What lies ahead for Armenia now?
Armenialiberty reports:
“An ambitious political party, set up by one of Armenia’s wealthiest and most powerful men recently, unveiled its political manifesto on Friday in advance of the first conference of its leaders and activists. ”
Mr Tsarukyan is well known as a very wealthy oligarch with ties to Kocharyan. Whats strange is his party is reportedly more of an opposition one pushing for the “rule of law”, and anti monopoly measures. I am not sure what to make of this - I don’t know Mr Tsarukyan personally but according to the article many people see him as quite a generous person. I know that he gives quite a bit to charity.
Whats interesting is the manifesto was published in newspapers on Friday - they ran at double their normal print run - the extra copies were paid for by Mr Tsarukyan.
It’s quite sad that papers have to rely on things like this to print extra copies, and Mr Tsarukyans obvious influence will probably make his party a sure fire candidate for parliamentary elections and upcoming presidential elections.
What are we to make of this? A progression to more liberal, European values? Or a backward step to oligarchic fiefdom? Comments please!
Full story HERE
Hmmm, I wonder how much less the money Dodi Gago gives as charity is from the amount of taxes he apparently avoids paying?
As for the rule of law, take a look at some of Mr Tsarukian’s business associates. Might also be worth looking at what Armenia Now’s Vahan Ishkanyan recently wrote about the man himself.
Comment by Onnik Krikorian — 4/16/2006 @ 2:22 am
think hypocrisy reached such proportions in Armenia, that RK, may set up his own opposition party.
Just think how convenient it may be… Almost like two party systems in world leading countries.
Even European Concil will be happy with the setup. No more dirty elections, apart from a few marginalized
groups, nobody will seriously challenge the power. They can even play the game of switching the power from
one party to another with a little damage to self interests. May be the guy is really genius???
Comment by Գագիկ — 4/16/2006 @ 12:23 pm
That’s quite a pessimistic picture..but I guess it’s one way the situation could go. I guess we all just have to make sure it doesn’t happen. It’s not just up to “Hayastanci’s”, it’s up to all of us- it’s where we came from after all.
Comment by Harmick — 4/18/2006 @ 11:18 am
Disagree with Harmick… most of us in the western diaspora have not come from what is now the Republic… most of us trace our roots to what is now Turkey and are culturally VERY different from Hayasdantsis… there is a difference in Hye and Hayasdantsi just like there is a difference between Jew and Israeli…
Mind you the one thing most Armenians (various diasporas and Republic) have in common is that, sadly, we have no tradition or understanding of the concepts of democracy, human rights and civilised behaviour in politics. Armenia is a truly ‘Asian’ country in all senses of the word however much we pretend that we are European and, even worse, superior than our neighbours. It is in this environment that ghastly, petty local scum thrive and yes, create their own political parties to bleed the country even further.
Comment by Vasken — 4/21/2006 @ 4:54 pm
“Hayastanci”-s are the same Hays trying to make for themselves what Diaspora has already done (doing) far from Armenia: ոտքի կանգել. Of course some strive for more some would stop at less. But some really requesting “Hayer” from Diaspora have to understand - it is to early for US (hayastani) to think about the nation, the state. I doubt that anyone of them, or their ancestors had really thought of left Homeland during first 5-10 years of their standing. And again the word “standing” is a relative measure depending on one’s vision.
)))
Wait a couple years and G. Tsarukyan will open a web site and will discuss with his friends some recent news about diasporan people doing pseudo-charity in Armenia
Comment by Հայաստանցի — 5/2/2006 @ 4:50 pm