www.aravot.am inquired of Myasnik Malkhasyan, a member of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) and a former member of the Union of Yerkrapah Volunteers (UYV), today what he would do in this case, whether he would be passive, he said: “I always have something to do. I will do things in the public interest.” In response to our question whether he would support Hrant Bagratyan he said: “We haven’t made a decision yet. I don’t know what decision the ANC will make. When it makes, the public will know about it.” We tried to clear up whether it was possible that he would not support Hrant Bagratyan, Myasnik Malkhasyan replied: “I have already answered your question. The ANC should make a decision whether it will support or not.”
We inquired whether Levon Ter-Petrossian was too old for him to be active in politics, he said: “Not only for me. Levon Ter-Petrossian is the founding President of the Republic of Armenia, who is a great politician. In any case, he will be needed to turn our country into the country we long for. In that sense, the government is as important for the country as the opposition, which should lead the country in the right direction.” In response to our observation that if the opposition laid its arms, the people would not have a choice, Myasnik Malkhasyan assured that there was no such thing, “Why did you suggest that we had laid down our arms?”
We reminded Mr. Malkhasyan that he himself had assured people in Ushi and Ohanavan during the ANC election campaign that the country was in an extremely bad, critical condition, that this government should be driven away, there was no alternative, and now Levon Ter-Petrossian says that there is no chaos in Armenia, and the country is not in such a condition that a person of his age will be invited to govern. In this regard, Myasnik Malkhasyan said: “Those were my electoral districts, where I was elected. You know what, it is just that Armenia has taken a path that has no alternative. It is establishment of democratic Armenia, where an Armenian will not leave his land, where there should be justice, which we haven’t seen. People were imprisoned illegally. We couldn’t understand for 1.5 years why we had been arrested. There are such vicious phenomena.” In response to our question whether this was the proper ending after so much pressure, imprisonment, as he put it, persecutions, Myasnik Malkhasyan said: “Our struggle should not be a struggle of a few persons. The people should feel a need for that. They should feel that they should not look on that struggle, those methods should not be used against them. If they allow their rights to be violated, here we… naturally, we should struggle, but the result of the struggle will be what we have achieved. And in order to achieve more, one needs the struggle of a larger mass of people. The people should not only be consumers. They should be the masters of the country. I am saying this, as an ordinary citizen of the Republic of Armenia, as a soldier, who served, has been useful to this country within his capacity. I am talking about this with heartache. I don’t regret that I struggled and was convicted. I see that a civil society has been born as a result of our struggle. There are many groups that struggle today; there are offshoots, which achieve success. One shouldn’t be happy about the opposition’s defeat or stuff…. God forbid that this should happen, it will be disastrous. We don’t need to achieve success tomorrow. The success will come with time.” We cleared up whether this was not the end, they wouldn’t leave the political stage yet, he said: “God grant everything will be fine in our country, even if we are unemployed, live worse, but our state will be normal, every citizen will feel safe.” Today Myasnik Malkhasyan saw his son off to the army. He expressed hope that our borders were safe, which was the most important thing, and the rest would come with time.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
