During the whole election campaign, when Vartan Oskanian made well-known statements criticizing the Prime Minister and the government, the PAP parliamentary group didn’t respond or they said that it was his personal opinion. The PAP didn’t express a clear position whether it shared Vartan Oskanian’s critical opinion or not. In this regard, www.aravot.am inquired of PAP MP Naira Zohrabyan whether we could perceive their statements made today as a response to what Vartan Oskanian had said and that the PAP had started to share his opinion. Naira Zohrabyan responded that she didn’t remember a case when someone had asked her and she hadn’t expressed her clear position on that issue, “As for the activities of the Cabinet, at all times, even when the PAP was a part of the coalition, we expressed many times our principled position and our principled disagreement with the economic policy that was pursued. The fact that in many cases our vote differed from the vote of our coalition partners also testifies to that. The PAP has always expressed its principled position and it is not random that there were cases when the PAP took a position differing from the position of our two coalition partners in regard to credits, different legislative proposals – the latest one was as recently as a few months ago, when the PAP was still in the coalition and the bill on restricting cash deals was submitted to the National Assembly. It also applies to switching to 100% proportional representation, when we were also a part of the coalition, again we took a position that differed from the position of our coalition partners. As for Vartan Oskanian’s assessments of the Cabinet, I can put my name on any of those assessments.”
We also inquired whether that attitude, that image of an alternative might disappear after the presidential election, i.e. whether there would be disappointments to the society, or that position would be maintained, Ms. Zohrabyan said, “I am convinced that the PAP will never make any move that will diminish the resource of unprecedented public trust toward us.” Naira Zohrabyan confirmed that the PAP ministers had had a meeting with President Serzh Sargsyan before handing in their portfolios and the president had expressed his satisfaction to them, “There was a meeting, I think it is civil when people wish good luck and bon voyage to each other, it was a very normal and civil meeting.”
In response to a question whether there hadn’t been a possibility for the PAP to maintain its portfolios, nonetheless, because that issue had also been discussed, Naira Zohrabyan flatly said that no, it couldn’t have been so, “We had our principled position. We said that this Prime Minister and this Cabinet had no right to expect the resource of trust.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
