The lists made public the other day reminded of quite interesting developments that took place in our parliament on August 31, 2005. Thus, a small part of the August 31, 2005, parliamentary debate between no.12 and no.17 of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) list, which are Armen Ashotyan, the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia, and Artashes Geghamyan, the leader of the National Unity Party, respectively – talking about a statement made by Galust Sahakyan the day before that the RPA endorsed Robert Kocharyan, Geghamyan called it “good news” for the people, since “the same people endorsed Levon Ter-Petrossian” and it was known what had happened after. The leader of the National Unity Party responded also to another Republican Tigran Torosyan’s idea that if the opposition would criticize the PACE leadership then, why they had tried to break their doors seeking for help a few months before. Geghamyan noted that they didn’t try to break the doors which were open. And he also told that when “one of the members of the delegation to the PACE was reading a text with stammer, Azerbaijanis and Turks looked at him, thinking ‘Is this not who you are?’” pointing to Tigran Torosyan. During the Geghamyan-Torosyan skirmish, as Aravot’s reporter wrote in her article that day, while the National Unity Party leader was making a speech, the “rise of baze (falcon)” took place, “Armen Ashotyan, the head of the RPA youth office, raised a ‘6:0’note. Then he explained that he had assessed Mr. Geghamyan’s artistry, as it was done in figure skating, ‘The Armenian Theater has missed a big actor. I don’t know what our politics has gained. It hasn’t gained anything at least so far.’ Geghamyan himself made the following parallel in regard to the young Republican’s speech, ‘If an upstart wanted to get attention in Old Yerevan, he cursed the most beloved and worshiped people like Paylak Simonyan, late Norik Tadevosyan. Then he was beaten up, but he would say he had engaged in a fight with Paylak or Norik. This is the same syndrome.’ This constructive dialogue certainly didn’t end like this, RPA members also interfered in the matter. In particular, Galust Sahakyan responded to Geghamyan, ‘Either underworld leaders or barigs (dealers) use slang.’”
www.aravot.am inquired from Mr. Geghamyan whether he remembered all this and how he was going to advance under the same motto with former political enemies. Mr. Geghamyan gave a short answer, quoting a famous Russian saying from cartoons, “Кто старое помянет, тому глаз вон (let bygones be bygones).” In response to a question whether he felt uncomfortable because of all that, the same list, he said, “On the contrary, I am proud. It will mean that we both love our country so much that we have thrown away all our former controversies and have signed up for the benefit of Armenia. And we have really changed, because we believe in the future of Armenia.”
Nelly GRIGORYAN
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