Kocharian Hits Back

It would appear that the Armenian president, Robert Kocharian, is suffering from delayed-stress syndrome. According to RFE/RL, it took him until yesterday to launch his own salvo against the speech of his predecessor, Levon Ter Petrosian. The attack was aired on local television, presumably without giving his nemesis the right to respond. That’s a pity because it would be extremely beneficial to have a real debate on the situation in the country.

In his first public reaction to Ter-Petrosian’s Friday speech, Kocharian said independent Armenia’s first president is “filled with malice” and lacks elementary knowledge of economics. “It is that malice that had destroyed the [former ruling party] HHSh,” he said in remarks broadcast by Armenian television.

In his 90-minute speech at a big rally in central Yerevan, Ter-Petrosian reiterated his claims that Kocharian and his chief lieutenant, Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, have turned Armenia into a “gangster state” based on rampant government corruption, utter disregard of law and suppression of dissent. Ter-Petrosian accused the ruling “criminal regime” of pocketing billions of dollars in taxes and informal payments allegedly extorted from local businesspeople. He also effectively held Kocharian responsible for the October 1999 armed attack on the Armenian parliament.

Kocharian did not directly comment on these allegations, choosing instead to again remind Armenians of severe hardship suffered by them during Ter-Petrosian’s rule. He said Armenia was “one of the most developed and industrialized republics of the Soviet Union” when the Ter-Petrosian-led HHSh swept to power in 1990. “Within three to four years Armenia became one of the poorest countries of the world,” he said.

“Armenia’s industry was destroyed in a matter of a few years,” added Kocharian. “It can be said now that they inherited an essentially normal [economic] situation and bequeathed to me in 1998 a country with a ruined economy.”

[…]

Throughout his leadership of Karabakh Kocharian was widely regarded as a staunch Ter-Petrosian ally and never publicly criticized the Yerevan government’s economic policies. He endorsed Ter-Petrosian’s hotly disputed reelection in 1996.

Kocharian’s criticism of Armenia’s former leadership was dismissed as a “deliberate lie” by Hrant Bagratian, Ter-Petrosian’s prime minister from 1993-1996. “You can’t talk like that,” he told RFE/RL in an interview. “Especially if you came to power thanks to your predecessor.”

[…]

Kocharian made the comments as he spoke to Armenia’s leading TV stations loyal to his administration after inaugurating a Diaspora-funded sporting facility in Yerevan. In what seems to have become a pattern, the presidential press service refused to grant an RFE/RL correspondent accreditation needed for covering the event.

The Armenian Observer also covers Kocharian’s response to Ter Petrosian’s speech as well as reporting that the 2008 presidential election in Armenia will cost around 660 million AMD (approximately $2 million). Well, actually, it’s likely to “cost” a lot more in hidden expenditures in contravention of the law, but anyway. However, this is the amount the Central Elections Commission (CEC) has requested for its work at least.

Speaking in front of the Parliament the head of CEC Gregin Azaryan has noted, that 1 billion 582 million drams will be allocated to the CEC according to the 2008 State Budget. 144 million drams will be spent on the staff costs of the CEC, 660 million will be spent on the organization of the Presidential elections as mentioned above, 716 million drams will be spent on the organization of the Local Self-Government elections scheduled for Fall 2008. The remaining 61 million drams will be spent on the organization of trainings.

Meanwhile, as the president and prime minister continue to enjoy near total control over the national broadcast media, the situation is not the same for regional TV stations. Well, at least for now as the government is now seeking to control them through methods that must once again ring alarm bells for pro-democracy and freedom of speech advocates.

Tax officials raided on Wednesday the offices of a rare Armenian TV station that broadcast former President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s September 21 speech in which he subjected the government to harsh criticism.

The Gyumri-based GALA TV was one of only two regional broadcasters that agreed to air the speech as a paid advertisement on October 14. Just over a week later, officials from the State Tax Service (STS) visited its offices and notified its owner, Vahan Khachatrian, about a thorough inspection of GALA’s financial operations ordered by an STS division charged with combating tax evasion.

The visit came the day after Khachatrian publicly said that the National Commission on Television and Radio, a government-controlled body issuing and revoking broadcasting licenses, had warned him against airing Ter-Petrosian’s verbal attacks on President Robert Kocharian. The commission denied the claim. Khachatrian also claimed that officers of the Gyumri branch of the National Security Service (NSS) told GALA stop covering the ex-president’s political activities.

[…]

Khachatrian cited a Wednesday report in an Armenian pro-government newspaper which said tax authorities have already found violations at GALA. “The report was published before you began the inspection. Where did they get that information from?” he asked.

So, it seems as though the stakes are now very high with all indications appearing to show that the government is panicked by Levon Ter Petrosian’s return. Now more than at any other time in the nine years that I’ve been here in Armenia, we have a presidential election shaping up to be quite unlike any other. RFE/RL’s Press Review has more.

“Levon Ter-Petrosian’s entry into politics is literally politicizing Armenia’s political life,” writes “Zhamanak Yerevan.” “That is, it makes the Dashnak a Dashnak, the Communist a Communist, the AZhM member and an AZhM member and so on. Ter-Petrosian’s entry into politics is also an answer to the question of whether there is opposition in Armenia. The first president makes the opposition’s existence real.”

[…]

“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” blasts Armenian TV channels’ negative reaction to Ter-Petrosian’s speech and says none of them refuted specific allegations made by the former president. “For example, nobody has refuted the allegation that the government system is corrupt from top to down,” says the pro-Ter-Petrosian paper. “Only one or two people have mumbled that ‘all of this happened also during your rule.’”

In a story headlined “Panic,” “Haykakan Zhamanak” claims that Deputy Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian has closed two of his local bank accounts that “contained large sums.” The paper portrays this as a further indication that the authorities are really worried about Ter-Petrosian’s return to power. It notes that Abrahamian was among several individuals whom Ter-Petrosian described as the leaders of the Armenian “gangster state.”

At any rate, despite the control of the television media in Armenia, Levon Ter Petrosian’s name is everywhere. I don’t think anybody could have reckoned on that even as recently as two months ago. Unpredictable things usually happen in Armenia, especially during the political silly season which usually runs from the end of October to April, and I’m sure that this time will be no different.