Robert Kocharyan, the second President of the Republic of Armenia, made a series of statements in an interview given to Mediamax. In particular, he said that one of the reasons for his not participating in the presidential election was that to him, “rivalry between two natives of Karabakh was unacceptable.” www.aravot.am inquired of Ruben Mehrabyan, an expert of the Center for Political and International Studies, whether one could consider this interview of the second president as a signal that he would participate in the 2018 presidential election. Our interlocutor said: “I think it is a bit early to consider it as a clear intention to participate in 2018. One can at least conclude from what he said that he doesn’t think that he is out of active politics. We should wait for the year 2018 and see.”
Mr. Mehrabyan said with regard to the statement about rivalry between “two natives of Karabakh”: “If Serzh Sargsyan hadn’t been a native of Karabakh – although he is not a native of Karabakh, he is from the village of Tegh, region of Syunik – but had been a native of Aparan, would we have had a candidate by the name of Robert Kocharyan? What explanation is that? It just testifies to the provinciality of the elite formed in the Republic of Armenia over the past decade. It is just sad. So it turns out that he was guided by that principle while governing the Republic of Armenia. I think it is extreme provinciality, which has nothing to do with conceptions of statehood. It is an anti-state, antinational mentality. One thinks so in a ghetto, not in a state.”
Political scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan also thinks that discrimination between residents of different parts of the Republic of Armenia is unacceptable and thinks that pursuing a policy based on that idea is not right. During a conversation with us, he stated: “The reasons Robert Kocharyan put forward are not the main reasons for his not participating in the presidential election. I think the reason is more personal. It is rather early to talk about the year 2018, since we can see that the political situation in the Republic of Armenia changes rather quickly, and it isn’t right to make predictions about what will happen in the year 2018. I don’t see any messages in this interview. It is obvious that Kocharyan’s expectations have not been met. It is not the time to make this interview a subject of serious political discussions, since a presidential election awaits us, and I think that the driving force will be the very presidential election.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
