Levon Ter-Petrosyan: Lack of control in the country can lead to its  collapse

ArmInfo. The most important test period for any revolution is time after its immediate victory. In his article on the portal ilur.am the first president of Armenia Levon  Ter-Petrosyan wrote.  

The article says in particular: "After each revolution, there comes a period when enthusiastic and united activists begin to show initiative and try to solve with many  revolutionary methods many local problems accumulated over the  years." We are witnessing this very phenomenon justified in their  demands, but not controlled by the revolutionary center of protests -  employees of some industrial giants, striking, demanding higher  salaries, supporters of the group "Sasna" "They demand their  immediate release, others - the resignations of the mayor Taron  Margaryan, and all this is accompanied by the closure of streets,  pickets." I repeat, all these actions and their demands, with a few  exceptions, are quite justified. have not been explicitly stated so  far, only because of the fear of a rigid confrontation of the regime,  violence by the security forces, and fear of losing work or  business.Today, fears have disappeared, and people are trying to  solve these problems by the method of strict, disciplined, even  Pashinyan's instructions, "Ter-Petrosyan said.

However, he notes, one important factor is not taken into account:  today it is Nikol Pashinyan who is the prime minister, the head of  Armenia, whose most important obligation is to ensure the normal  functioning of state bodies. "Thus, although these actions are in  fact sincere, however, rallies, the seizure of buildings and the  blocking of streets, though not specifically, but still directed  precisely against Pashinyan." It is possible, however, that apart  from sincere and arbitrary protests of activists, , provoked by the  former regime, which retreated, but did not surrender, "the first  president stressed. At the same time, he predicts that in a few days  the Republicans will approve the government program, putting all the  responsibility for running the country on Pashinyan and trying to  avoid early elections, which they do not like now. After that, the  first president continues, the Republicans will try to undermine the  government's legislative initiatives and gradually reduce the  reputation of the new Cabinet, creating an uncontrolled state and  chaos in the country.

"The main criterion for any government is its control over the  situation, the continuous functioning of the state machine. If the  government cannot provide all of the above-mentioned elements, no  country, even friendly, will take seriously such authorities. 

In Armenia, an exceptional position has been created, the state  machine can simply break down, and the country will become completely  uncontrollable, "Ter-Petrosyan predicted.

According to him, this is the greatest danger for any country. "Even  the dictatorship is not as dangerous as the lack of control, since  the dictatorship is temporary, and sooner or later it will fall, and  lack of control can be a destructive factor for any country." I do  not want to give many examples. 1990s in the neighboring countries of  Georgia and Azerbaijan.Today, the main priority for both the new  authorities, the political forces and society should be to avoid  shocks and support state control.This requirement also applies to  outsiders of the old regime, in which, I hope, the desire for revenge  did not dull the sense of priority of the interests of the state,  "wrote the first president.

He recalled that in the same situation the Armenian national movement  turned up after coming to power - namely, the seizure of security and  police units in Armavir and Meghri, pressure on the communist leaders  of the regional councils, attempts to enter the building of the  television, seizing the Yerevan City Council building (the current  Constitutional court), etc.

"We succeeded in a short time, above all by persuasion, and sometimes  by applying the norms of the law, to regulate the situation and  provide full control over the state.

It was thanks to this that we managed to avoid the catastrophic  events that took place in this period in Georgia and Azerbaijan, and  we received the approval and full support of the international  community. For the sake of justice, it should be noted that later,  during the reign of Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sargsyan, control in  Armenia not only did not suffer, but quite the contrary, when using  anti-people and illegal methods, it became even more solid. However,  this was the main reason for today's revolution. The present general  national movement recorded a historic victory, having overthrown the  20-year-old Armenian dictatorship. Thus Pashinyan took a worthy place  in the history of Armenia. For our people it will be a huge  disappointment if he does not manage to get out of the current  dangerous situation in order to take a more important place in  history, "the first president said.