| The West, in particular the Council of Europe, has demanded democratic reforms from Armenia. Those are mainly four: a/ to set political prisoners free, b/ to provide the freedom of demonstrations and processions, c/ to launch independent investigation on March 1 incidents, d/ to stop the authority’s control over TV. None of those demands have been yielded to up to current, though a consultation was invited at the President’s office on that occasion yesterday. Will those “reforms” be carried out? Certainly those reforms are possible. Whether those reforms threaten to changeover of political forces? I am sure that they don’t.
Let’s observe the danger of those reforms from the authorities’ standpoints. 1. If Ararat Zurabyan, Alexander Arzumanyan, Karapet Rubinyan and other politicians who have not committed any crime are set free, it is not possible that they attack on the President’s Residence just on the same day. 2. If the opposition holds a mass meeting tomorrow and demands the authorities’ refusal (how many times has the opposition made such a demand during 17 years?), it doesn’t mean that authorities will be obliged to resign. 3. If any body which gains the public confidence declares (not the Police or Prosecutor’s Office) that these people have robbed shops and broken trolleybuses, those people were killed in this condition, it won’t destabilize the situation, just the opposite. 4. If TV Companies in their news broadcastings cover the opposition’s activities, for instance today’s congress, by the rules of journalism; it will only raise that TV Companies rating.
In short, democratic reforms will cause no danger to these authorities. And more, everything will be more dangerous for them if they do not make any change. The logic is obvious: Armenia faces to social clashes; the prices of goods of first necessity will be raised during this year. The social revolt should be put in the political, systematic flow. The current opposition is like that. Otherwise the authorities can face to radical forces.
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