Comments on: Armenia: Reformist Prime Minister

By: Ani

Ani — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:51:25 +0000

Armen, repeat after me: “Three more weeks! Three more weeks!” If we all clap hard enough, maybe we can revive the democracy “Tinker Bell”…

By: armen.filadelfiatsi

armen.filadelfiatsi — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:33:22 +0000

Ever since Ronald “Ray Gun” Reagen, deregulation has stripped all of the middle and middle-lower class, and the lower class, of all of the protections its had in water, electricity, gasoline, health-care, and so on.

Who owns the air I breath, now?

And the upper middle-class keeps taking the bribes that their bosses give them. Because 15K is a lot of money when you make 350K a year—not.

15K tax cut, in exchange for war with Iran and no economy.

Great. Suck up the shake, assholes.

By: armen.filadelfiatsi

armen.filadelfiatsi — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:33:19 +0000

Cheney didn’t meet with Sargsyan because of the way the latter “won” the elections? If he’s so worked up about “free” elections, why doesn’t just send over Diebold machines? Then Armenians in Armenia can enjoy the same freedom and democracy we do in the US.

By: Ani

Ani — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:41:12 +0000

Well, I guess it’s good that he met with the man in charge of things , but T. Sargsyan wasn’t a part of the “elections” so it doesn’t really change anything about the U.S.’s position about S. Sargsyan’s presidency. Besides, this paragraph shows that the meeting wasn’t unusual:

“Cheney met President Serzh Sarkisian when the latter visited Washington in October 2007 in his then capacity as prime minister.”

Also, the MCC money still hasn’t been given to Armenia. If that money gets unlocked, then that would be an indication of a policy shift, which I’d doubt will come absolutely free, so we’ll see what message TS brings back and what changes occur.

If anybody should read something into this meeting, though, his last name would be Kocharian, since it does help cement T. Sargsyan’s position as prime minister.

By: Onnik

Onnik — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 09:59:10 +0000

Well, that’s a good point although expectations for Armenia were probably higher — or rather oil makes people somewhat more lenient towards authoritarian leaders and flawed elections.

Opposition supporters might also point to the events of 1 March and the state of emergency here.

Then again, post Russia-Georgia war, the U.S. now most definitely favors stability and gradual reform rather than changes which literally can send shock-waves out throughout the entire region.

Perhaps Cheney’s meeting can be seen in this context rather than anything else? Don’t know. Comments?

By: Sedrak Mkrtchyan

Sedrak Mkrtchyan — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:49:41 +0000

I really think the way the president comes to power is just a pretext. Aliev Jr.’s substitution of his father at the position of president of Azerbaijan went worse than any other elections took place in the region. But that didn’t trouble Chaney when visiting Azerbaijan and meeting him there.