CP of Armenia, Contribution to the Athens Meeting 21J2002
 

Esteemed comrades,

On behalf of the Communist Party of Armenia Central
Committee and all the communists of the Republic I would
like to express my gratitude towards the Communist Party of
Greece for its active position aimed at consolidating the
progressive forces of the world community.

After September 11 the international situation changed
abruptly. The United States has been trying at any price to
secure for itself the status of the world superpower, of
the global gendarme. It is obvious that the USA is using
the events of September 11 for the sake of its own
consolidation, devoid of any principles. The cynical
declaration of George Bush about the existence of the
so-called "axis of evil" was an unprecedented, impertinent
expression of imperialist aggression. The United States
dared to pass a "sentence" on freedom-loving countries
Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

Today all of us distinctly realize that the policies of the
USA represent a tremendous threat for the established world
order and security on the planet.

An especially tense situation has formed in the Near East.
The Palestinian people are waging a struggle for freedom
against the Israeli occupiers. The present government of
Israel, headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, has taken
the path of annihilating Palestinian national autonomy and
launching a new round of confrontation, which lacks any
prospects.

The just striving of the Palestinian people to build its
own state comes up against an inadequate response on the
part of world Zionism. The events of September 11 have been
used by the USA and Zionist circles in order to launch the
so-called antiterrorist campaign, which in reality is a
programme of forced occupation of freedom-loving states,
establishing the absolute supremacy of US imperialism and
world Zionism.

The Communist Party of Armenia, on behalf of all the
communists of our country, welcomes and supports an
initiative to hold international solidarity meetings with
the people of Palestine. These meetings are called to
demonstrate the unity of the left forces of the planet as
far as the Palestinian people's struggle against world
imperialism and the aggressive policy of the Israeli
government is concerned.

Once more we express our solidarity with the Palestinian
people and wish it victory in its just struggle!

The political and socio-economic situation in our Republic
is characterized by the continued strengthening of
capitalism's positions, the selling of our national
economy's assets of strategic importance to foreigners and
the growing confrontation between labour and capital. The
anti-popular regime, striving to preserve its power,
violates democracy and human rights. The people have been
cheated, frightened and demoralized. They have withdrawn
from the struggle for their political and social rights,
the struggle to regain the achievements of older
generations.

In these conditions, the communists' struggle aimed at
disclosing the anti-popular policy of the present
government of the Republic, which is fatal for our country,
acquires special significance. We should explain our
position on the ways of exit from the catastrophic
situation which has emerged.

The authorities understand that their end is not far off,
but they do not intend to quit. Recently the regime started
to pay special attention to its lackeys' penetration into
the ranks of opposition parties in order to split them and
remain afloat themselves. It is only natural that the
authorities wanted to foster strife in the ranks of the
largest true opposition force the Communist Party of
Armenia.

Over the last year the struggle for disclosure and
deliverance from the inveterate traitors and
fellow-travelers held a special place in the life of our
party. The enemy acts in a cunning and insidious way. He
finds foul traitors in our ranks and with their aid creates
an irritable atmosphere, trying to loosen the ranks of the
party. It is only natural that in the last year
contradictions that had accumulated inside the party
manifested themselves on the surface. Such a situation
arose in the party because of treason on the part of the
leadership of the Yerevan City Party Committee headed by
the former leader of the Yerevan party organization, Yuri
Manukian, when it was no longer possible to stand it. The
dissentient and openly treacherous actions of the
leadership of the Yerevan City Party Committee gave rise to
indignation and contempt on the part of the communists of
the Republic, of the overwhelming majority of the
communists of the capital.

Only a few months after his election, Yuri Manukian started
to take his first treacherous steps, to take peculiar
actions. But only a few people suspected this. At this
point we should also point out the fault of the Central
Committee. For a long period of time the CC did not lend
its ear to the opinion of vigilant communists who had
earlier understood who he was in reality. This dissentient
traitor, who set up his own clique in the Yerevan party
organization, had long managed to mask himself. But over
the last year he began to stand openly against the party.
He called himself the continuer of the ideas of the
antiparty groups of Buharin, Kamenev and Zinoviev. He
started publishing anticommunist articles in the press
hostile to us.

It suffices to remind you of one fact: the National
Television of Armenia, which, as is well-known, is the
mouthpiece of the President's administration, granted
evening broadcast time to him. The first television
channel, which never loses a chance to indulge in
anti-communist slander, suddenly granted prime time to Yuri
Manukian. As they say, everything is clear here.

In his statements in the anti-communist press, he revised
the whole history of our party and in fact repeated what
the worst enemies of our party had kept saying for more
than a decade. His declarations could be heard repeatedly
in the most anti-communist TV programmes and publications.

The main goal of Manukian and his stooges was to dissolve
the Yerevan Party City Committee, to artificially provoke
an intraparty crisis at any cost. The Yerevan Party City
Committee is one of the most significant party divisions.
It had always been a relatively weak and vulnerable link
and this fact precisely was used by the enemies of the
party. Manukian's followers managed to completely
disorganize the work of the Yerevan party organization.
They tried to dissolve the district organizations of the
capital from inside, openly coming out against the
decisions of the party's 35th Congress and the Central
Committee it elected. The attempt made by Yuri Manukian's
followers to come out against the Communist Party of
Armenia's Statutes was a culmination of impertinence and
cynicism they undertook the initiative to convene an
extraordinary party congress and slandered the proceedings
of the past 35th Congress in a bitter and mean way. And in
this situation it is extremely painful than some
experienced party leaders of the Soviet period (Voskanyan,
Akopyan, Vartanyan and Ogandzanyan) supported the
slanderers and enemies of the party.

Fortunately, the Central Committee, though with a certain
delay, took decisive steps to correct the situation. The
conspirators and their overt followers were excluded from
the party and its leading bodies. But many things should be
still done in the future.

In spite of the party enemies' intrigues, the overwhelming
majority of Armenian communists view the resolution of the
problems aimed at strengthening party unity and raising its
organizational level with a sense of heightened
responsibility.