(Saturday, May 2)
“Revolutions and opposition actions lead to success not through a popular mobilization but with clear goals and methodology, serving as an example to the people and winning its support,” Lragir.am writes in a critical analysis of Armenian opposition parties and their traditional rhetoric. “Support and mobilization are totally different things. The authorities are afraid of the former because it presupposes political responsibility while the latter is demagoguery which nobody fears. In these circumstances, the traditional Armenian opposition can probably deal a crushing blow to Serzh Sarkisian only in one way: by quitting politics just like Gagik Tsarukian has.”
Hetq.am reports that the newly established Civic Contract party of Nikol Pashinian, a prominent Armenian opposition figure, will hold its founding congress in Yerevan on May 30. “We are setting up the kind of a party that has never existed and operated in Armenia before,” Pashinian tells the online publication. He says that unlike other Armenian parties Civic Contract will have no single “super leader” making decisions single-handedly and will put in place a “real electoral system within the party.” “I think that our party will also be different in the sense that it will not only publicly talk about problems but also propose solutions,” he says. “And those solutions must be suggested to the public, rather than the authorities.”
According to 1in.am, the Armenian public now needs “new figures and ideas.” “They do not have to be in political formats, so to speak,” writes the publication. “Armenia’s ability to engage in various international processes … depends on this.”
Ilur.am says that for all the suffering endured by the Armenian people a century ago their plight is now much better than that of other Christian peoples of the Middle East, notably Assyrians and Copts. “For some reason, we like to compare ourselves to world powers,” it writes. “But our truce historical, geographical and political position is being one of the Christian peoples of the Middle East. We should use this standard in order to measure what we have and what we don’t have.”
(Tigran Avetisian)