“I would suggest that those ‘smart guys,’ in particular, who look for my shadow everywhere, that they open their eyes, in order that they can see eventually that a political team has been formed in the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), which is able to draw up the party’s agenda by itself,” second President of the Republic of Armenia Robert Kocharyan made this statement, trying to put an end to all those speculations that he was behind the proposal of the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) to start political consultations. As an argument supporting his statement, R. Kocharyan mentioned: “In Armenia, majoritarian representation contributes to feudalization of electoral districts, moreover, the government supports that willingly or unwillingly, since it aims at reproduction. The phenomenon is quite harmful and the sooner we give up on it, the better.”
Does R. Kocharyan’s statement really reflect the connection between the PAP and Kocharyan or perhaps, there is manipulation in the second president’s statement, particularly with regard to Kocharyan’s claim that he has nothing to do with the PAP. www.aravot.am got answers to these questions during conversations with political scientists.
Political scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan noted: “I don’t see anything unexpected, particularly given the fact that the second president has made political commentaries quite often, once or twice a month. His statement was addressed not only to those who looked for a connection between the PAP and Kocharyan, but also to the PAP itself to act more independently and not to involve the second president. I don’t want to talk about all those assessments of how much the PAP is controlled by Kocharyan, which are given in the press. The second president was worried about those very assessments and naturally, he had to provide clarification.”
H. Melik-Shahnazaryan doesn’t agree with R. Kocharyan that “majoritarian representation contributes to feudalization of electoral districts.” He explained: “I don’t think that the current situation is caused by majoritarian representation. Particularly the fact that figures with oligarchic mentality share fields of activity among themselves, in order not to disturb each other and are MP candidates of electoral districts, where they have more influence.”
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Political scientist Yervand Bozoyan notes, on the other hand: “It wouldn’t matter whether Kocharyan spoke or not, all the same, opinions would be expressed that his shadow was
behind the PAP.” Political scientist also added: “The second president tried to explain why he was not behind that proposal, stating that he was not that supportive of the proposal. The influence of former presidents has always been great in our country; that is why regardless of whether Kocharyan spoke or not, they will always say that he has a great influence; they will always look for his shadow. As they used to say at the time that Levon Ter-Petrossian’s ears could be seen behind the People’s Party of Armenia.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
