“Have you rallied? Are you finished? Are you satisfied? Are we finished?”

The Deputy Head of the RPA while talking to “Aravot” honestly confessed that he went to a lot of hunger strikes against the Soviet regime

 –          Last week it was Ashot Navasardyan’s birthday, in this connection I want to ask, the present Republican Party has moved very far away from those origins on the basis of which Navasardyan established the party, has it not?

–          You are addressing the question to the right person, because I was Ashot Navasardyan’s childhood friend, school friend, struggle friend, underground friend, independence army friend; after this the Republican Party was declared, we were together once again and saying to me that the Republican Party has moved away from its origins is an offence for me, because Ashot Navasardyan and I professed the same ideas and nowadays the Republican Party professes the same ideas and tries to fulfilled those ideas. Those are just abuses of some of the opposition parties that seeing later members of the party say that this one is a rich man, has a lot of money, that one has villas etc., are they the ones who moved away? This is not the matter of their moving away-coming up after all! There is a party ideology, rules, we profess the conservative ideology and we continue remaining such.

–          Raffi Hovannisian’s “Fast for the freedom” has been lasting quite a long time, I think none other Armenian could have stood without eating for such a long time.

–          Going to a hunger strike is also a way of political struggle – I myself went to a hunger strike lots of times in the Soviet camps, of course, not for an undefined time, but for certain days and with certain purposes against the Soviet regime and for the independent and free Armenia. However, the hunger strike for an undefined time is a thing I cannot understand – I realize it is a way of political struggle, but there should be some time limits. There are certain demands put forward, I can understand that, but when an issue is brought up such as unless the president resigns or the out-of-turn elections held… OK, the president will not resign, I assure you, should Raffi stay hungry until he dies from hunger? There are things that must have limits. I accept some demands, we are on the road of reformation too, but nothing is done immediately, overnight, is our society not in a process of building a civil society and does it not advance step-by-step?

–          Are you trying to say that there is an opposition-government dialogue going on?

–          Of course, there is no dialogue going on around the negotiation table, but the fact that the opposition is putting forward some demands and the government is in a process of reformation, the opposition realizes by itself too that it is not an unchangeable regime and it takes some steps towards reforming. Their demands should not necessarily be carried out completely. In any case, we also take part in the elections, at the end of the day, we also have something to say to the society, OK, you can lie once, twice, you cannot lie thrice, that is why we go for reforms, and concrete results will be seen in both economics and the freedoms by 2012. If the opposition demands that they prevent the rallies and marches, there is no such thing now, for example, they said the Freedom Square was closed, have you entered? have you rallied? are you finished? are you satisfied? Come and do it again, who prevents you? There should be no public unrest, no fighting, and no shooting – that is what is important, what concerns us.

–          You said quite frankly that you are taking part in the elections too and you cannot lie forever, so you have decided not to lie anymore. Well why have you not started that earlier?

–          And I say we do not lie, if by “earlier” you mean after 2008, then remember March 1, the weakening of the process, then the crisis etc. and we go for reforms after all that without the opposition demands. We have all of that in our reformation plans, there is no need in tutoring us, we did not come to power illiterate after all, and we know all that better than the opposition. Look, the programs of all parties do not differ much, but the important thing is to carry them out.