BY APPO JABARIAN
Executive Publisher / Managing Editor
USA Armenian Life Magazine (English-language print edition)
USA Armenian Life E-Newsletter (Electronic Distribution — e-blast)
Hye Kiank Armenian Weekly (Armenian-language print edition)
USA Armenian LifeFACEBOOK
www.armenianlife.com
Last Sunday, the sovereign citizens of the Republic of Armenia soundly defeated the old regime kleptocracy while giving the incumbent Prime Minister Pashinyan and his Civil Contract Party a landslide victory.
Prime Minister Pashinyan and his team received a clear mandate to execute his campaign promises in terms of forcibly confiscating illegally acquired assets by the old regime oligarchs; b) clean house and transform the judicial system in order to institutionalize the Rule of Law; c) diversify Armenia’s foreign economic, political and military alliances; d) stage a sustainable economy economic growth among other issues.
The voters rejected the old regime kleptocracy because of massive looting of the Armenian state; selling-off of strategic state assets to foreign entities for pennies on the dollar in order; and obstructing Armenian Diaspora’s full integration with Armenia and Artsakh.
The voters didn’t take seriously the former rulers’ accusations against Acting PM Nikol Pashinyan for giving away ancestral Armenian lands in Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh to Turkey’s protégé Azerbaijan during the 44-day Artsakh War. The voters firmly believed that it was the former rulers who systematically weakened the army during their-nearly 30-year rule (1991-2018).
The Velvet is now replaced with the Steel Revolution through a clear mandate to institutionalize the Rule of Law.
While the old regime kleptocracy claimed to have Russia’s backing and tried to act as a sole broker between the Armenian nation and the Russian Federation, Moscow steered away from the former regime plutocrats – The Levon Ter-Petrosyan regime (1991-1998), The Robert Kocharyan regime (1998-2008) and The Serzh Sargsyan regime (2008-2018).
No foreign ally like Russia or any other nation would want the huge public relations liability that these former rulers represent.
Another huge public relation liability is Ter-Petrosyan-Kocharyan- Sargsyan fellow clansmen Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II, his blood-brother Arch. Yezras of Moscow and Arch. Hovnan Derderian of Los Angeles.
As many readers may remember, several weeks ago Karekin II on his way to New York passed through Moscow. Karekin II had expressed his wish to meet the Russian Patriarch Kirill but the latter rejected Karekin II’s offer. According to Kremlin sources, Russian political and religious authorities have grown weary of Armenia’s former soviet corrupt leaders. Nearly all of them are now regarded as pariah people in various international circles.
The results of the June 20 special parliamentary elections in Armenia illustrated how much these plutocrats are disliked by the electorate.
According to pre-election public opinion polls in Armenia, the Armenian voters gave negative ratings as follows:
62% deeply disliked Robert Kocharyan; 67% Gagik Tsarukyan; 73% Levon Ter-Petrosyan; 76% Arthur Vanetsyan; 77% Serzh Sargsyan.
In a separate public opinion polling on corrupt Armenian Church leading clergy, Catholicos Karekin II is disliked by 94%; his blood-brother Arch. Yezras of Moscow by 88% and Arch. Hovnan Derderian of Los Angeles by 87%. One can safely estimate that the rate throughout the Diaspora may be almost identical if not more acute.
Now that the elections are behind us, the entire Armenian nation – in The Homeland and Diaspora, should focus on carrying a national agenda to further consolidate Armenia’s independence and sovereignty while securing Artsakh’s independence.
Based on several conversations with USA Armenian Life Magazine readers and USA Armenian Life TV viewers, this writer compiled the following agenda items that deserve world Armenians collective attention:
1) Confiscation by the Armenian state of illegally acquired and looted assets;
2) Full revelation of the details of the massacre of state leaders in the Parliament of Armenia on October 27, 1999 and bring the perpetrators to Justice.
3) Full revelation of the details of the massacre of innocent and peaceful protestors on March 1, 2008 and bring the perpetrators to Justice.
4) Revamping of the judicial system by expelling corrupt judges and prosecutors and replacing them with honorable, independent and strong-willed judges and prosecutors.
5) The defense and law enforcement Ministries should be led by truly patriotic professionals who should reorganize the Armenian army and endow it with state-of-the-art military technology.
6) Complete integration of the Armenian Diaspora, which is endowed with wide-ranging and multi-layered and multifaceted capabilities, and stop treating it as a “milking cow” but accept it as a full-fledged partner of Armenia and Artsakh. (It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Armenians of the Greater Los Angeles area alone can develop Armenia’s economy, provided that the Rule of Law is fully established and fully operational). And to a) Organize the growth of large, multi-children families, b) Launch qualitative and quantitative repatriation to increase the number of Armenia-Artsakh’s population to more than 5 million by 2030; 7 million by 2040; and 10 million or more by 2050.
7) Rapid economic and social development of border zones and strengthening of the communities; reverses the population erosion by stopping the migration from the village to the city, and by creating an influx from the city to the village and especially in the border area.
8) Give boost to timely development of the military capacity of the citizens by creating an Army of Citizens-Warriors that can serve as auxiliary forces providing vital support to the professional Armenian Army. Support economically and morally the non-partisan, non-political strategic organizations such as VOMA (The Art of Survival) –Founded by Intelligence Officer Vova Vartanov and ABBA Armenian Black Belt Academy — founded by the late Ambassador Master Garo Kebabjian.
The positive results of the June 20 special parliamentary elections have ushered in a new era which should serve as a promising new beginning for Armenia and the Armenian Nation – The Homeland and the Diaspora.
As the Chinese proverb says, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Thank you Mr. Jabarian. You article was well thought and covered the most important issues of present Armenia most importantly, the 8 problematic areas of concern that must be addressed immediately.