D. Harutyunyan thinks that a private conversation has become a subject of debate, because someone wished to cause a scandal
“Sir, what problems do you have?” Serzh Sargsyan, the incumbent president of Armenia and a candidate for president, asked an old resident of the bordering village of Movses yesterday. The old man responded: “The biggest problem is that the village is emptying; my children are in Russia.” The president got annoyed. “Am I to blame that your children are in Russia. Am I to blame for that too? You shouldn’t have allowed them to leave.” The resident of Movses explained: “If there had been a factory, where they could have worked, they wouldn’t have gone,” not realizing that he had made the situation even more complex by that. “If there had been a factory in the village? The cucumber grows upside down, because you think like that. If you said there was no gas, water or roads in the village, I would say I was to blame, I was responsible for that, but am I to blame that your children have left for Russia? He could have stayed in the village, cultivated the land, and bred cattle,” Serzh Sargsyan said in anger. The president’s observations about the cucumber’s growing upside-down have become scandalous.
Is it politically correct that coming to the regions, bordering villages, a person who has governed the state for five years and is going to be the President of the Republic of Armenia for five more years doesn’t try to find out about the problems, the reasons for them on the spot, first hand, moreover, he becomes agitated and angry because of the truth said to his face? Davit Harutyunyan, a member of the RPA executive body, doesn’t agree with this question-remark of www.aravot.am. As for the problems, he assures that the president knows all the information quite well. We inquired why the president hadn’t even tried to diplomatically evade the question, in order to avoid a scandal. “Sometimes a scandal arises, because someone wants to cause a scandal,” the RPA MP, in his turn, made accusations. He doesn’t think that the president was in a situation when he should have taken diplomatic, evading steps. “All of us have those moments when we engage in a private conversation, don’t talk publicly, and sometimes that private conversation becomes a subject of heated debate, as it happened in this case.” In response to the next observation of www.aravot.am that perhaps the president’s teammates should advise him to avoid making oral statements, since every such case put him in an awkward position, Davit Harutyunyan said: “I think the president doesn’t need such advice.”
Nelly GRIGORYAN
