Article
Editorial

Governor George W. Bush and the "G" Word

Now that it is almost certain that George W. Bush will occupy the White House for the next four years, it is appropriate to speculate on his future stand on Armenian issues and whether he will be a pro- or anti-Armenian president.

Before the elections and during the electoral campaign, Mr. Bush issued a statement recognizing the Armenian Genocide as a historic event. But most of our readers are not aware that the statement was issued at the urging of his classmate at Harvard University, Vazken Setrakian of Saddle Brook, NJ. Mr. Setrakian has on numerous occasions said that his former classmate actually knew very little about the Armenian people and, if a pro-Armenian statement was issued, it was only to please his classmate rather than constituting a foreign policy position.

Now that Governor Bush is preparing to become President Bush, one wonders if he will keep his world and characterize the Armenian Genocide as such when his running mate, Mr. Dick Cheney, and most of his close advisers have been involved in promoting Turkish interests in the Baku oilfields.

We are not so naive to expect a leader of this country will reshuffle foreign policy towards the Turkish state, once he is elected President. Moreover, to change the foreign policy for the sake of a classmate! Seasoned and good politicians are known for promising the moon before the elections but largely ignoring their promises after they score a victory and are elected to office.

Will President Bush emerge as one of those politicians and promise to pursue a pro-Armenian policy just to please a former close classmate, or he will act as the leader of the world's greatest country and seek the overall interests of his country?

Only time will tell if he will keep his word.


The Case of Arkady Vardanian

Arkady Vardanian, a wealthy Moscow-based Armenian, who heads a minor Armenian political party, the 21st Century Association, was taken into custody several weeks ago after he led an unsanctioned anti-Kocharian public rally and demonstrations in Yerevan.

The scale of the demonstrations led the Kocharian administration to believe that Vardanian had become a serious threat to the President. He was promptly arrested and imprisoned for ten days for holding an unsanctioned rally. But the term of his arrest was prolonged when Armenian authorities pressed new charges, mainly advocating the violent overthrow of the government, and kept him in prison. He is now faced with a long prison term that will eliminate him from the political scene for a long time.

Ironically, in his appeal for demonstrations, Arkady Vardanian described the pathetic conditions the Armenian people are living under while rulers of the country continue to line their pockets, charges that are heard from a multitude of sources.

This was possible inasmuch as the Armenian Constitution allows the president of the country to appoint all judges, who, one way or another, have to take orders from the president if they wish to remain in office. This is precisely what happened in the Vardanian case. The administration demanded that Vardanian face new charges and the courts agreed to them!

Rather than address protests and issues raised by demonstrators, Armenian authorities instead charged him with a plot to violently overthrow the government. No one in Armenia appeared to raise the question as to how a citizen of Russia and head of a minor political party could have plotted such an overthrow. For now, Vardanian remains in jail with little hope of being set free in the foreseeable future. Such measures will prevail as long as Armenia continues to function as a banana republic, where there is neither justice nor due process of law. It is little wonder that a Swiss banker has told his associates that, whereas in the past, large sums were reaching Swiss banks from Saudi Arabia, nowadays such sums are arriving from Armenia! These sums are invariably monies that government officials have plundered from state coffers to ensure that their future is guaranteed once they are out of office..

With such threats of continued embezzlement, President Kocharian, instead of addressing issues raised by Arkady Vardanian, continues to ignore them and make empty promises, such as next year, as many as 40,000 new jobs will be created and the average person in the country will improve his lot. President Kocharian, however, fails to explain who will create these jobs and how, in view of the constantly growing deficits in the country's finances. Meanwhile, the plundering of Armenia by most members of the government continues unabated, with no hope that someone will have the courage to take measures to stop this corruption in the foreseeable future..