The Heritage Party has been regularly criticized recently for having an “affair” with the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA). Today www.aravot.am inquired from Hovsep Khurshudyan, the spokesperson of the party, whether there had been a change in the attitude of the party toward the ruling party recently. According to him, “Both the society and the press should have noticed from our rhetoric that such accusations are absurd. Everyone sees that we continue criticizing all parties of the coalition with the same strength.” In response to our observation that they were criticized that the Heritage Party criticism gradually became like “Geghamyan” criticism, Hovsep Khurshudyan said, “How? Because we don’t criticize only the RPA, is that it? They say ‘you have to criticize only the RPA and if you don’t criticize only the RPA, but you criticize the PAP and the Rule of Law Party (RLP) in the same manner, you are involved in some deals with the RPA.’” In response to our question whether the fact that the PAP had taken a step, that it had joined the joint staff wasn’t a reason to trust the PAP, he said, “Signature is not a step, exact actions are a step. What does the PAP do today? It continues false charity that, as we have said from the beginning, should be banned. But they continue doing that.”
Levon Ter-Petrossian, the ANC leader, stated that perhaps he wasn’t educated enough, but the attitude of the Heritage Party in regard to the joint staff was incomprehensible for him. In this regard Khurshudyan thoroughly explained for the president what they thought, “The Heritage Party has been doing what the joint staff should do for 5 years already. The Heritage Party put forward its exact tasks in the joint staff, under which conditions it would promote cooperation and would participate in the staff work with them. If there is a consensus – i.e. the solutions are made that way – the concession should have been made, particularly given the fact that our demand was not a supernatural thing. Why did the PAP leader sign the coalition memorandum himself, but he couldn’t sign this document? Why does the Heritage Party sign the letter addressed to the Chief of Police, it joins the ANC and the ARF, but the PAP doesn’t sign even at the level of the 7th-rate representative? How come that as a result of that no one blamed the PAP for having an ‘affair’ with the RPA, because they are in the coalition today and don’t even try to conceal that they will be in the next coalition? So, what is our task – to contribute to the PAP’s continuing such a work style, its efforts to appear in the opposition camp before the election? Do you remember what was written in the coalition memorandum? It was written that the coalition partners should not add to their seats at the expense of the others. If they don’t add at the expense of each other, then at whose expense should they add? At the expense of the opposition. Certainly, if it should be so, they offered the PAP to go and take those votes from the opposition. What one needs for that? It should introduce itself as a new opposition. It is unacceptable and legitimization of that process is unacceptable for us.” In response to our question whether they admitted, after all, that the society didn’t perceive the Heritage Party’s leaving the joint staff positively, there were speculations that they had shown too much ambition, he said that the political stage was polluted and mass media carrying out orders contributed to that, “Today those mass media don’t criticize at all the force that said through an exact agreement that it would endorse Serzh Sargsyan in 2013 whom they strongly criticize now. They suddenly started to criticize the RPA and Serzh Sargsyan even stronger than we, but they don’t see that that agreement is still in force, no one has given up that signature yet, the PAP hasn’t given it up, it hasn’t taken back its signature. Moreover, its leader said that every document he had signed had a value and he never signed something for no reason. What does it mean? It means that he wants to take more votes from the opposition and to enter the parliament with more votes, in order to support Serzh Sargsyan in 2013 more strongly. And which forces help and legitimize its appearance in the opposition camp?”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
