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Translating the ARF Roadmap to Regime Change into Action Part II

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  • Translating the ARF Roadmap to Regime Change into Action Part II

    Translating the ARF Roadmap to Regime Change into Action Part II
    By Michael Mensoian

    Asbarez
    Dec 11th, 2009

    The roadmap to regime change is a response to conditions that were
    crystallized by the recently signed protocols which represent the
    first step in the process of rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey.
    The ARF has properly viewed these documents as being detrimental to
    Armenia's present and future national interests. In response to this
    assessment, the party has announced its formal opposition to the
    protocols. In Part I an explanation was offered as to how the ARF can
    deliver on its roadmap to regime change. Although this is a gargantuan
    task for which the ARF has the necessary experience to undertake, it
    is the how of the undertaking that is crucial. The response by the
    ARF, if it is to be effective, must be multi-faceted in its objectives
    and multi-operational in its implementation. The use of demonstrations
    and rallies within Armenia and throughout the Armenian Diaspora are
    means to address the first objective: to prevent ratification of the
    protocols by the Armenian Parliament. The need for an information
    gathering and distribution system, and the convening of conferences
    where the objectives of the roadmap are presented to selected
    audiences, were suggested as vital components of the effort at regime
    change. The need to develop a program that would assist journalists,
    legislators, advocacy leaders, and businessmen to hear and view
    firsthand the conditions in Javakhk and to understand the how and why
    of the Karabaghtsis' demand for independence were discussed.

    Part II considers the remaining two objectives of the roadmap: a
    viable socio-economic program and preparing for the forthcoming
    elections. The need to create a cadre of field workers to develop
    grassroots support for the ARF's initiatives to improve the standard
    of living of the workers and their families, and to win their support
    for the ARF candidates for president and parliament in the forthcoming
    elections, is an absolute necessity to ensure a reasonable certainty
    of success.

    The program to improve the quality of life of the worker and his
    family must be doable and not campaign pie-in-the-sky rhetoric that
    will appeal only to the most desperate members of society. Again, the
    participation of Armenian men and women with expertise in the fields
    of education, medical delivery systems, agrarian reform, housing,
    rural infrastructure, etc. must be enlisted to formulate practical
    programs that are not only on target, but can be achieved with the
    limited resources that will be initially available. Promising more
    than can be delivered is anathema to the long-term support that the
    ARF requires. The Armenian worker has become cynical by having relied
    on too many promises made and not kept. The inadequacies of the
    oligarchic Sarkisian government in failing to include the workers in
    an equitable sharing of the wealth that they have produced must be
    relentlessly hammered home. More importantly, the ARF must
    explain - point by point - how the Sarkisian Administration's failures
    will be effectively addressed by the program proposed by the ARF to
    improve the workers' quality of life.

    The remaining objectives demand that the ARF prepares for the
    forthcoming Armenian parliamentary and presidential elections in 2011
    and 2013, respectively. The ARF must begin the task of selecting
    viable candidates for president and parliament. These potential
    candidates must become the face of this roadmap to regime change. They
    should become household names and faces, and appear at rallies,
    demonstrations, and conferences. The presidential candidate must tour
    the diaspora explaining why the roadmap to regime change is important
    for Armenia's political viability, how it will be implemented, and its
    relationship to the legitimate objectives of Hai Tahd (the Armenian
    Cause). The candidate's presence should be used to raise funds to
    underwrite what will be an expensive program if regime change is to be
    achieved. The presidential candidate should meet with sympathetic
    journalists, business leaders, advocacy leaders, and legislators
    (especially members of the United States Congressional Armenian
    Caucus) wherever

    The ARF has influence in the diaspora.
    Winning the presidency must be viewed as achievable. Should the party
    fail to elect the president, at the very least the ARF must win a
    sufficient number of parliamentary seats to be able to advance its
    legislative program for the benefit of the citizens and the state.
    Working from a position of strength within the administration
    (assuming the ARF is not the administration) is more effective than
    working outside the government structure. However, being part of the
    administration has its potential liabilities should the ARF be unable
    to deliver on its program or is cast as part of the problems that
    continue to persist. In a related note, the ARF's recent participation
    in the Sarkisian Administration did not earn it any accolades.

