“I think that there is already a situation, in which the Republican Party will not lose much, regardless of what result the flirtation between the PAP and the ANC yields. I think that the PAP will not have good chances in the presidential election taking into account both its past and present condition and more so, the latent threats of Robert Kocharyan’s possible return,” Arshak Sadoyan, a former MP and the leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), said in response to a question of www.aravot.am whether the PAP would endorse Serzh Sargsyan’s candidacy and if not, whether the PAP would lose much.
Assessing the attitude of the PAP at this stage, Mr. Sadoyan noted, “The PAP has gotten into trouble because of its demands. There was a situation, in which the PAP made great demands, the Republican Party decided not to satisfy them. The PAP, on the other hand, threatening that it has become semi-oppositional, tries to use that situation somehow to push its demands. I don’t think that the PAP will gain great capacity in the short-run, moreover, their semi-flirtation with the ANC and some other forces or referring to the ideas put forward by us in the past will arouse skepticism toward the PAP. I don’t think that the PAP will take serious steps during the presidential election. If, say, it nominates its own candidate and that candidate is Gagik Tsarukyan, it will hardly have enough supporters to win taking into account the additional leverage of the government. And the talk about Robert Kocharyan’s return is artificially created. The ANC surprises me. How can Levon Ter-Petrossian take such naïve steps?”
The mentioned situation is the reason why A. Sadoyan calls the current political situation “tragic” and states that “it is not clear whether political forces seriously prepare for the presidential election or try to cooperate, negotiate and somehow get a piece of the pie.”
As a way out of the mentioned situation, A. Sadoyan proposes to create a new type of political force that includes the masses – a virtual political party. According to him, the new approaches should be based on the information revolution, one should use social networks, support that the whole territory of the Republic of Armenia has WiFi coverage and telephone communication doesn’t cost more than one dram a minute.
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Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
