Aravot.am has already informed that there has been a meeting of the political coalition with the participation of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) and the Rule of Law Party (RLP), as a result of that “the coalition parties discussed and noted their readiness to participate in the parliamentary election with separate lists and according to the rules of civilized competition.” They gave importance to the unity and integrity of the coalition cooperation, the necessity to guarantee principles of modesty and civility during the upcoming parliamentary election, the determination to hold free, fair and transparent election with honest participation.
Aravot.am tried to get comments from the Armenian National Congress (ANC) representatives regarding this coalition agreement, since the first president of the Republic of Armenia and some ANC representatives had expected the Prosperous Armenia to make the “right” choice, as a result of which the political situation in Armenia would have changed. However, they didn’t answer our phone calls, even in the central office of the ANC, there were no senior officials. The reason was probably the fact that everyone had been present at the election in Hrazdan the day before, perhaps they were resting and analyzing what had happened.
Aravot.am managed to talk only with Lyudmila Sargsyan, the chairman of the central committee of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, who answered our questions as follows, “It is natural that such an agreement was reached. They all have one purpose to maintain the power and their economic positions. Everyone played his own game, but at the end of the day, all of us know that the RPA has very good straightjackets and it can use them, when it is necessary. In this instance, it was used against the PAP. Everybody relaxed, came to an agreement and even if they participate in the election with separate lists, it doesn’t mean anything – the RPA will do everything to maintain the majority in the National Assembly, the PAP will try to increase the number of its seat a little bit, but everything in the general context. The RLP will get as many as the RPA will give.”
In response to a question whether the ANC were disappointed with this agreement, since before that the ANC had, nonetheless, cherished hopes that the PAP could have played a significant part in creating a new political situation with its refractory attitude, Ms. Sargsyan responded that the ANC hadn’t cherished hopes, they just hadn’t ruled out anything, therefore, there was no disappointment. “The attitude of the establishment is quite clear and it was also clear in Hrazdan, at least because the PAP didn’t support the main political forces that endorsed Sasun Mikayelyan. Although it didn’t support the RPA candidate either, but in this situation not supporting can be perceived as supporting – in this situation one cannot remain neutral. There is nothing unusual, one should prepare and move on,” said Ms. Sargsyan.
Read also
In response to another question whether the results of the Hrazdan election and the coalition agreement had crushed the ANC enthusiasm for the upcoming election, Lyudmila Sargsyan responded, “Our enthusiasm is not crushed. My friends and I think that it was Sasun Mikayelyan’s glorious victory against the whole system. The whole political leverage was employed, against which Sasun Mikayelyan did not win by only 1600-vote margin. Such a loss against so much leverage is a victory and heroism. It is also our victory; in the sense that the establishment showed once again that their only power is money and bribe. However, the ANC is a political unit that will never give ground to all this and will achieve its goal. There is one goal, to have a legitimate government and give our people a future.”
Nelly GRIGORYAN
