“No one can force anyone. Particularly, given the fact that the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) doesn’t have such a problem,” Galust Sahakyan, the deputy chairman of the RPA and the leader of the RPA parliamentary group, said in response to a question of www.aravot.am what problem they solved by forcing people to come to the pre-election rallies of the President of the Republic of Armenia and the RPA.
He assured us that many people visited the presidential meetings, also because concerts were organized before and after the meetings and people went to them to see modern stars not on the TV screen. www.aravot.am also received complaints from different medical institution, students and teachers that they were forced to go to the RPA pre-election rallies, moreover, from one district to another, from one town to another. Galust Sahakyan assured us that no one could force anyone to do anything these days and called the information we had gotten a “provocation.”
He said that he could give exact answers, only if we put forward information with exact names of people and institutions. In response to our observation whether it was a solution to the problem, if we made public the names of those people and they got fired or received reprimands and penalties at best, Sahakyan said, “But such a thing is not possible, because it is not decided that we will come to power and will fire them.”
Moreover, the leader of the RPA parliamentary group complained that other political forces not just forced people to come, but took people out of their houses by terrorizing them and brought them to their rallies. He also rebuked that we asked him to comment on “provocations,” “It is a provocation; there will be many such things. Particularly given the fact that the political forces have repeated themselves so many times already that they try to engage in intrigues, in order that those intrigues may be talked about. It turns out you direct them. No teacher, doctor can complain that s/he is forced to come to election rallies. In particular, we don’t care, if 6000 people are gathered instead of 10 thousand. Those who haven’t achieved their stable status in the society yet may complain.”
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In response to a question whether he blamed the coalition partners, since the rallies of the opposition were not crowded and the opposition didn’t have resources to put people under pressure and terrorize them, Galust Sahakyan said, “You say people complain – let those same people who complain go to the opposition rallies. I am very surprised and sorry that people don’t go to those rallies, because we have basically such a political stage that people should listen to all political forces, in order to make a decision. As for your hint at the coalition, we have repeated several times that we are in a rather serious relationship and organize our campaign in concord, in order that such provocations may not arise.”
We also inquired whether Galust Sahakyan was happy or sad that people were not interested in the oppositionists. “I am not only sad, but I am also sorry… but it depends on the oppositionists you mean. They are so many and so diverse that I cannot assess,” said Galust Sahakyan. In response to the clarification of www.aravot.am that it was about the first president and his teammates, he said, “I think that regardless of what the results of the election will be, the people should learn to respect the institution of the presidency, more so the first president. They may not vote, but I am sorry that they don’t think that they may listen to him.”
As for the Heritage Party and Raffi Hovhannisyan, Sahakyan noted, “I think there is no need for assessments. Raffi Hovhannisyan has no complaints, he has just chosen a strategy of walking, strolling, those are European or American methods and are very pleasant for the people.” We also inquired whether the accusations against the Heritage Party voiced recently that it was directed by the RPA corresponded to the reality. “The RPA, as the government, can direct all the people. It makes deals very openly and the society learns about them. Besides, I don’t think that political forces have time to direct each other these days,” this was the answer.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
