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DIRT FOR GAIN: SMEAR CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED AHEAD OF 2013 VOTE
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow
Politics | 04.10.12 | 15:36
The recent domestic political developments lead many to believe that
the upcoming presidential election will feature "digging up dirt"
as a main campaign technology.
If in the case with Georgia the opposition possessed such compromising
evidence and became a mighty force winning due to the "prison scandal",
in Armenia it is the authorities most frequently using such information
for political purposes.
The "war of compromising materials" began Wednesday, when 1tv.am
- the website of the State Television and essentially a campaign
arm for the incumbent, apparently sought to smear President Serzh
Sargsyan's most serious opponent Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP)
leader Gagik Tsarurkyan.
The website says they "have come into possession of a document,
proving that in the 1980s PAP leader Gagik Tsarukyan was found guilty
of rape and served his sentence at a penitentiary for police officers
(then called militiamen) in Russia's Nizhni Tagil town".
The website reports that Tsarukyan used to work at Patrol Service so
was sent to a prison for law-enforcement officers, and was paroled
for good behavior. Then "during Robert Kocharyan's tenure, Tsarukyan,
who had pled guilty, was acquitted by Armenia's Supreme Court...",
wrote 1tv.am. (Although this information has long been an issue of
public speculations, it is the first time there is documented evidence
confirming it.)
The same day Tsarukyan's press office released a refuting statement
qualifying it as "dirty campaign politically ordered by those to whom
decency is an incomprehensible category". Tsarukyan reminded of "the
boomerang effect", stressing that "in this time-period the boomerang
is going to become a rather serious category, also a political one".
The same apparent technique was used against former foreign minister
Vartan Oskanian who is now accused of money laundering. Although the
prosecutor general confirmed that he had known about Oskanian's "money
embezzlement" for almost a year, the time for using that information
against him happens to coincide with Oskanian's re-entry into big
politics, which he did with sharp criticism against the authorities
and unconcealed ambitions for the presidential chair.
Some two weeks ago the President's former adviser Garnik
Isagulyan predicted a large-scale war with the main weapon being
personally-damaging information. He said there is an order of knights
called "Mehr's Door" (Mher is a epical hero from "David of Sasun")
operating in Armenia that has been collecting detailed information
on everybody in the domestic political elite, Armenia's top brass
(some 3-4,000 people), starting from the 1990s.
Isagulyan claimed he was shown these lists with the kind of details
that even the National Security Service does not possess: "I am
astonished by how informed they are."
Why Isagulyan disclosed this and who he was trying to warn or threaten
is not clear, but it appears that the "dirty campaign" will be the
marking trait of the presidential run of 2013.
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow
Politics | 04.10.12 | 15:36
The recent domestic political developments lead many to believe that
the upcoming presidential election will feature "digging up dirt"
as a main campaign technology.
If in the case with Georgia the opposition possessed such compromising
evidence and became a mighty force winning due to the "prison scandal",
in Armenia it is the authorities most frequently using such information
for political purposes.
The "war of compromising materials" began Wednesday, when 1tv.am
- the website of the State Television and essentially a campaign
arm for the incumbent, apparently sought to smear President Serzh
Sargsyan's most serious opponent Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP)
leader Gagik Tsarurkyan.
The website says they "have come into possession of a document,
proving that in the 1980s PAP leader Gagik Tsarukyan was found guilty
of rape and served his sentence at a penitentiary for police officers
(then called militiamen) in Russia's Nizhni Tagil town".
The website reports that Tsarukyan used to work at Patrol Service so
was sent to a prison for law-enforcement officers, and was paroled
for good behavior. Then "during Robert Kocharyan's tenure, Tsarukyan,
who had pled guilty, was acquitted by Armenia's Supreme Court...",
wrote 1tv.am. (Although this information has long been an issue of
public speculations, it is the first time there is documented evidence
confirming it.)
The same day Tsarukyan's press office released a refuting statement
qualifying it as "dirty campaign politically ordered by those to whom
decency is an incomprehensible category". Tsarukyan reminded of "the
boomerang effect", stressing that "in this time-period the boomerang
is going to become a rather serious category, also a political one".
The same apparent technique was used against former foreign minister
Vartan Oskanian who is now accused of money laundering. Although the
prosecutor general confirmed that he had known about Oskanian's "money
embezzlement" for almost a year, the time for using that information
against him happens to coincide with Oskanian's re-entry into big
politics, which he did with sharp criticism against the authorities
and unconcealed ambitions for the presidential chair.
Some two weeks ago the President's former adviser Garnik
Isagulyan predicted a large-scale war with the main weapon being
personally-damaging information. He said there is an order of knights
called "Mehr's Door" (Mher is a epical hero from "David of Sasun")
operating in Armenia that has been collecting detailed information
on everybody in the domestic political elite, Armenia's top brass
(some 3-4,000 people), starting from the 1990s.
Isagulyan claimed he was shown these lists with the kind of details
that even the National Security Service does not possess: "I am
astonished by how informed they are."
Why Isagulyan disclosed this and who he was trying to warn or threaten
is not clear, but it appears that the "dirty campaign" will be the
marking trait of the presidential run of 2013.