The one who promises “secure Armenia” should guarantee Armenia against a crisis.
As you know, a consultation, in which representatives of the RPA, the Heritage Party, and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) participated and the agenda of which included 3 issues – holding a snap parliamentary election within one year, switching to 100% proportional representation within two years, and increasing the supervisory leverage of the opposition – took place in the office of Hovik Abrahamyan, the Speaker of the National Assembly. The consultation, in which representatives of the Republican Party, Heritage Party, and ARF parliamentary groups participated, has ended, but the parties haven’t reached a final agreement. Hovik Abrahamyan, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Galust Sahakyan from the RPA, Armen Rustamyan from the ARF, and Ruben Hakobyan from the Heritage Party participated in the consultation. Ruben Hakobyan, the leader of the Heritage Party parliamentary group, told the reporter of www.news.am that they hadn’t reached a final agreement, since there were contentious issues, therefore, the consultations would continue. Talking about the parliamentary consultations during a conversation with Aravot, Syopa Safaryan, the secretary general of the Heritage Party, stated: “The government should realize that there is a crisis in the country. All political forces have acknowledged that crisis and have somehow responded to that. And if the Republican Party continues to think that there is no crisis and not make that crisis a subject of discussion in state bodies, first of all, the National Assembly, certainly, the Republican Party, I think, will regret about that, because the time is ticking away, the process is progressing, regardless of the Heritage Party, the Republican Party, and Raffi Hovhannisyan. What we see in regions is more than a crisis. It is just an indescribable transformation, which society is undergoing, and they just cannot govern that society.” We asked Styopa Safaryan what would be the next step of the Heritage Party, since S. Sargsyan hadn’t met Raffi Hovhannisyan’s demands at the meeting with him, and the situation in the parliament was the same now? “Raffi Hovhannisyan didn’t allow the crisis to reach its climax and didn’t wait for the government to acknowledge the crisis and then start a dialogue with it. Raffi Hovhannisyan put the main agenda on S. Sargsyan’s table quite quickly. It has its minimum and maximum thresholds. Serzh Sargsyan and his government can choose what satisfies them; the minimum threshold or the maximum
threshold.” We asked Styopa Safaryan whether there was still hope that the parties could reach an agreement in the parliamentary format. “The National Assembly itself should acknowledge its share of responsibility and realize the extent of that responsibility in the resolution of this crisis. It cannot be done by coercion or compulsion; the overwhelming majority of people who sit there are from Serzh Sargsyan’s team and they have an opportunity not to allow the crisis to deepen, after which it will be harder to overcome. It would be much better, if they realized that the National Assembly had to respond to that situation. You know, the one who promises ‘secure Armenia’ should guarantee Armenia against a crisis and resolve that crisis; words alone do not suffice. S. Sargsyan’s team should resolve it,” Styopa Safaryan, the Heritage Party secretary general, stated.
Emma GABRIELYAN
