If the previous coalition memorandum is in effect, then why do they need to sign a new coalition memorandum, which the PAP didn’t do, what new points were added to that memorandum, which weren’t in the previous one? Today www.aravot.am asked Gagik Minasyan, an RPA MP who had expressed an opinion that the previous memorandum signed between the PAP and the RPA was still in force, these questions. According to him, unless Gagik Tsarukyan has stated something different, his signature and the agreement to endorse Serzh Sargsyan’s candidacy in the upcoming presidential election are still in effect. During a conversation with us, Gagik Minasyan assured that he didn’t understand the question, as for signing the new coalition memorandum, in his words, “dear, if it had joined the coalition, it would have signed, it didn’t, so, it didn’t sign.” In response to a question whether there was a term of validity, whether there wasn’t any fixed term, Mr. Minasyan said, “There was a memorandum, which mentioned the provision about the presidential election. Now I say that the leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party hasn’t said anything about that issue and that term has not expired yet.” In response to our question when that term would expire, he said, “When the presidential election is over.” One of the main articles in the new memorandum was endorsing Serzh Sargsyan in the presidential election, which the PAP didn’t sign, leaving that issue unsolved. Gagik Minasyan didn’t agree with this either, “Who told you that a new memorandum would be signed, were you there, do you know why it wasn’t signed, it wasn’t there. Different issues were discussed between the PAP and the RPA and it was decided that the efficiency of the Prosperous Armenia Party would be higher, if it acted in the parliament as a constructive alternative.”
Let us mention that as opposed to the RPA MP, members of the PAP said for a few times before the election that the previous coalition memorandum was in effect until the election and since the coalition partners participated in the election separately, the coalition became a thing of the past. In particular, during a debate organized by the Civilitas Foundation, Elinar Vardanyan, a PAP MP, assured Styopa Safaryan that “the coalition stops existing, when the powers of the National Assembly are terminated.” Khachik Galstyan, the PAP press secretary, also said that “the coalition is in effect until the election.” And member of the PAP political council Vahan Babayan and Tigran Urikhanyan stated that the coalition was already a thing of the past during the election campaign, that certainly, it couldn’t be in effect forever and was temporary.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
