“Unfortunately, the accusers are drummers,” Styopa Safaryan, the Heritage Party parliamentary group leader, said in response to a question of www.aravot.am concerning similarities between the Heritage Party and “drum” criticism. According to Styopa Safaryan, “They always associate politics with music and folk instruments. I just don’t want to pay attention to those analyses, because, frankly speaking, I know them all, and not only do they not have proper education and sufficient experience of an analyst, but they have also been harping on the same string with all possible variations – remix, solo – for a few years already.” In response to our observation that the members of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) made such comments, whether he meant that the ANC members were not educated enough to make analyses, Mr. Safaryan said that not only the ANC members said such things, “Also people from Kocharyan’s camp do. There are so-called ‘analysts’ serving Kocharyan’s camp who have also become specialists in ‘folk instruments.’ We are happy that they sing the same thing in unison and in chorus. They have made up their minds at last and, frankly speaking, the others are not worth serious attention.” We inquired whether, however, it was possible that the Heritage Party might take the path of the Rule of Law Party (RLP), he responded that the path of the Heritage Party would always be the path of the Heritage Party, “Even if the Heritage Party forms a people’s government, it will be done in a moral way, it will do that with forces that are popular, if those forces do not participate in election fraud and impeding popular processes.” In response to our question which those forces that they perceived popular and far from election fraud were, he said, “9 political forces and alliances participate. You may think that others are weak or are not the main actors. Don’t forget that there are much more serious layers outside the parliament, even if they are not formalized and not united in clubs as political parties, they are, all the same, not less important actors and may not be less important in forming a people’s government along with the Heritage Party. You see that the Heritage Party goes beyond its party boundaries in every election and it presents to the public a much bigger team, which is formed from different layers. Remember that the Heritage Party will not be guided by party interests, which is characteristic of all parties, but not of the Heritage Party. Therefore, the Heritage Party will make room for worthy people, if the time of forming a government comes.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
