Armen Martirosyan: Another situation similar to death of soldier Luks Stepanyan may spark a revolution in Armenia

It has been argued recently in Armenia that the public
must fight for its rights through civil movements amid degrading oppositional
political parties. We’d like to listen to the opinion of an oppositionist…

 Incidentally, many statements by
some representatives of the so-called civil movements, saying that the
opposition is weak, incapable and seeks power only with a purpose to spoil the
people, coincide with the statements by the authorities. I’d like to recall
that it was the Heritage party that was at the origins of the civil movement in
Armenia. When the people had any complaint or displeasure, we were next to them
and were trying to get observance of their civil rights. Certainly, in some
cases the power represented by the RPA members has counterarguments against the
opposition, represented by the ANC. The authorities say that they learned from
the former power, the current opposition, how to falsify elections. In this
context, Heritage is the only party against which such argumentation is
senseless, taking into account the fact that Heritage party has never been a
part of the power, and has never broken the law. There are no medium-sized  or big businessmen among the Heritage party
members. For this reason, any clash of interests is also ruled out.

Taking into consideration such an
invincibility, the authorities have nothing else to do than from time to time
to blame us for "being guided from outside", although according to
the results of the last presidential election, we see that just the RPA appeals
to the opinion "from outside". The only argument of the RPA in favor
of Serzh Sargsyan's victory were the congratulations and recognition of the
results of the presidential election by the leaders of several countries. At
the same time, they did not want to remember that in its final report on the
presidential election in Armenia, the OSCE ODIHR characterized the authorities
of the republic like partycrats. In the meanwhile, partycracy makes impossible
free, fair and transparent elections.

 Well, where does it concern civil movements?

 Those wishing to organize a civic
movement in Armenia must stop trying to reinvent the wheel. The civilized world
has long proved that the best weapon of political struggle is a political
party. As a rule, civic movements are not independent and are sponsored and
guided by political forces. So, those calling themselves civic movements and
saying that the times of political parties have gone are just trying to sling
mud at the opposition and Heritage Party.

 Did the civic
movements bear any relations to the protest actions in Armavir region, protests
of the parents of killed soldiers etc?

 All of the recent protest actions
were just a spontaneous expression of people's displeasure rather than a
specific campaign organized by civic movements. It is not they who have made
people active. People are active because they have run out of patience.  Heritage was by their side during all of the
actions. Our duty is to support them. 
However, globally, there are no civic movements
in Armenia.

The Authorities have found themselves in
rather hard situation following the latest social and economic challenges. How
will the government settle the emerging problems?

 I think the Government will not
solve our problems because it cannot and does not want to do it. The point is
that their interests do not coincide with the interests of their people. While
banks worldwide were facing a crisis, Armenian banks were recording growing
profits – as much as 28% in 2012 alone. 
This was achieved at the expense of the economy, while normally banks
should be drivers of economy. Our foreign debt is swelling to a dangerous size,
but our regime is doing nothing to stop this. They are not willing to lose
their profits, and so, they will be just maneuvering. The Government's decision
to partly subsidize the gas tariff was unacceptable. How can they equally
subsidize a millionaire who spends thousands of US dollars to heat his palace
and a pensioner who can hardly find 1,000 AMD for his small flat?

 What do you
think of the prime minister’s idea to subsidize the rise in the gas price via
issue of Eurobonds?

 Prime Minister's idea to subsidize 30% of
the rise in the gas tariff by issuing eurobonds is just an attempt to mask one
more increase in the country's foreign debt. 

What do you think of the aggravating domestic political
and social situation in Armenia?

  If such a social and economic
situation arose in other more civilized than Armenia countries, it would open a
direct way to the revolution. The ratio between the incomes of wealthy people
to the poor ones by four and even six times is considered to be normal, from
six to eight times - dangerous, and from eight and more - may cause revolution.
According to the official data, in Armenia the ratio between wealthy and poor
people is twenty to one.  The total of
600 thsd poor families have been living in Armenia, according to the official
data, there are the families with medium income and rich families are just
100,000. So, there are many preconditions for making revolution in
Armenia.  But taking into account some
obstacles, it is not clear if a revolution is possible in Armenia or not. First
of all, it is not clear if the Armenian society itself is ready for revolution.
It is not clear either, what direction external levers will work to, as till
today, thanks to infringing upon the national interest, our foreign partners
were just protecting and supporting the authorities. For their part, the
authorities expressed readiness to settle the Karabakh conflict on the basis of
the "Madrid principles", they also signed the Zurich protocols and in
general it has become a tradition for them to incline head at a whistle from
outside to the detriment of the national interests of Armenia. The possibility
of the opposition consolidation causes many problems. I am confident that in
case of consolidation, an absolutely new situation will appear in Armenia, when
the authorities will find themselves in a situation not to be able to make a
step without adoption of extraordinary decisions.  Nevertheless, the statement by the head of
the IMF mission in Armenia, Mark Horton, and resident representative of IMF in
Armenia, Guillermo Tolosa, in which they called on the Armenian authorities to
make radical reforms, are rather symptomatic for the authorities of Armenia in
this context. The external challenges, the explosive situation in the region
and in the Karabakh conflict, all this may become the reason of revolt in the
republic. I did not want to say about that, but repetition of the situation
similar to the death of a soldier Luks Stepanyan may spark a revolution in
Armenia. This time the authorities managed to neutralize the spark, but it is
not clear if they will manage to do that next time.