“I am not going to sue Rule of Law Party leader Artur Baghdasaryan for stealing cattle, since stealing cattle is a very common thing for our political reality,” this statement was made by Hmayak Hovhannisyan, the head of the People’s Agro-Industrial Union parliamentary group on June 20, 2002, describing in this figurative manner the fact that Artur Baghdasaryan had convinced 2 members of his group to become members of the Rule of Law Party.
Let us remind that this group that had been called Stability was renamed People’s Agro-Industrial Union and was headed by Hmayak Hovhannisyan who had already left the People’s Party of Armenia (PPA). And the MPs “convinced” by the RLP were Samvel Balasanyan and Vram Gyulzadyan.
Ironically, exactly 10 years after that, Hmayak Hovhannisyan, the former head of the former parliamentary group, and Samvel Balasanyan, a former member of the group, “have met” on the same party list, Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), with expectations to appear in our parliament again. By the way, both are in the places that can pass – Hmayak Hovhannisyan is in the 9th place and Samvel Balasanyan is in the 5th place. Remembering this 10-year-old story, Hmayak Hovhannisyan thinks, as he thought at the time, that the group had become quite a serious unit and probably that was the reason why they “provoked its dissolution.” Let us remind that at that time the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) wing of the Union Alliance played a serious role on the political scene.
“We worked for a year and a half together. Samvel Balasanyan was a member of the group I headed. Then, when Artur Baghdasaryan convinced Samvel Balasanyan and Vram Gyulzadyan to become members of the newly-established Rule of Law Party, I thought their membership to the group was incompatible with that,” Hmayak Hovhannisyan, the president of the Union of Political Scientists, recalled during a conversation with www.aravot.am, adding that in his opinion the time had proved that he had been right, “I was against my two good friends’ membership to the RLP, I warned them that the RLP was not a good prospect for them, that Artur Baghdasaryan would disappoint people in the same manner as he recruited them.”
Read also
After those events, Hovhannisyan refused to head the group, yielding also to the group members’ demand for his resignation. “No, I don’t feel uncomfortable. I had quite a brief conversation with Artur Baghdasaryan at the time and I blamed him for ruining my group. I had a serious conversation with Serzh Sargsyan, because he has been sponsoring Artur Baghdasaryan since then. I said that one couldn’t turn the political stage into George Orwell’s Animal Farm, which is robbed. References and quotations, that was it and it was said about Artur Baghdasaryan. Having the go-ahead of the establishment that he would have the status of a favorite during the 2003 parliamentary election and would enjoy the government’s sponsorship, Serzh Sargsyan also guaranteed percentages, he convinced Balasanyan and Gyulzadyan that their appearance in the next parliament would be guaranteed,” Hmayak Hovhannisyan said, in response to a question whether he felt uncomfortable for appearing on the same list with Balasanyan and in places that could pass after those “references” and “quotations.” Hovhannisyan said that he had been friends with both Balasanyan and Glyudazyan after those events too. “Samvel Balasanyan has made the right decision today. He is the man who deserves that his fate is attached to Prosperous Armenia,” concluded Hovhannisyan.
Zohrap Yeganyan, Samvel Balasanyan’s press secretary, gave the following explanation of those events to www.aravot.am, “I think it would be better to recall and moreover remind positive events that took place many years ago and not insulting and negative phrases said to each other in different situations. Even if there were offensive phrases at the time said to a politician by the name of Samvel Balasanyan, those got adequate responses at once and as for the current relationship between Mr. Balasanyan and Hmayak Hovhannisyan, let me say that it is a good relationship, which is appropriate for two figures of the same team. Different political forces and MPs adherent to different ideas are represented in the National Assembly and unfortunately, one cannot rule out that there will be tensions, which sometimes turn into personal insults voiced against each other. No parliament is ensured against such situations.”
Nelly GRIGORYAN
