www.aravot.am inquired of psychologist Ashot Hakobyan, a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), how many candidates for president Armenia would have according to his prediction, in response to which he expressed the following fear, “I have a fear, and God forbid that this should happen – I think that cutting a deal with the Republican Party, the Prosperous Armenia Party aims at eliminating the political opposition once and for all. I am under the impression that they have been weakening the opposition non-existing as it is at least so far. We don’t have an opposition anymore, sorry for the language, but that mumbo jumbo is just rubbish. If my fear proves to be justified, we will have a rather simple situation during the presidential election, and regardless of how many candidates there are, the chances will gradually get closer to zero. It is another matter, if the Prosperous Armenia Party clarifies its actions and says what its ultimate goal is, engages in a really fair struggle for the office of the president. If it takes on the whole responsibility, it is another situation, it should be welcomed, eventually, a political force has taken on the responsibility in this mess, but I don’t think it will be the case.”
In response to our observation that Gagik Tsarukyan seemed to have an intention to announce his candidacy for the presidential election, our interlocutor didn’t like the candidate: “At least I have no liking for this person, I don’t think this candidate has the potential necessary to normalize my country and its political system, regulate political relations, moreover, if we consider the Prosperous Armenia Party or any political force, they basically haven’t clarified their political idea inside their party yet. I can ask the Republican Party a question what their political position, their political program is, where they are moving toward. As far as I can understand, this party was a national conservative one when it was established, where is the national conservative ideology now? If a party with a national conservative ideology is in power in our country, and we have such an unhealthy situation, it is impossible. Thus, the national conservative political force takes liberal actions, it is inappropriate, I can say the same thing to the Prosperous Armenia Party, show me your ideological basis, is it liberalism? Liberalism is a brilliant idea, but having a liberal approach, we will not be able to show the right direction to the ship of the national state, we have set our sails in a wrong direction, into the wind, the mast is broken already, and the ship is tilted.”
In our interlocutor’s opinion, Gagik Tsarukyan may be not only Man of the Year, but also Man of the Planet, but it doesn’t mean that he can be the president. “The president in this situation should adhere to a political idea, offer it to the society and all political forces both opposition and pro-government, everyone, he should be able to set all institutional organizations on the course of normal, efficient and even development. And in our country, everything is distorted, the institution of presidency should be able to use all this, in order to set all this on a normal course, and I don’t think that the Prosperous Armenia Party will be able to do that.”
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According to our interlocutor, Gagik Tsarukyan is a good businessman, but not a politician. “Our businessmen should understand that accumulating wealth is not enough, guess we have accumulated wealth, but in the end, a question arises, an issue arises how to maintain and multiply the wealth we have accumulated, we cannot do that anyhow, if we don’t have political stability. It is a natural desire, if one has wealth, one longs for power, in order to ensure, maintain that wealth. If one doesn’t trust the government, professional politicians who are the bearers of an idea, i.e. people who should serve the political idea’s implementation in return for the wage of a serviceman, i.e. repair the system, if that political system is not there, everyone’s wealth is under threat. Anyway, you cannot enjoy it in Armenia for a very simple reason, because one doesn’t dance in a house of mourning, and our society is in mourning, how can one enjoy, one will just blow up one day because of the jealousy of one’s neighbors or one’s entourage?”
According to Ashot Hakonbyan, a professional politician should take on the task of improving the state, and there are serious statesmen in Armenia, but they are not visible, since no one gives them a chance. According to our interlocutor, the reason is that the political stage and political relations are monopolized. “Look at the politicians of all political forces, there has been no change in 20 years, none. Guys, you also reproduce yourselves, there are no new faces, new ideas,” the ARF psychologist says.
Nune AREVSHATYAN
