Tigran Khzmalyan: Only civil society can save Armenia from turning into an appendage of neo-colonial, imperialistic system

The Sardarapat
Movement supported Raffi Hovannisian during the post-election rallies. What did
you expect from the BaRevolution?

Our statement was voiced at the first rally at the
Liberty Square after the so-called presidential election, and in two months
after the election we still go on insisting on what we said in the statement.
We did not join Raffi Hovannisian but the revolt the culmination of which
happened on 18 February - the election day. That day we again saw just the same
way as in 1996, 2003 and 2008 that presidential election in Armenia is an
obvious reason for the citizens to express their disagreement with political,
economic and ideological course of the authorities of the republic which
replace each other for the last 15 years. As a token of solidarity, we, members
of the "Sardarapat" movement and Pre-parliament came to the Square to
participate in the rally organized by a regular leader of the opposition in the
person of Raffi Hovannisian. However, the points of no return are clear to us,
after which we shall not stand next to him. But this does not at all mean that
we are not going to refuse cooperation with him.

Could you specify
those points of no return?

In the person of the authorities of Armenia the
society has got a well organized system, fighting which is impossible from
inside. In this context, "Sardarapat" offered Raffi Hovannisian a
systemized fight on the basis of the relevant drawn out road map, which we are
going to offer to the society. The situation in Armenia should be assessed and
analyzed in the context of events taking place in the post-Soviet territory in
general, and in the Middle East, in particular, as well as in the context of
global changes in the world. Only if we understand the place of Armenia in
these processes, we shall be able to understand what is taking place within the
republic.

You said that
Raffi Hovannisian accepted you suggestions but none of them was realized. Why?

In word, Raffi Hovannisian agreed to our suggestions,
but actually he did not accept them. This happened as a result of changing of
the landmarks in the movement. At Serzh Sargsyan's inauguration day I called
Raffi Hovannisian's actions like a political suicide. But in a day or two I
understood that Raffi Hovannisian did not try to make a political suicide, he
sacrificed himself for quite certain goals, for his own party. If we look at
what happened in the last months, we will see that Armenia's party system has
been in ruins since late 2012, when a number of parties refused to run for
presidency.

Why did this
happen?

This happened because our parties do not meet their
purpose - they do not represent the society,

Can we say that
now the influence of external forces has grown?

I am sure it has. But it was not they who wanted to
leave Armenia without parties. It was the wish of all the three Armenian presidents
since 1995, when Levon Ter-Petrosyan put a ban on Dashnaktsutyun and began
creating pocket parties. And his cause was continued by his two successors.
Ter- Petrosyan's motive was fear of the traditional parties, while Robert
Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, who were both from the province, just needed
support. The initial mission of parties like the RPA and Prosperous Armenia was
to protect the economic interests of one or another oligarch. But when it was
time to protect the people from the regime, they proved to be unprepared. In
fact, there were no parties left after Mar 1 2008. All we had was just
signboards, which fell in the autumn 2012.

But it was exactly
the refusal of the ANC, the ARFD and Prosperous Armenia to run in the
presidential race that gave Raffi Hovannisian the votes he got, wasn’t it. Who
was interested in this?

Since ANC, ARFD and PAP have refused to take part in
the presidential election, the vacuum was not at all filled by the Heritage
party but by the civil society. Just at that moment public movements in Armenia
became sharply active. I mean those which protected Mashtots park, ecologists,
people fighting for justice in the army, court, etc. That is to say, the
politicized society started quickly filling this niche. Just this process
seemed to be especially dangerous for external controllers. The point is that
everything happening in Armenia is a very much important precedent for the
post-Soviet countries, the countries of Eastern Europe, and finally for the
whole world. Few people in the world are aware what happened in Iceland in
autumn 2012. Meanwhile, Iceland's residents simply refused external management
and the political and economic model built for several decades. The power
change took place, but not by the will of this or that party, but of the civil
society. This precedent was perceived in the whole world like extremely
dangerous. That's why, it is kept secret. This is the reason, why an attempt of
the Armenian society to start resolving its own problems was so nervously taken
by the power centers in abroad, which have been leading Armenia to
neocolonialism. Aat present they are trying to replace the mauser regime and
junta in Armenia by neocolonialism. Levon Ter-Petrosyan has recently said the
newly set up Armenian National Congress party has come to make a bourgeois and
democratic revolution in Armenia. I said the same to journalists a month ago,
but not because we like it, but because the last stage of break-down of the
military and feudal system inherited from the USSR and its unavoidable
transition to the bourgeois and democratic system is taking place in Armenia as
well as in the entire post-Soviet territory.

