Hovhannes Igityan, a member of the Pan-Armenian National Movement (PANM) executive committee, thinks that it is right that the Republic Party and the Liberal Party of Armenia have left the ANC. During a conversation with www.aravot.am, he said, “I have known those people for many years. And if they have made that decision, it is right for their party. There is no reason for me to think that they have made a mistake.”
Mr. Igityan also doesn’t believe that a businessman in Armenia, in this case Gagik Tsarukyan, can oppose the President of the Republic of Armenia. In response to a question whether he would leave the ANC, Mr. Igityan said that he didn’t participate in the ANC as a person, “I don’t know what other people in the ANC think, but I have my own opinion – on the political stage as a whole, I don’t attach importance to the fact whether the PAP is in the coalition or not. We will see what activities the PAP will be engaged in. Unfortunately, in Armenia, it is in the following way – the only argument to prove that a certain politician or more so businessman is an oppositionist or not starts from such actions. Because what we have seen previously with the businessmen, Khachatur Suiasyan, who left the Republican Party – so, in Armenia, if a figure doesn’t become an oppositionist, but just has some minor conflict of interest with the family, the clan, he is punished immediately, let alone a big businessman ventures to say, not only to say, but to show for real that he is an oppositionist. We will see all those means – both tax office and the Monopolies Commission, why not also Criminal Attorney’s Office etc. It seems to me that all businessmen realize that and it is the restriction that keeps them away from being an oppositionist. I know normal businessmen who pinned the sign of the Republican Party at the time only to make their businesses secured, not sharing or keeping away from any political ideas, just for business.”
Mr. Igityan is convinced that the government has a big leverage to influence the PAP – if it suddenly expresses a wish or ventures to appear as an opposition force for real, it will be very hard for it.
When the PAP leader stated about not joining the coalition, Levon Zurabyan, the ANC coordinator, considered that as a step clearly calculated by the ANC to politically isolate the regime. In response to our observation whether his opinion differed from the opinion of the ANC parliamentary group, Mr. Igityan said, “I don’t know what the opinion of the ANC is, because I represent a political force, I represent my opinion. Different political parties in the ANC, which were in it or have left, everyone has his own opinion on this matter. I would not present the fact that the PAP didn’t join the coalition as a victory of the ANC. I don’t think that this political fact has anything to do with the ANC at all. The PAP will decide on its own whether it will be in the collation or not. I don’t think that it does it for the ANC, it does it given its own calculations, interests, why not also business interests. I don’t know what the ANC gains from the fact that the PAP is not in the coalition, I don’t know. They haven’t convinced me so far that it is in the interest of the ANC. As for the PAP, business is very vulnerable to the government and controllable by it in Armenia. Everyone is unprotected in Armenia, the rich man, in particular.”
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As for how long the PAP will manage to maintain this status that it is neither an opposition, nor in the coalition, it is not a part of the government, Mr. Igityan said, “The position the PAP has taken today is in everybody’s interest, because on the one hand, the government sees that the PAP, playing in the opposition camp this way or another, attracts voters from real politicians, absorbs votes. On the other hand, I don’t think that the PAP can pose a big threat to the government. Certainly, it will not be easy to act in this situation, because they could enter any office, the president’s office at the time, now it is a bit more difficult. Those people who have joined the PAP for personal reasons may leave and we will see that outflow, it is already there.”
We have a presidential election ahead of us. According to Hovhannes Igityan, the issue of who will be the President of Armenia doesn’t raise concerns, the terrible scale of emigration raises concerns, because it empties Armenia, “A model is used in the presidential election, according to which the person who uses administrative and financial resources at the same time wins. Not only the financial resource should be employed, only administrative resource is also not enough, which was conspicuous during this election, because Serzh Sargsyan, thinking that he could participate in the election without oligarchs, calculated at the last moment and saw that it was not so. I hope that this model will be destroyed.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
