Yesterday, a consultation, in which representatives of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), the Heritage Party, and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) participated, took place in the office of Hovik Abrahamyan, the Speaker of the National Assembly. The issues of holding a snap parliamentary election, switching to proportional representation, and increasing the supervisory leverage of the opposition were on the agenda. During a conversation with www.aravot.am , Edgar Vardanyan, a political scientist and an expert of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS), said that he thought that the solution of the above-mentioned issues would lead to overcoming the internal political crisis only partially. Going into detail, he stated: “The opposition parliamentary groups try to find some solutions within the limits of their functions and their role, understanding quite well that those are partial solutions and are mainly related to the legislative power. By the way, Raffi Hovhannisyan himself stated that it was not his main demand and basically had nothing to do with the main demand of society. Guess, this issue is solved, and radical changes are made in the executive branch. But the National Assembly is not an independent branch of government, is it? And political groups in the National Assembly should also find solutions. The government will try to show that they are ready to negotiate, to enter into a dialogue with the opposition. It can be a part of their propaganda. They will also try to distract society from the main problems and the main struggle. Probably that is the reason why they agreed to hold a consultation with the parliamentary groups with such an agenda.” Andranik Tevanyan, the director of Political Economy, a research institute, on the other hand, stated, analyzing the latest steps taken by R. Hovhannisyan and the Heritage Party: “When Raffi Hovhannisyan met with Serzh Sargsyan after the presidential election, he started to make proposals himself; it is a serious mistake from the perspective of negotiating technique and given the election results. We all know that Raffi Hovhannisyan won, and Serzh Sargsyan lost. The victorious party went to the defeated party and asked for compromise. R. Hovhannisyan proposed a run-off election, then he immediately proposed the option of the National Assembly election as a compromise, a right to which he didn’t have. R. Hovhannisyan hasn’t made such a statement in any of his public speeches. If R. Hovhannisyan proposes that option, it means that he actually accepts the results of the election. Thus, it is political bargaining, not overcoming political tension, and it reminds of very dirty bargaining. After the meeting, R. Hovhannisyan stated that since S. Sargsyan hadn’t accepted his proposals, the issue of a snap parliamentary election didn’t exist anymore, then we noticed that they made a proposal to hold a parliamentary election within a year. On the one hand, we see R. Hovhannisyan say in Freedom Square: ‘There is no turning back,’ on the other hand, we see him indirectly negotiate with the government and ask for a change in the National Assembly. This shows that they cannot achieve any success. The government sees that the Heritage party is willing, and it considers that as a weakness. Whereas R. Hovhannisyan should have made the government compromise. However, since R. Hovhannisyan doesn’t make any concrete demand regarding S. Sargsyan and the presidential election, unfortunately, it will offer S. Sargsyan an opportunity to land on his feet after such a disgraceful election, through which he has become president.” A. Tevanyan fears that R. Hovhannisyan will become an instrument. He notes: “R. Hovhannisyan may become an instrument in the hands of the government willingly or unwillingly. When we look at his statements and the messages sent by the government’s press, one is under the false impression that S. Sargsyan is a good fairy, and evil governors and other state officials did him a bad turn and compelled him to keep the presidency. So S. Sargsyan should get rid of the officials with those vicious morals. It is another tale, which is put forward by one wing of the government that pursues its own goals. It is surprising that what R. Hovhannisyan says is in harmony with that wing’s opinions. He demands the governors’ resignations, whereas their guilt is that they didn’t allow so much electoral fraud and made it possible for Raffi Hovhannisyan to win votes. He should not be happy that Giziryan is being dismissed, since he won in Shirak. To dismiss the governors so that a more centralized system led by S. Sargsyan is created? It is illogical.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