    The Sarkisian Administration must be aggressively attacked on its
    record of having failed to improve the condition of workers and their
    families; on having failed to ensure the basic norms of free,
    democratic elections; of having failed to have Karabagh recognized as
    a member of the negotiation process; and of having failed to
    effectively represent to the Georgian government the issues
    confronting the Javakheti Armenians. This is a battle for the
    political survival of the jomeland (Armenia, Artsakh, and Javakhk) for
    a better day for workers and their families and for the Armenian
    Cause. There will be no second chance. Given the enormity of what is
    at stake, no one should doubt that the present administration and its
    supporters will seek to create obstacles to hinder the ARF from
    holding political rallies, having access to television time and media
    coverage, and importantly, organizing grassroots support. The ARF must
    be prepared to respond immediately and effectively to any counter
    efforts by Yerevan, Ankara,
    and possibly by the Minsk Group should attempts be made to undermine
    its efforts at regime change.

    Organizing grassroots support is a vital component in gaining the
    necessary public support for the ARF's roadmap to regime change and to
    ensure voter support for its candidates in the forthcoming elections.
    Winning the `heart and soul' of the Armenian worker and his family is
    a sine qua non if there is any hope of achieving this fundamental
    change. The results of the parliamentary election in 2007 (winning 16
    of 131 seats) and the presidential election of 2008 (where the ARF
    candidate received under 7 percent of the total votes cast) indicate
    what needs to be done if regime change is to be successful. To sell
    its program and to develop the required grassroots support required
    for electoral victories, the ARF must train a cadre of paid field
    representatives who will live and work with the people they seek to
    influence. Their pay would be in the form of a stipend in addition to
    required expenses for travel, food, and lodging, which would also be
    underwritten by the party. Working in pairs for moral support and

    safety (should that become a factor), these field workers could live
    with local families who would in turn receive payment for their room
    and board. The ARF field representatives must be properly trained,
    provided with relevant materials, and adequately monitored and
    supported.

    It is vital that these field representatives operate under the
    supervision of district committees for each of Armenia's 10 districts
    and the capital district of Yerevan. Monthly progress reports would be
    filed by each team with their respective district committee, who would
    then file a summary report to be sent to the Central Committee. The
    Central Committee would compile a summary report for distribution to
    ARF regional central committees and from there to their local
    gomidehs. Appropriate authorities would decide what material would be
    released for public distribution. Being informed is a key requirement
    to keep members and all segments of the Armenian community within the
    homeland and the diaspora energized. These field workers would be on
    the front line and would form an indispensible component in
    implementing the roadmap. The field workers would be responsible for
    explaining the roadmap's objectives, to link the inadequacies of the
    present administration with the solutions proposed by the ARF, and to
    gai
    n support for the ARF candidates for parliament and president in the
    forthcoming elections.

    The republic is at a critical moment in its history. The roadmap for
    regime change demands a full scale offensive that requires harnessing
    human resources and fund raisingefforts far beyond anything the ARF
    has ever attempted.

    It must be recognized that Armenia is being pressured to normalize
    relations with a government whose leaders remain unrepentant and as
    anti-Armenian as their political progenitors who carried out the
    systematic murder of some 1.5 million innocent Armenian men, women,
    and children using the most heinous methods conceivable. The protocols
    are documents that speak to Turkish interests, are supported by the
    Minsk Group (France, Russia, and the United States), and are
    detrimental to Armenia's interests - dismissive of the injustices
    expressed in Hai Tahd and contemptuous of Armenia's sovereignty. That
    should be sufficient to motivate any Armenian.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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