Armen Ashotyan, a member of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) council, wrote on his wall on Facebook (we publish it by his consent), “Oskanian has become a member of te PAP to fulfill the coalition memorandum, which provides for preservation of proportionality between the parties at the upcoming election. Since – and it is not a secret – the PAP rating started to rise at a certain point, Oskanian became a member of the PAP to retain that article of the memorandum. The power of the memorandum has been restored to the full extent.” Mr. Ashotyan added a smiley to the post. Let us remind that the coalition made a statement last February 17, which read, “Given the new changes, the coalition parties are united and don’t aim at increasing their political influence, at the expense of struggling against each other and changing the balance of forces inside the coalition.”
In this regard, Aravot asked Khachik Galstyan, the press secretary of the PAP leader, to make a comment, but he said, “I don’t make comments on individual posts on Facebook.”
In response to another question of ours whether nonetheless that coalition statement was in force now too, Khachik Galstyan said, “Everything is said on that issue.”
Let us remind that journalist Petros Ghazaryan who will be included in the PAP party list responded to Mr. Ashotyan’s post on Facebook. Petros Ghazaryan wrote, “I don’t really remember that your faction has ever expressed discontent about Oskanian, but I remember very well that you praised his smart and farsighted policy at my show. Since you are a conservative party, I think you should be the bearer of your political past, otherwise you will be like the Rule of Law Party (RLP).” Armen Ashotyan responded, “You remember quite well. I was the one who talked about Oskanian’s resignation after the famous interview with Nikol. Don’t be lazy and find that on the parliament website. And let me not say who has taken the path of the 2006-2007 RLP.” In response, Petros Ghazaryan reminded, “You have also talked about turning Dilijan into a financial center, making Gyumri a technological center, the Iran-Armenia railway, building a new nuclear power plant and decreasing corruption and many other things. However, the policy is determined not by words, but deeds. You haven’t taken any step against Oskanian, but you praised the complementarianism. And the RLP is your loyal partner. А man is known by the partners he keeps.”
