Speech by Levon Ter-Petrosyan
SPEECH BY LEVON TER-PETROSYAN AT THE RALLY ON
30 SEPTEMBER 2011
Dear compatriots,
It has been exactly four years since the pan-national movement set the objective of freeing the country of the bandit regime, underwent cruel assaults and persecutions, even the shootings against peaceful protesters and the imprisonment of hundreds of people. Even though the issue remains unsolved, the four-year struggle should be considered the showing of the Armenian nation's civil and political maturity, or what's more, the most significant show of national dignity that will finally give fruit. All nations are capable of immediate outbursts and upheavals, but as a rule, only those who remain courageous, persistent and determined achieve victory. Through the struggle and the capability of resisting the deprivations for the past four years, you proved your courage, persistence and determination know no boundaries. Don't doubt that you will win sooner or later despite the mad resistance of the bandit regime, the unconditional support that the international community shows to the authorities, the ineptness and adaptation of a sector of society and all the other difficulties that you face. What's more, you have already won since you haven't come to grips with the horrible illegitimacy and you haven't come to grips with the thought of inclining toward violence, illiteracy and provinciality and toward the impossibility of a way out.
This rally emanates from the clear perception of the following principled points:
1. Armenia's current regime has appropriated power not through fair elections, but through large-scale falsifications, assaults and a cold-hearted slaughter organized against its own people.
2. The regime is not only incapable of, but also doesn't plan on changing its criminal essence and overcoming the current social-economic and political crisis in the country, as well as fix the intolerable situation concerning legitimacy, democracy and human rights through real reforms.
3. Further existence of the regime will impede the country's natural development, will eliminate the people's spirit of creativity and, without exaggerating, it will cause a threat to the country's security.
These are truths that don't require additional substantiation. It is hard to imagine that any intelligent person has even little doubt about these truths or has any hopes with the current Armenian authorities. In his last speeches, Serzh Sargsyan has gotten used to repeating that Armenia will become a juridical, democratic and prosperous country in twenty years. If we leave aside such overtly ridiculous predictions, what Sargsyan says means that you won't see better days for twenty years, you won't have food to eat for twenty years, only emigration will support you, there won't be fair elections and they will rob the country and remain unpunished for twenty more years. It is impossible to imagine a more cynical behavior or more satirical behavior toward the people's expectations, if we take into account that in the past three years of "presidency", Serzh Sargsyan hasn't taken any positive step that would serve as grounds for believing in his perspective of the country's future.
On several occasions, I have mentioned that even after falsified elections and the tragedy of March 1, Serzh Sargsyan had the opportunity to get on the people's good side and have some legitimacy by taking some positive steps. To achieve that goal, he had to clearly free himself of Robert Kocharyan's defective heritage, lead a decisive struggle against the criminal oligarchic system, take serious measures to overcome corruption, release all political prisoners, reveal the ten murders committed on March 1, lift government supervision of online media and more.
If these steps were taken, we would have been living in a totally different country, the interior political tension wouldn't be so sharp, the social-economic situation would have been much better, emigration wouldn't have been so high, Armenia would have much stronger positions in the Armenian-Turkish relations and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement and, most importantly, the people's irreversible trust in the future would have been restored. However, not only did Sargsyan not take that road, but he also chose the worst scenario. On the one hand, he tried to end his act of diminishing the opposition and making the people obedient through large-scale political persecutions, assaults, imprisonment, the terror of police and taxing. On the other hand, he didn't take any serious step in the fight against corruption, restoring legitimacy and establishing democracy, and further strengthened his bandit regime. As a result, we have a dictatorial, bandit regime that doesn't intend to pay heed to the society, as well as a people that are intolerant and expects the government to step down soon. If the international community still hopes to change Serzh Sargsyan and set him on the right track and will support him as before, that is the international community's problem. However, we the people shouldn't have great expectations. The international community's position will change only if it sees that the people of Armenia aren't adapting to the thought of tolerating the current humiliating state of the country, are united as one and determined to change the situation as soon as possible.
