A former member of the Republic Party political council thinks that withdrawal of the Republic Party from the ANC is “a manifestation of Aram Sargsyan’s and his team’s political and civic fortitude.”
”Sooner or later, this decision had to be made. This decision is a manifestation of Aram Sargsyan’s and his team’s political and civic fortitude. Moreover, the ANC leadership should be grateful to Aram Sargsyan, because, having deep controversies already, this decision was not made before the election, since it was obvious that if the Republic Party had left the ANC before the election, the ANC would have had almost no prospect of having a parliamentary group, considering the votes it got,” political scientist Suren Surenyants, a former member of the Republic Party political council, said, talking about the decision of the Republic Party to leave the Armenian National Congress made yesterday. Our interlocutor treats “very positively” this move of the Republic Party.
Our interlocutor doesn’t expect any surprises in the future developments inside Armenia. In response to Aravot’s question, what the analyses of the current situation testified to, whether the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) would join the coalition, since currently the Prosperous Armenia Party was the main party on the political stage and the future developments were conditional on the moves of the PAP, Surenyants said, “Yes, the PAP will join the coalition. In this regard, Levon Ter-Petrossian made a very serious mistake in terms of politics and political science, pinning hopes on controversies inside the government during the whole election campaign. During the whole election campaign, the ANC directly supported the Prosperous Armenia Party, thus increasing the latter’s electorate to no purpose. The ANC most probably made a wrong calculation or overestimated the factor of controversies inside the government. That was the main reason for the failure of the ANC.” Surenyants is convinced that a new coalition will necessarily be formed, the PAP will be in that coalition and according to him, it is predictable that that coalition will endorse Serzh Sargsyan during the presidential election to take place in 2013.
In response to our question whether the Armenian National Congress as such would continue to exist or it would split, since other parties were also going to leave it, Surenyants said, “The ANC doesn’t exist in the former shape already. If one of the main parties, the Republic Party, leaves that alliance, the configuration has changed already. Add to that the fact that a set of political subjects are going to leave that alliance, moreover, one of the regional officials, Ashot Zakaryan, who played a leading role in the ANC also left. So, the ANC faces a serious institutional crisis and now we have an ANC that has nothing to do with the ANC that was formed on August 1, 2008. Now the ANC leadership’s task is to make conclusions, try to go for institutional reforms, in order to, at least, maintain the ANC.” Our interlocutor cannot surely predict whether the ANC will make conclusions or not, since he became convinced after the Yerevan City Council election that the ANC leadership didn’t really like making conclusions.
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A lot of criticism has been voiced against the ANC recently that it cut a deal with the government. We inquired from Surenyants whether it was probable, in his opinion. The latter responded, “The ANC supporters blamed me for supporting Samvel Alexanyan, but there was no political factor underlying that decision of mine, there were rather close relations with Alexanyan. However, they, their supporters continuously blamed me. Now, if we stick to their logic, I just assert without blaming that during the whole election campaign, Levon Ter-Petrossian’s team served the interests of the Prosperous Armenia Party. Let the reader make his own conclusions.”
NELLY GRIGORYAN
