Armenian press and social networks wondered why the political opposition which courageously criticized the program of the so-called new government did not condemn the incident in Harsnakar Restaurant where its owner Ruben Hairapetyan’s bodyguards beat a group of military doctors, one of them to death. The society expected the parliamentary opposition to bring up this issue or at least condemn it in statements.
However, so far none of these parties has made a statement. Why?
Prosperous Armenia Party, for instance, which has declared itself an alternative political culture is in an ambiguous situation because the bodyguards of the leader of this party Gagik Tsarukyan has been involved in a number of incidents which culminated in the incident of Tetsi Krug, one of the suburbs of Yerevan, and March 1. It is psychologically tough for PAP because as soon as they condemn the incident of Harsnakar, they will “remind” PAP of a number of other incidents.
The case of ARF, Heritage and particularly the Armenian National Congress is even more interesting. The silence of these parties preaching rule of law, constitutional order and other similar things gives rise to a number of questions.
The human rights activist Arthur Sakunts says “a wider scope is involved in these games, and both the opposition and the government have been mutated. Had this thing happened a year ago, condemnation would come, the absence of such a statement is the result of coalescence of these forces with the oligarchy.”
This is a logical explanation since entering this parliament cannot suppose anything else. Appearing there thanks to the good will of the government, the opposition has to play by the rules of the game set by the government.
The opposition has actually set aside the rule of law and the constitution in the pre-election period when the joint headquarters was reportedly set up for ending the monopoly of the RPA but started cooperating with the other government party, the PAP, for the sake of the goal, overlooking things on which it had declared war. The coordinator of the Armenian National Congress Levon Zurabyan made a sacral statement on those days, asking to show him at least one fact that PAP had bought votes.
This statement is worth everything. One can recall a number of examples when the criminal and oligarchic government retorted those allegations, asking for at least one fact… Prove it, they say, including the Congress allegations. In fact, the Congress has also adopted the notions of the criminal-oligarchic system on what is right or wrong. Perhaps now they are waiting to see whether it was wrong or right of the security staff to beat doctors.
The coordinator of the Congress Levon Zurabyan stated on different occasions that they conduct a “great policy” which neither the political field nor the public understand. It should be supposed that the incident of Harsnakar is a trifle from the point of view of politics.
Arthur Sakunts also says that either the opposition is afraid of Ruben Hairapetyan or cooperates with it. Meanwhile, Ruben Hairapetyan always gives reason for fear. For instance, he says he is ready for a debate with Levon Ter-Petrosyan whom he has a lot of things to remind. Besides, he has made verbal threats of retaliation on different occasions.
It takes a step from fear to “cooperation”, the old saying of Cartagena says.
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