“I was convinced that it would fail. The initiators of the Vahe Avetyan social movement were also sure of that, because there was a conviction among many of us that the Prosperous Armenia Party would not join it. Only a few people might join and the
necessary number would not be collected. This was my conviction. And so it happened,” Larisa Alaverdyan, a former Heritage Party MP and the former Human Rights Defender, said, in response to a question of www.aravot.am why the initiative to convene a National Assembly extraordinary session on the Harsnakar incident had failed.
In response to our observation that there had been a consultation with the PAP, they had discussed together and then initiated, Ms. Alaverdyan said that since she wasn’t aware of those discussions, what had been promised to the PAP, she just made her assessment, “What I expected from that force has happened. I was convinced that the necessary number of signatures would not be collected from the PAP MPs.”
Opposition groups intend to make the same proposal in September again. Ms. Alaverdyan welcomed that, “I welcome the consistency in that issue. I expect that perhaps, the signatures will be collected, because the situation will have changed by September and we will talk about it. I think that the PAP parliamentary group leaders discuss the situation, they make certain decisions based on those circumstances.”
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Anahit Bakhshyan, another MP of the fourth convocation of the National Assembly, thinks that it wasn’t in the PAP interests, therefore, that initiative failed, “Political forces – i.e. the majority – is not interested in that. That signature collecting didn’t correspond to the goals of the majority, its interests.” In response to our observation that they mainly blamed the PAP that they were many, hadn’t joined, if they had, the issue would have been solved, Ms. Bakhshyan said, “They said in advance that they would collect, there were some negotiations in advance, they had conviction, they believed them, but it didn’t happen. And there will be no success unless the Armenian National Congress (ANC) stops considering the PAP its political support.”
