The Rhetoric of Hate
Armenia Now carries a timely analysis by veteran journalist Vahan Ishkhanyan on what some consider to be the rhetoric of hate that defined the pre-election campaign of the former president, Levon Ter-Petrossian. Rather than focus on issues and present a concrete platform on which to woo voters, the message delivered from the rostrum was instead one of hate.
At first bellicose and belligerent statements were directed towards the incumbent president, Robert Kocharian, and prime mininster — now president-elect — Serge Sargsyan. Later, however, it was directed towards anyone who didn’t support the former president in his bid to return to power or who dared to remind people of his less than exemplary past. No one was spared.
“For the first time in my life I did not say I am Karabakhtsi [Karabakh Armenian]. They asked me where I am from, I told from Abovyan,” ArmeniaNow photographer Anahit Hayrapetyan tells about how every photographer and journalist in the neighborhood of the Myaskinyan monument on March 1 was asked about their descent in a fierce search for Karabakhtsis.
Disinformation was spread that the troops that dispersed the sitting strike in the Liberty Square spoke the Karabakh dialect. But it was not an occasional matter: it was the expression of xenophobia generated by LTP’s movement, whose number one enemy turned to be the Karabakhtsis.
The next day, March 2 a taxi driver crossing the damaged Mashtots avenue was showing me the shops explaining which belongs to whom, trying to justify the looting: ‘this is Lfik’s, this one belongs to a Karabakhtsi.’ Lfik is oligarch Samvel Alexanyan who is from Aparan [town in the North-West to Yerevan]. But what do the Karabakhtsis have to do with this? The driver continued – the Karabakhtsis have to be driven out.
On March 2 morning near the site of the fighting a man surveying the rubble saw soldiers on guard and said to no one in particular, but in their direction: “Karabakhi dogs”. This is not a single case as it has become a common point of view during the last commotion.
Indeed, “interrogations” of journalists were commonplace at opposition meetings and at times acrimonious. On the Internet, many of Ter-Petrossian’s supporters continue to intimidate, threaten and accuse anyone not supporting their candidate of treason or being in the pay of the authorities. For a movement that talks of “democracy” it shows precious little respect for some of the prerequisites, namely freedom of speech and opinion.
Enmity was the main weapon of the leader for five months, when he stated the only mistake of the years of his rule was bringing the two politicians from Karabakh, the only thing he apologized for (he even defended the clan system he created by saying the 1995 Constitution was better than the amendments adopted in 2005); he declared all the deficiencies in Armenia originated in 1998, he refuted there were election frauds and state robbery before that, presenting the years of his rule as ideal times. For a protesting crowd the words of the charismatic leader were unquestionable and undisputed truth.
Explaining the problems of the state with persons alone and blaming those persons in deadly sins (perpetrating the October 27 assassinations to cede Meghri), he inspired faith in the mass. They believed ‘go till the end’, and also made keeping power a matter of personal security for Sargsyan and Kocharyan.
LTP and his supporters increased the number of their voters by growing the hostile rhetoric of the campaign. LTP stated Serzh and Robert have served the Turks with servility for a long time. On the other side he called traitors and scum all those who did not join him and instead of opening cracks among the authorities, as he said, created deep breach of enmity in the society: if the leader calls somebody a traitor the mass is ready to destroy. (In the newspaper “168 Hours” singer Shushan Petrosyan told with horror she received letters that called her a traitor for supporting Serzh Sargsyan and threatened to kill her children; she said she did not take her son to school for two weeks because in fear of the threats. And the post-election demonstrations that passed by Vazgen Manukyan’s office scanned ‘Vazgen – a traitor!’, because their leader had stated so.)
Admittedly, Ishkhanyan has his own axe to grind with the former authorities. Along with many others, he was persecuted and sought after by the National Security Service (NSS) in the wake of the disputed 1996 presidential election which secured Ter-Petrossian a second term in office. Moreover, not only do many analysts consider that Armenia’s downward spiral towards semi-authoritarianism started then, but the precedent was set for the persecution of opposition activists.
Ironically, many of those who benefited from the witch-hunt of 1996 are the same now persecuted today. Ishkhanyan also makes an arguably valid point that the rhetoric of hate used by Ter-Petrossian made clashes inevitable. Indeed, he implies that faced with an ante raised so high that nobody could afford to lose, the confrontation and clashes were not only expected, but also coordinated by a leader safe and sound under effective house arrest. That is not to excuse the authorities for what transpired on 1 March, but the opposition were not without blame either.
Those who want to take the power are in the list of detained, 80 percent of them belong either to the All-Armenian Movement or are former officials from Republic party. And a wanted businessman Khachik Sukiasyan used to be the favorite oligarch in times of Levon’s rule, who, despite not being deprived of his incomes, had partially ceded his position to Gagik Tsarukyan. Many of the detained and other supporters of Levon have accumulated millions while in power and have not been punished, because they were replaced by people who equally get use of the system.
LTP was a version of the acting authorities ambushed behind the status of opposition, who having stated he is a tool to change the power turned the mob filled with hatred into a tool to provide the comeback of the old clans to power. Having cited the ‘Let there be no other sacrifice but me’, he sacrificed others, safe in his castle himself, with the coming threat hanging in the air ordered the demonstrators to stay and called for arms and resistance through his comrade-in-arms Pashinyan to hang another deadly sin to the authorities – shooting on people.
True, it was obvious that violent clashes would erupt as long ago as last September when Ter-Petrossian materialized out of self-imposed seclusion to launch a broadside on the two figures that had deposed him. It is also the case that even if he hadn’t it is unlikely that the authorities would have conducted clean elections. But, as the situation began to get more and more out of control and the rhetoric more inflamatory, neither side was ready to take measures to calm tensions and avoid the inevitable.
Even today, when the country is more unstable than it has ever been, both Sargsyan and Ter-Petrossian seem unwilling to consider the path of compromise. It’s perhaps why many people consider the present and past authorities to be two sides of the same coin, and why neither offers much hope to the nation unless they are willing to sacrifice their own ambitions and lust for total power in the interests of the country.
If they did, they would now sit down and consider recommendations from the Council of Europe and veteran opposition MP Victor Dallakian. One can only hope that for the sake of stability and putting Armenia on to the path of genuine democratization, they do so. Few of us, however, suspect that they will. Instead, rather than the struggle representing a fight for democratic values and justice, it seems more of the same — the battle between the former and present elite for wealth, property and power.
And in between, used time after time again as pawns, are the people. Vahan Ishkhanyan’s article is here.
Photos: © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008
- Published:
- 03.30.08 / 3am by Onnik
- Category:
- Analysis, Armenia, Armenia Presidential Election 2008, Campaign, Candidates, Democracy, Demonstrations, Freedom of Speech, Nagorno Karabakh, National Security Service (NSS), Opinion, Rallies, Revolution, Violence
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