During a conversation with www.aravot.am, Hovhannes Sahakyan, the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) parliamentary group secretary, responding to the ideas expressed by Levon Zurabyan, the ANC coordinator, in an interview given to Radio Liberty that he one who came to power would gain the property, thus, the one who lost the power would lose the property, said with humor, “I think that the ANC and Levon Zurabyan asked for an audience with Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan and he didn’t get it. Perhaps, Zurabyan expressed his ideas publicly to be granted an audience.”
There have been speculations in the political backstage in recent days that before the start of the presidential campaign, the RPA and the PAP are going to sign a new agreement. In response to a question of www.aravot.am whether he was aware of this process, Hovhannes Sahakyan said that such issues had not been discussed in the RPA council, “We have expressed our opinion, we have our programs, our political path and if there are political forces or coalitions that are ready to join us, to include some provisions of their programs in ours, we are ready to discuss, expand the coalition.” www.aravot.am observed that the PAP makes rather strong statements about the Republican Party on the political stage, but the discussions and vote on the Increase of the Minimum Wage bill the day before had caused confusion. Let us note that the other parliamentary groups were rather active in the discussions, including the issue of accumulative pensions discussed now, whereas the PAP just expressed the general opinion of the parliamentary group and in the case of the Minimum Wage bill, it abstained from voting. Hovhannes Sahakyan explains these facts in the following manner, “If we accept that politics is the art of possibility, we can put both strong political statements and currying favor in that context. However, I think that the political force must have a face, a path. And being in the opposition camp doesn’t mean that one must be against in all issues. Also, being in the government doesn’t mean that one must be in favor of everything.”
Nelly GRIGORYAN