We made the last attempt to make the government think by engaging in a civilized dialogue with the hope that that was the road for overcoming the political crisis and making a smooth transition to the restoration of constitutional order through mutual concessions. However, during the dialogue, it became clear that the government isn't ready to make any serious concession and that it needs the dialogue to receive more appraisals from the PACE.
As I had mentioned in my previous two speeches, for us it was initially clear that even a regular dialogue wouldn't lead to our desired outcome since that outcome would be dependent on the people's pressure. Experience has shown that the authorities only understand through pressure. From this day forth, we will be compelled to increase our pressure and hold more frequent rallies with greater turnout, as well as force the authorities to meet our legitimate demands by holding other massive events. There are many events, including marches, hunger strikes, rallies that will be held simultaneously in different residences, pickets, workers' strikes, sitting strikes and round-the-clock rallies. The choice is yours. You will decide what road we will take. I ask you to scream your response.
Very well, judging from your response, the majority of you wants round-the-clock rallies.
(Now, give me a couple of minutes to consult with the Congress leadership to make a decision. I declare a five-minute break. I ask all members of the Congress's central office and the Political Council to come up to the platform).
And so, after consultation, the Armenian National Congress is paying heed to your desire to hold more events and declares the launch of round-the-clock rallies starting from right this moment. With that said, we will agree on the timeframe, the demands that have been set forth and some organizational issues. On behalf of the Congress, I suggest holding round-the-clock rallies for a week and set the same demands that we had presented at the previous rally. Those demands are:
1. Hold snap presidential and parliamentary elections until the end of the year.
2. Make serious amendments in the RA Electoral Code before elections and include in those amendments the suggestions that have been announced.
3. Within three months, reveal the ten murders committed on 1 March 2008 and initiate a criminal persecution against the culprits.
4. Release political prisoner Tigran Arakelyan and quash the cases instigated against the seven youth activists of the Armenian National Congress.
5. Lift the illegitimate ban on street trade in Yerevan.
6. Declare as invalid the decision on demolishing stands placed in Yerevan.
7. Put an end to the perversion of the architectural image of the capital and prohibit the construction of high-story buildings in central Yerevan.
8. Prohibit by law the practice of persecutions against the media and journalists carried out by high-ranking state officials, deputies of the National Assembly and local self-government bodies.
Taking into account that the first two demands are the most difficult to meet, during the previous rally I had deemed it necessary to declare and today I repeat that we are not maximalist and are ready to treat any reasonable concession proposed by the authorities seriously. In addition, to facilitate mutual understanding, we are also ready to restart the dialogue with the authorities running parallel to the round-the-clock rallies starting tomorrow. To maintain direct contact with the RA President's administration, we authorize member of the Congress central office Manushak Petrosyan. If tangible results are not achieved, after a week we will decide whether we will continue or put an end to the round-the-clock rallies.
Now, as for organization, I present the following code of conduct:
-All participants of the round-the-clock rallies are required to maintain discipline and rule out acting on their own.
-Public bailiffs will be held responsible for maintaining discipline at Freedom Square.
-Drunk people are not allowed to enter the square.
-To not disturb people, there will be no noise or music at the square after 10 p.m.
-People are strictly prohibited from communicating or getting into disputes with the police.
-Levon Zurabyan, David Shahnazaryan, David Matevosyan and Avetis Avagyan are authorized to negotiate with the police over different issues.
-Those who violate these rules will be considered provokers and will be moved out of the square by the bailiffs.
I also deem it necessary to emphasize that by taking into account the peaceful nature of his event, the police have no right to interfere in its process according to the RA law "On Rallies".
The guarantee for our success is strict discipline and the capability of working within the framework of legitimacy. I would like to remind you that throughout the four-year struggle, we have not violated any law, have never pursued and don't intend to lead the country to chaos and turbulence. As I have already announced, if a war breaks out in Karabakh, we will be ready to put an end to political actions and unite as one to defend the homeland. I wish all of you an unforgettable celebration for the next seven days. Nothing good will come out through anger, cruelty and bitterness.
