Today Vazgen Manukyan, the leader of the National Democratic Union (NDU), assured during a conversation with www.aravot.am that there was a big difference between the applications of the Attorney General to withdraw his and Vartan Oskanian’s immunities, “The similarity is that both Vartan Oskanian and I are politicians, the immunities of both have been withdrawn. However, our immunities were withdrawn for a very simple reason. During we won in the election, we broke a fence and there was a fight; so this was merely a political issue. The financial aspect also underlies the case this time. I don’t want to interfere as a judge now, who was right and who was not right, but there are always such problems on the political stage because of those financial issues. It happened with Chirac, it happened with the German Chancellor too, it happened with Berlusconi too. Those financial problems of politicians are mainly related to taking illegal money during elections and similar cases, it is a standard situation. Mine was a different standard situation, but the only similarity is that a politician’s immunity was withdrawn. It is the only similarity.”
In response to our question whether both of them hadn’t been deprived of immunities for political reasons, Mr. Manukyan said, “I think that there is a political reason, only when the person hasn’t committed any crime and they do something for political reasons. However, it is not clear here whether the person has committed a crime or not. Nonetheless, according to the official data, he seems to have made mistakes. I for one think that Vartan Oskanian has behaved incorrectly. He should have stood up and said that yes, it seems clear that this money really shouldn’t have been on this account; it should have been on that account. I have made a mistake, my apologies, if there is a punishment, a fine for the mistake… I have to pay something, I have to pay taxes, if you want to withdraw my immunity, there is no
need for that, but if you want it, I will apply for withdrawing my immunity, what is the problem? What is the problem; would he have been put in prison illegally? If he had said openly, there wouldn’t have been such a fuss. Do you really think that he would have been caught and put in prison, then we would have to bring a parcel to him? No, they wouldn’t. This country of ours got out of the situation, in which some politician was put in prison without any grounds, with an incorrect, false accusation, long ago. No such thing can happen in Armenia now. Not only has the government changed and become better, but also the activities of the Armenian government in Armenia are very carefully analyzed by the Council of Europe. Changes have been made inside. One can be displeased, but if one hasn’t committed a crime, how can they put one in prison? I think that in this fuss, Vartan Oskanian should have admitted that he had made mistakes and should have tried to correct these mistakes and it would have ended.”
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In response to our observation that Vartan Oskanian was a potential candidate for president, Mr. Manukyan said that actually, everyone was a potential candidate, “Can he become the president? If you ask me, I can say as a politician and an expert that no. Therefore, the danger here is not that he could become the president and he is deliberately put in that condition.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
