Naira Zohrabyan, the secretary of the PAP parliamentary group, made a statement yesterday and informed that the PAP began political consultations with political forces. Assessing the internal political developments of the Republic of Armenia, Ms. Zohrabyan notes, “Analyzing the 20-year history of our independence, today’s bureaucracy and prospects of development, we think that the switch to a parliamentary system of government can be one of the ways to solve problems facing the country, eliminate the political monopoly, as well as carry out necessary reforms.”
As for whether the above-mentioned approach of the PAP was acceptable for the Heritage Party and whether cooperation with the PAP on that idea was possible, www.aravot.am tried to find out during a conversation with party’s secretary Stepan Safaryan. He said, “It is well known that the switch to the parliamentary system was one of the pivotal ideas of the Heritage Party in the 2013 parliamentary election. Not only was it a part of the program, it also became a platform during the parliamentary election that took place in May. Raffi Hovhannisyan, the presidential candidate of the Heritage Party, has stated many times that if elected, he will be the last president of the country with presidential government, whose tenure will be marked with a switch to the parliamentary system of government in Armenia. Thus, the PAP has expressed a position in its program, which is a pivotal one for us, it is a high-priority and a very important issue, which clears the way for systemic changes.”
As for cooperation, Mr. Safaryan said the following, “The Heritage party has never avoided participating in any discussion, regardless of whether it is a discussion on struggle against corruption or an issue, which, in this case, is one of the projects of the party. We don’t have a problem with discussing anything with anyone. However, if it is about taking joint steps after that, in that case, one should remember that it is a presidential election, the Heritage Party has its candidate, he has already made public some pivotal steps, which he will take as the President and that issue is one of them. If we talk about the prospect of cooperation, it requires like-mindedness in all the other issues too. I think time will tell what results the discussions will yield. I want to say that one issue is not enough to become a united team before the presidential election.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
