“He is going for systemic changes”

The oppositionists comment on the RA President’s latest interview

 In a conversation with “Moskovskiye Novosti” newspaper the RA President Serzh Sargsyan said, “The governors always have a temptation to criticize the predecessors. They say, everyone thinks himself a strategist, taking a detached view of March 1. I have been governing the country since 2008 and from the very first day, I have been avoiding that kind of approach. Criticizing the predecessors means delegating the responsibility to others. It is not right. I am thankful both to my predecessors and to everyone who has done something for Armenia.” It is obvious, this is a new culture, and no president and no first secretary before Serzh Sargsyan made such a statement about his predecessor. Yesterday “Aravot” did not deliberately speak with the representatives of the ruling political powers did not try to find out their opinion on the above-mentioned interview, since everybody would have praised and glorify in unison. We were more interested in finding out the commentaries of the activists in the opposition field. The leader of the Liberal Party of Armenia Hovhannes Hovhannisyan during a conversation with me noted, “Certainly, Serzh Sargisyan expressed a rather tolerant position which at first sight makes an impression on the people that those are the words of a very kind and tolerant man. Those are just expressions voiced for public, but not a position. I would not have said so, if I had noticed a really tolerant approach to the people living in the country from Serzh Sargsyan during these past years. The expression of gratitude to first and second presidents is a right thing to do from the national perspective; he matured and was formed as a figure during first president’s presidency who had a considerable trust in him, then miraculously he had a higher status during second president’s presidency and, in the end, he has become the president. If he had said those words at the end of February or before March 1 2008, it would have been brilliant for me, and I would have been sure that our country had a political future, but we hear those three years later. Serzh Sargsyan tries to bring this country to peaceful and restful state by that. And if those would not remain only words, and what was said would be done, which I doubt, in that case, it would be possible to assess those words shortly afterwards.”

“Aravot” reminded that three years ago it was also said about breaking the wall of misunderstanding and that the people standing in the other square are also “our brothers and sisters”. Hovhannes Hovhannisyan also remembers these words; however, he thinks that the wall of misunderstanding could be broken three years ago.

In the above-mentioned interview answering questions related to the Karabakh issue, the president of the RA said that the principle of territorial integrity does not mean the constancy of the borders, “Otherwise, there would have been no new states in the world, meanwhile in 1920-30s tens of new states emerged on the global map.” And in response to the question why Armenia does not recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, Serzh Sargsyan said that since the negotiations continue and that recognition would mean disrupting the negotiations, “In any case, we had better negotiate.” A political scientist Suren Surenyants agrees, “While there exists a negotiation process, Armenia has no right to recognize unilaterally the independence of the NKR; this would be an enormous blow to the peace process. And the near prospects of settling the Karabakh issue are not noticeable; there are a few reasons for that, and at this stage it is particularly important, and it seems that Serzh Sargsyan has underlined that the security of the people inhabiting Artsakh should be optimally preserved and any risks of restarting the war should be rejected. This should be the main purpose at this stage of the settling process and it seems that the OSCE Minsk Group members long for this.” Commenting on the ideas voiced by the president of the RA on the settlement of the Karabakh issue, Hovahnnes Hovhannisyan also noted, “Of course, the negotiations must continue, a few hot heads state that Armenia must recognize the independence of Karabakh. It would be wrong at this moment; the negotiations must continue in the very framework of the Minsk Group; we have no alternative. I am not inclined to saying that Serzh Sargsyan is selling Karabakh; I have not said and cannot say anything like that, but issue here is different, Azerbaijan comments on the Madrid principles and particularly on the principle of territorial integrity in its way, Armenia on the other hand tries to do it in its way, the same thing with the other principles. This means that each sees these principles from its own perspective.”