streets (near the French embassy and now at the Shahumyan square). H2 was off the air until early afternoon. H1 was broadcasting cheaply dubbed films, Shant, Shoghakat, Gentron, ALM, Yerevan, Hayrenik TV and Armenia TV (owned by Cafesdjian) were all carrying on with their cheasy video clips, reruns of poor imitations of American game shows, and more dubbed foreign films. Only Yerkir Media had the courrage to air footage and voice out their outrage of what was taking place in our country.
I am not sure what all this will lead to, but I know that Armenia will not have the same apathetic society it had for the past several years.
I am hopeful that the people will prevail and will build its country to have a more fair and just political and judicial system... or at least it will die trying!
posted by Raffi N at 5:42 PM
21 Comments:
I'm sorry that I disagree, Raff. I think 10 or even 30,000 is apathy, and that rallying around Levon is about as smart as rallying around Serzh... these people could have voted for a number of people who never have had the reigns and who might have done much better, or voted none of the above! But they didn't, and the consequences have been entirely predictable I think. (so far at least)...
You know what, I'm sort of happy that they cleaned the opera up. Imagine what would happen if you hold a demonstration for even 10 minutes in L.A. without a permit. The riot police would've been there in a split second! Dude, during the LA Riots we looked at the rioters and thought, "what kind of people do this?" Apparently "our kind" does it too. People were walking out of stores with CASES of alcohol. Is that their cause? PUUUUULLLLEEEEEAAAAAAAAAASEEEEEEE!!!!
Do any of you on the inside feel like that whole squabble was for nothing?
As far as I understand, it's quite similar to the LA riots where people are breaking in and destroying all the stores along their path. In all seriousness, what kind of people DO this kind of thing? I'm not saying they are all hoodlums, but I think the ones who are serious about proper elections are those who aren't even appearing on the streets at this point. And yes, there were other very viable candidates the people could have voted for, but the majority went for Serzh and Levon, both are PROVEN corrupt leaders.
I wouldn't say it was for nothing, but time will tell when we see what happens next.
I think the only people who are to blame are the PEOPLE, the public THEMSELVES. If someone said, "I'll give u 5000 drams for each person in your family who votes for Serj", they are the ones who took the money and YES felt obligated to vote for him. Others thought Levon was the only other choice. WHY NOT TAKE THE CHANCE ON SOMEONE NEW? That is something I don't understand.
A culture who doesn't regularly believe in 2nd chances (if a girl is divorced FORGET IT, if someone's been to jail FORGET IT, etc.) was willing to give the BIGGEST 2nd chance to the WORST deserving person.
I'm starting to think there might be a hidden conspiracy... perhaps subliminal messages in ads? lol
Just got a call from Yerevan. Shooting was done by a particular battalion from Karabagh — the Shushi battalion. This battalion, run by Vatcho and his clan, are about taking and keeping power so they can live comfortably. These are not nice guys, not particularly educated nor sophisticated. They shot into a crowd of people without warning. They also shot out store windows and set fire to vehicles.
I heard there were even pro LTP protests here in California Little Armenia. How ridiculous is that?
ITs not that there were "even pro ltp protests" there were THOUSANDS OF PROTESTERS in los angeles..many many chief intellectuals, academics, engineers who left armenia after 97.When some of the same people who were responsible for bringing levon down( yerkrapah..etc) are joining him, that should tell you and all the spectators an overall view of what is really going on.. People are really tired of the karabakh clan..they would much much rather have Levon
It does tell me something, but I'm pretty sure those protesters won't want to hear it...
There is poetic justice - at least where Levon is involved.
It's a tough situation.
On the one hand, Serjik won by a large margin, so at the surface, there is nothing to protest.
At the same time, the media is almost entirely establishment controlled, and it used heavily by the current government throughout the period leading to the elections. So you are dealing with a public voted heavily biased in favor of the ruling regime.
