During the Soviet times it was a widespread practice for the KGB to have their moles in the crowd whenever there was a Sharjum meeting or demonstration. These usually were unsavory characters recruited from criminal elements in exchange for them to stay out of prison.This practice was eliminated in 1991. In 1996 when Serj Sargsian became the chief of the KGB, he revived the practice. It has gotten much worse since then as these criminal types not only have become KGB employees, they have become major players in the executive and legislative branches of Armenia. Here are pictures of some of these people. So, if you see these characters, watch out.
U r naive if you think that the KGB practices of the soviet times were eliminated during LTP's reign.
ReplyDeleteNice fiction: convenient, but false.
Depends on how you farme it.
ReplyDelete"This practice was eliminated in 1991."
Though I have no facts, but in general I agree with this.
"In 1996 when Serj Sargsian became the chief of the KGB, he revived the practice."
Hmmm, I think wrong frames are used. Its not about SS, its about the formation of demand for such 'agents'. The strong opposition was formed in 1995 and the demand to use this 'force' forced to reinvent it. And btw, it was reinvented in 1995 when KGB agents started to work in crowds during parliamentary elections.
Its easy to say "when SS became chief ...". And who was reaping the fruits of this activity. It was not SS but LTP, core HHSH leaders and thugs. SS was simply serving them.
I agree with anon No2. Role of KGB diminished during the first term of LTP, but he did not do anything to dismantle it. It was deemed as dangerous for small and tight armenian society to publish names of people who collaborated with KGB. But without that it is not possible to get rid of the phenomenon. Anyway, today its useless to discuss it because the Great Master of Serj and actually anyone else who aspires to occupy his position is a KGB himself.
ReplyDeleteSome things should be treated like removing a bandaid - you just need to do it and make it snappy. That decision not to reveal the KGB agents is still causing problems.
ReplyDeleteWell I think if they decided to release the names, it would reveal some very interesting things about the country's leadership at the time and some if not most of the people in today's executive and legislative branches as well as government. But what's done is done.
ReplyDeleteI think LTP started well with the KGB issue by appointing a civilian as its head and treating it as a public service; as he gradually lost public support, it quickly deteriorated as most other institutions designed to uphold democracy and security did.
Yes, it did start with Serjhik; for example, by his own admission he brought back some of the "professionals" such as trigger-happy Krakem Hrach that Shahnazarian had kicked out of the system...
me, I don't get it, who made the strategic decision to reinvent KGB? What you mean when you say "it was started with SS?"
ReplyDeletePS
from http://www.idhr.am/eng/publication/tesaket/10.pdf
Repression of potential political competitors was noticeable as early as 1993–94. It took different forms, including
the banning of the political party that constituted the ruling party’s most serious rival. Another extraordinary
phenomenon was the June 1995 incident, when members of the Yerkrapah organization opened fire on the
participants in a meeting organized by the opposition near the entrance of Opera Square. During these years the
authorities were actively growing into clans; by 1995, only people associated with the clans had a chance of
winning elections. The ability of the public to participate in the actual creation of government had been virtually
eliminated. In the period before the 1995 Parliamentary elections, the democratic method of access to government
had become a formality; the public was unable to influence the process of government-creation in any way
whatsoever, and had thus turned into a tool that was unwillingly concealing political authoritarianism under the
cloak of democracy. The mechanisms used to ignore or to suppress the political will of the people are not
important. What matters is that it was the inc umbent authorities who actively reproduced the government in the first
Parliamentary elections of the Republic of Armenia in 1995. The result of these elections, carried out in an
atmosphere of violence and criminal-clan coercion, was that only seventeen of the 190 members of Parliament
represented the opposition. According to some analysts, the seats in the Parliament elected in 1995 were mostly
divided between the families of the president, the minister of the interior, the minister of defense, and the political
clan of the Armenian National Movement (ANM). The 1995 Parliamentary elections changed the structure of
government in a way that eventually, as it happened, brought about the demise of the ANM. Prior to 1995, the
Parliament was under the sway of a unified ANM; after 1995, power shifted to the factions that emerged from the
ANM.
I clearly put the blame squarely on LTP and/or the people around him. What I find ridiculous is people refusing to acknowledge SS's role in making Armenia into the mafia state that it is today. You'll note that he's one of a handful people who had retained crucial roles during RQ's and LTP's administrations and continue to exert influence today.
ReplyDeleteThe chickens are coming home to roost.
ReplyDelete