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“It is a very objective political process, nothing new is happening from the perspective of political science,” Aram Karapetyan, the New Times Party leader, said in response to a question of www.aravot.am how he would assess the developments concerning the ANC, following the activities of the ANC for the past few years and being engaged in active collaboration with some ANC member-parties and individual figures.
Aram Karapetyan thinks it is natural that in the end, non-ideological alliances such as the ANC either become smaller and ideological or split. “The alliance itself was formed around a goal, not even a person, Levon Ter-Petrossian, but a goal. The goal was not reached, the goal changed, another goal to enter the National Assembly with a large number of seats and to reach impeachment was not achieved and they started this process. When do all parties remain in alliances? When there is an ideological basis. Whereas 18 parties of the ANC had many ideological, geopolitical differences. It is good that they have remained for so long,” says Aram Karapetyan.
He remembers that when the NTP was offered to join the ANC, they didn’t join for the very reason that one didn’t need to struggle in the ANC to achieve the goals set, “In my opinion, there was no need for such an institution to reach those goals. The struggle had been there before the ANC and it will continue after it. Therefore, if there is no ideological unity, there happens what is happening now. Nothing tragic has happened; there is nothing surprising in all that. The Justice Alliance was formed and split in the same manner.” Our interlocutor didn’t agree with an observation of www.aravot.am that before the 2013 presidential election, when the ANC was in such a condition, it was very doubtful that the first president would be nominated, therefore, a sort of homogeneous political stage was forming, which was very favorable for re-election of the current president, “On the contrary, a homogeneous stage was forming when it was the round of dialogues with the coalition, then other parties. There was a mechanism of mutual agreements. The stage was programmed and the established institutions advanced replacing each other – Levon Ter-Petrossian was the president, Serzh Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan worked for him, then they pushed Ter-Petrossian out together, but the established system remained. Everything is formalized around the three presidents and the circle closes with them. I agree with you there is little time left, in order that everything may be given a renewed impetus, but the processes develop very quickly. The situation is that there are no visible conditions for forming a normal coalition. Therefore, I think that new forces will manage to prepare within the next 10 months and to disrupt the homogeneity.”
Nelly GRIGORYAN