And what is the
role of Raffi Hovannisian in all this?

To lead mass protests. But after two month of his
leadership, those monitoring the situation in the country from outside realized
that things might go out of control and brought it home to Hovannisian on Apr 9
that his movement was getting dangerous. They realized that it would be much
easier for them to control separate parties than a nationwide movement. So, we
can say that from 2:00 PM till 6:00 PM on Apr 9 Raffi Hovannisian underwent the
same evolution Levon Ter-Petrossian was going through for long two years from
2008 till 2010, that is, from the leader of a nationwide movement back to the
leader of a party. There is no other explanation for the rambling speech
Hovannisian delivered and all the other strange actions he took on that day.
Apr 9 might have become the best day of his life, but instead he appeared with
the worst speech he had ever made. The only explanation for this is that he was
offered to stop being the leader of the people in exchange of a stronger role
in his party. It was an offer he could not decline. It was almost the same
thing that happened to Levon Ter- Petrosyan in 2008, when Serzh Sargsyan
managed to convince the West that he would do better the thing they meant for
Ter-Petrosyan. The only difference is that this time it was not Sargsyan who
made the offer.

And what is
Russia’s role in all these processes?

Unfortunately, Russia is continuously losing its
powers, traditional spheres of control and influence. Russian lost its
influence in Georgia at once. In Azerbaijan it is happening slowly but
consistently, and the Gabala radar station is the best evidence of that. In
Armenia it is happening especially slowly due to the instincts of our people
that have chosen the right course. However, for the first time over the last
200 years we have a generation in Armenia for which the Russian orientation is
not a priority. By means of some financial investments of the last years, the
Western embassies have managed to create a situation when Russia is no longer
unique in the eyes of the Armenian public. Due to some subjective and objective
reasons, for instance, the wrong policy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Russia
is yielding its positions. Today's sharp withdrawal of Russia is disastrous for
Armenia, because Armenians had already felt the consequences of such withdrawal
100 years ago during the World War I. I think that like in 1988 the national
movement is assistance and not an obstacle to Russia. It seems to me that the
recent attempt to give Armenia orange colors was doomed to failure. Armenia
will be the last country to face 'orange' revolution. It's alien to our
thoughts. 

You mean that
today the interests of the West and Serzh Sargsyan no longer coincide?

Already not. In the last years Serzh Sargsyan has
evolved from a Soviet-type politician into a person with pro-Western,
bourgeois-democratic values. It was a maneuver that saved him as a political
figure and put him in the place initially meant for Levon Ter-Petrossyan. He is
still trying to play this role and the last thing he did was weaken Raffi
Hovannisian. But he has done all he could and can do no more. He cannot get rid
of the military feudal heritage left by his predecessors Robert Kocharyan and
Levon Ter-Petrosyan.

In this light, Raffi Hovannisian was a more
respectable figure in the eyes of the Western community. As a matter of fact,
Armenia will not be able to avoid the bourgeois- democratic phase. This will
certainly bring more welfare, legality and transparency in our life. But the
question is what will be prevalent in that model – bourgeois or democratic. We
insist on a national democratic system because the bourgeois model imposed on
our country is nothing but a neo-colonial regime. What we need is the model
applied in Iceland or Switzerland - a model implying the rule of the people.
Only civil society can save us from becoming an appendage of the neo- colonial,
imperialistic system.

And if Raffi
Hovannisian is more respectable in the eyes of the West than Serzh Sargsyan,
why don’t they use the popular movement to change the regime in Armenia? 

They in the West cannot afford using a popular
movement to change the regime in Armenia as was the case in 2009-2010, when
Levon Ter-Petrosyan abstained from doing it. In the modern world no single
bourgeois leader must be put into power by the his people or he will always
depend on them. Consequently, he must take the rule through some backstage
intrigue orchestrated by certain centers of force. Hovannisian's visit to
Moscow was part of this logic. Having received a tough offer from the one side,
he had nothing left to do but to appeal to the other, but all they told him was
'try and go, they have already decided everything.' And he went.