According to Hrant Margaryan, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) representative, the words and the deeds of the current establishment haven’t corresponded to each other for the past 3 years. ARF, on the other hand, has no such problem.
– Mr. Margaryan, a few months are left till the parliamentary election – the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) has already been forming its pre-election headquarters, the Rule of Law Party (RLP) opens new offices, the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) tests its future strategy, in accordance with the local elections – how does ARF prepare?
– Every political force has its own style of preparing. What expectations one has from the election and how he tries to win votes – this is what matters. Our organization is so mature that we don’t need to make new big shifts, open offices etc. Just starting to work suffices. And we have almost started it. At the end of the day, the ARF work is a bit different, in the sense that we try to win the rational votes of the people. I mean, we don’t have those material abilities, even if we had those we wouldn’t try to guarantee our votes through money. We don’t have the leverage, we don’t have that freedom to allow ourselves to deal with every man. We have principles, system of values, which are unchangeable and in accordance with which we should be able to work.
– However, every election is held in a political atmosphere to some extent different from the previous one and therefore it dictates its tactics. E.g. the authorities have stated about the upcoming election that it will be unprecedentedly transparent and revolutionary in content. Is ARF ready for a radically new election and how real do you think it is given the circumstances?
– I would like to believe that it will be so. However, I know from experience that the words and deeds of this establishment do not correspond to each other. I can point out lots of speeches of the president, in which he has aroused hopes for changing something in this country or the Prime Minister’s fine words, none of which, however, has come true. That is why I have no expectation of big changes. Nevertheless, I repeat, I would like it to happen, I would like the establishment to show willingness to hold a radically different election. ARF is running for the election with a socio-economic platform, in which we differ from all the other parties on the stage, all of which with no exceptions believe in the free market, liberalism etc. We have a socialist program and we are an alternative to others in this regard. It is a different matter that the people are in such a bad condition these days that they don’t want to believe in words any more. Also probably in our words.
– By the way, a reminder about believing in words – the ARF MP Artsvik Minasyan who stated yesterday that the 2012 draft budget had failed and the only way for the Cabinet was to resign, he promised publicly as early as in last May on ARF behalf that ARF would raise the issue of impeaching the Cabinet in the National Assembly, as soon as the fall session commenced. Two months ago you claimed it – so we see that ARF is satisfied only by critique. Therefore the words and deeds of ARF do not always correspond to each other either.
– No, it is yet to happen – it just depends on the demands of the parliamentary activities. We didn’t make that statement for show, the issue is on the agenda and it is, so to say, in line.
– Don’t you think that the line ends and there is actually no time left?
– Whenever we do, we don’t lose, we gain.
– It depends on who gains.
– We gain certainly when the people gain. In regard to the correspondence of words and deeds, we don’t have such problem. We have given importance to the Karabakh issue for the past 20 years and one eighth of our party died in Karabakh. We have given importance to the national issues and have always adhered to principles. We have differed from everybody in the social sense and we have always tried to solve social issues both within the government and out of it and we have exact facts on that. Certainly, there are also issues that we haven’t managed to solve, but it happened because we didn’t have sufficient votes.
– Don’t you think that the business activities of some high-tanking ARF members besmirch the image of ARF as fighting for social justice?
– Firstly ARF, as well as ordinary people, have the right to have business. However, there are no big, glaring, oligarchic business phenomena in ARF.
– Do you want to say that there are no ARF oligarchs in Armenia?
– Unfortunately, there aren’t. Unfortunately, because if one achieves success in business and becomes rich, it is not a bad thing. What extent of richness we speak of – this is what matters. As for the business activities of exact members of ARF, I think that this issue is often unnecessarily used because of our modesty. I mean because we don’t publicly respond to all that.
– Mr. Margaryan, you suggested a few months ago that Robert Kocharyan would return to politics after the 2012 parliamentary election. Is it possible that you will make alliances with other Kocharyan-supporting political forces in the context of preparing for the mentioned option?
– ARF is an independent party and it cannot be a stooge of a certain party, not to mention a person. If anyone thinks like that, it means that he doesn’t know ARF quite well. Certainly, alliances are not ruled out, but there are two questions, the answers to which must be clear for us from the beginning. Firstly what is the purpose of the alliance? If the purpose is to win more votes, it cannot be the reason for us to make an alliance with another political force. Our alliance must aim at achieving something distinct.
– Can that purpose be returning the power to Robert Kocharyan?
– It cannot be a purpose for us. Let me mention the second question – how will we implement our common purposeful union? In the case of clarifying these questions, we can cooperate with any force related to clarified purposes and goals.
– With any, even with the Armenian National Congress (ANC)?
– I think there cannot be that kind of purposeful union with ANC?
– Mr. Margaryan, Robert Kocharyan mentioned during the last interview three necessary factors for his returning to politics, one of which referred to the political demand for him. In your opinion, is there a demand for Kocharyan’s return these days?
– I think you should address that question to him. It is not right for us to answer that question.
– Nevertheless, does ARF, as a party formerly supporting Robert Kocharyan, feel such demand these days?
– I think there is a demand for ARF coming to power these days?
AREVIK SAHAKYAN