“The alternative to disappointment is unity”

Say the Heritage Party

Yesterday the Heritage faction MPs led by Raffi Hovhanissian met with the residents of Gyumri in the hall of the Gyumri puppet theater and so to say “reported” on the work they had done. Although they were regularly stressing that their goal was not to hold a pre-election campaign, however it was obvious that the bottom-line was that. At the very beginning Armen Martirosyan thought necessary to remind that 6 Heritage MPs had made more proposals, than the Republican, Prosperous, Rule of Law and Dashnaktsutyun factions. “It is the smallest faction that has made the most proposals. Only the cabinet fed by this huge budget has put forward more bills, than the Heritage Party, so you may realize what huge work we have done”, this was the way the young MP started to promote his own party. Stepan Safaryan, on the other hand, was in charge of making the report. He reminded the present in all details what issues the Heritage Party raised for the residents of Gyumri; e.g. concerning house building, the return of deposits, clearing customs of the cars with Georgian numbers etc. He also didn’t spare words to promote their party, finishing by the notion that disappointment had an alternative and that alternative was everybody’s joint struggle. “One just cannot live on like this; our country needs new reforms, new policy and all of us together will be the very people who will create that policy, learning lessons from the previous bad elections, from our oversights”, said Stepan Safaryan.
Larisa Alaverdyan, the former Human Rights Defender of Armenia, also made a statement. She called for the residents of Gyumri not to be deceived during the election and to listen to the people not only with ears, but also “with heart and soul”. “I have been to many countries; there are many beautiful places; Armenia is only here; let us start to prove all those, for whom their country is in their pockets, on their bank accounts, that for the real man Armenia means something different. What does it mean? Firstly the right for respectable life; where could we get that right if minimum wage has not reached the basket of goods level for the past 20 years? It is impossible for a man to breathe freely; if the wage doesn’t guarantee the recovery of his physical strength, what a man can go to work? If we don’t get a salary, we must demand that salary, the social demand has not matured in Armenia yet, don’t think that one can do nothing against this kind of authority, yes, he can and it will lead to a victory. I want every one of us to say together that we are the masters, without doubting it”, said Larisa Alaverdyan. Deputy Chairman of the Heritage Party Ruben Hakobyan also made a speech and tried to tease the residents of Gyumri by saying that the residents of Gyumri sharing opposition ideas should have at least one opposition MP. “There should be one who would say that Gyumri has many emigrants, that there is nobody on the bank of Akhuryan, shouldn’t there?” said Ruben Hakobyan. The Heritage Party leader Raffi Hovhanissian also talked about emigration. He said that during his last 3 trips there had been always residents of Shirak sitting next to him on the plane. “What does this mean?! How many people has the 20-year-old Republic of Armenia that lost more than a half of its motherland in those years of genocide and exile lost in these twenty years of independence? The earthquake took thousands, countless number of our relatives, but where did Shirak and the Republic of Armenia reach because of the policies of our three presidents? People, along with the lack of dignity, have also a problem of employment; they leave and nobody blames them”, said Raffi Hovhanissian, asking who would be held responsible for that. “Will the struggle between our parties, our slogans and standards solve the issue that the Republic of Armenia has become half a republic in terms of demographics, and under these conditions of terrible emigration we are under threat, the national security is under threat.” The latter also asked, who would put forward the national interest under these conditions, who would protect the border and at the end of the day who was going to pay back the 5-billion debt. “They sold the gold reserves, exchanged it for euros, who will be held responsible for all that?” was asking Raffi Hohanissian anxiously. Finally the MPs were asked questions. Answering a question, what he thought about the membership of Armenia in the International Trade Organization, Raffi Hovhanissian said that though he was for free trade, open border, but he could not imagine how we would be able to pay the fines and penalties of that organization and eventually it was unacceptable that the Prime Minister acted by himself without cooperating with the people and became a member of an organization that even Russia was not a member of.