“‘Let us hope to change’ was the first message addressing the Republicans sitting in the hall,” Aram Karapetyan, the leader of the New Times Party, commented on the new motto of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) in this manner. According to him, Serzh Sargsyan wants to tell the Republicans, “If you don’t believe, what do you want from the others? So, if you also say that the country is not good, you hit women when you want to, then we have to solve those problems, the grandpa gave a piece of advice on staying away from non-drinking people etc. – it was about those. So, if you don’t obey the law, then who will?”
Manvel Badeyan, a Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) MP, doesn’t see anything bad in the fact that this motto is the translation of Obama’s motto and reminds also of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) motto of 2003, “I don’t know how that motto was created and who the author is. I am not the author for sure, but I agree with it. One shouldn’t translate Obama’s one – the problems may be the same. When Obama wants reforms, it is a good thing, but if Sargsyan wants reforms, it is necessarily bad, isn’t it?”
According to Aram Karapetyan’s perception, mottos arise from the objective reality of the time, in the case of Obama, it was right, because he had come to change a social formation existing before him, “And Serzh Sargsyan’s motto has been used during 14 years of his rule, so there is no explanation for it. It is the motto of the opposition.”
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Manvel Badeyan is convinced that the call for change addressed both who said it and everyone else, “Everyone will change, there is no one who can say that he is the same person, as 10 years ago.” In response to a question of www.aravot.am what he was going to change about himself, Mr. Badeyan said, “I certainly have to make changes about myself. What has swollen in me – the possibilities to express oneself are bigger to be more conformist. I have always felt psychologically bad while showing conformism and now what I have to change about myself is to be more consistent and decisive. Roughly speaking, I feel my back covered with political support and power in order that we take that path.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