There are a few things lacking in Armenia:
- balance. When Levon was President, allegedly he used similar tactics to influence the result of the elections. Being the first president, he had the enormous responsibility to plant the seed of democracy, but IMO he failed to do that,
- political IQ at the level of the masses. This is either a result of inexperience (read: time will help improve it), or a result of control (read: it will take a few generations of benevolent leadership to help plant the seed of democracy),
- inability to yield power,
- imitation. Robert is basically trying to play the Putin playbook, but if Putin is the NFL (National Football League), then Kocharyan is some junior varsity team trying to do television tricks at home, despite the usual, "don't try this at home or else". Robert has been nowhere nearly as successful in leading his country as Putin has been,
- lack of middle class. I think the essential sources of revenue in Armenia are tightly controlled by a small group of men, an Kocharyan is sitting on top. There is "us" and "them", and unfortunately, from the point of view of the ruling "mafia", "them" is the majority of population: poor, starved, and delusioned. Most of the smarter people have left Armenia, let's face it. So the ruling elite is having an easy time manipulating the majority,
I agree, that Levon is not the answer. The answer is in planting the seed of democracy. And I doubt any of the people running in the election would be able to do that, if they won.
Wow, such a well thought out, intelligent comment. Thanks!
Well said. Very well said.
Background and Time line of election events:
http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=2008_presidential_election_of_Armenia
I smell US State department...Thats my two cents and I'm sticking to it.
Like I said before... We need a democratic dictator!! lol Honestly, we need someone as strong as a dictator who will force-feed democracy to the people. Starting from kindergartens, to old-age homes. From the fields, to the pizzerias.
A middle class WOULD emerge if SOME people paid their taxes (the REAL amounts), and those taxes went to public programs, which create a stable atmosphere inviting investors, which in turn brings more jobs. I mean, they atleast owe THAT much, since they were practically gifted what belonged to the people in the first place.
Someone who is strong enough to tell Gago, Samo, and whoever else... "Dude, pay up".
p.s. - did you know that donations are only a .05% deduction on taxes? No wonder more rich people don't "give back".
How about ending the cronyism of the Karabagh clan and in return resolving the problems with Azerbaijan and Turkey. Opening borders so regular armenians can start doing business.
How about holding our washington loggist to end their hypocrisy and hold the armenian government to the American democratic standards they know.
Let's start there before going as far as advocating for dictators. Armenian people are a lot more smarter and democratically proned then you give them credit.
I am 100% confident that our people are as ready for a democracy as any other country. But Serge and his Russian speaking and A religious cronies need to go. In their place I say bring in Raffi Hovanissian and Vazgen Manukian as a preliminery power sharing gov't. and hold another fair elections. Our people deserve and should get a fair election without any incumbent uesing governmental powers to rig the election.
Sorry, but, IMHO, I don't believe that Hovannisian and Manukian are the future of Armenia.
Rather, Armenia needs someone who is young, clean, and charismatic like Barack Obama to re-engergize civil society and mobilise people en masse (and I'm not talking about crowds of 10-30,000 people but rather 1 million (the turnout for the revolution in Ukraine)). Additionally, they need a strong and active youth group supporting them, like Otpor, the Serbian student movement that led to Milosevic's downfall.
This is the only way that things change.
Correction: there IS a youth movement -- Sksela ("It's Started"): http://sksela.info/
All it needs is a leader.
Maybe there is hope yet.
Does anybody wonder where is the Armenian American lobby in all this? Why hasn't ANCA raised it's concerns about the gov't of Armenia or America's blatant cold shoulder towards the Armenian people an their struggle for democracy?
Why aren't they protesting the media blockade or the rigged elections?
As of now there is not a single word about this situation on ANCA's website. I send money to these people and they let me down big time.
How's Washington going to take these groups seriously after these events? They do not act when Armenians are slaughtering their own kind, but they are so atoment about something someone else did 100 years ago.
The ANCA is the Armenian National Committee of America, key word America. They are set up to push Armenian issues within the US, not Armenia. The ARF on the other hand, ran a good campaign in Armenia and lost.
Look Anonymous, ANCA is doing the right thing by not getting US's attention on Armenia. We seriously do not need bad propaganda in this difficult situation, where our country is surrounded by enemies who are waiting for the right moment to attack us. Armenia does not need the US. The US is the worst ally any country could have. They have so far betrayed all of their allies. I am not saying that Russia is a good ally but it's better then the US.
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