Yesterday Raffi Hovhannisyan, a former candidate for president who had come second in the parliamentary election, urged the governor of Aragatsotn in Talin to hand in his resignation, along with “Liska.” “Dear Mr. Sahakyan, hand in your resignation! You have violated, and if Liska must stand trial, you decide for yourself whether you want to follow Liska’s example, with your behavior, your money, and your threats. If you have been involved in fraud, Mr. Sahakyan, you must be held accountable. If you come and apologize to the people for your lies, fraud, and threats…, you think you are the owner of this region. Hand in your resignation, along with Mr. Liska. Otherwise, you will stand trial. Is that clear?” Raffi Hovhannisyan said. In response to a question of www.aravot.am whether he had listened to Raffi Hovhannisyan’s call, Sargis Sahakyan, the governor of Aragatsotn, said: “Yeah, I am shaking in my shoes; I can’t even stand up.” We inquired whether he might manage to go somehow and confess his sins, as Vigen Khachatryan, a former governor of Lori, had done in Ijevan yesterday, Sahakyan broke up. “Who is Raffi to make me hand in my resignation? Who is he to say something like that? What does he know about elections? The election was held excellently; the whole world appreciates.” In response to our observation that the Armenian people didn’t appreciate that election, the governor said: “Who said that? The people have appreciated. They cast 900 thousand votes for Serzh Sargsyan. Haven’t they appreciated?” We noted that there were many problems in Armenia, in the regions in particular, and the people sincerely complained, even those people who had really voted for Serzh Sargsyan. “There are complaints; it’s not that all the hardships have been overcome. Show me a country where there are no complaints!” the governor said, referring to the meetings of representatives of this or that field with the president recently, the instructions that had been given to them to solve the existing problems. “In the past three years, additional government money has been spent on urgent programs,” Sahakyan said. In response to a question whether that money had been spent efficiently, since problems seemed not to have been solved, society’s discontent was growing stronger, he said: “Those problems haven’t arisen today. They have been there for years, and they are gradually being solved. 85 schools have been renovated and built, water supply facilities have been changed in 45 villages, 60-65 communities have been provided with gas, many kilometers of roads have been repaired and built, and a hospital and an outpatient clinic have been built in the past five years. 43 billion drams were invested in our region last year alone. A big and splendid factory has been built. 5-6 years ago, people would take grapes and throw them to the ground in front of the Government Building, they couldn’t store them for 30 drams,
whereas today there is competition, there are three huge factories, and vegetables and fruits are stored.”
Nelly GRIGORYAN
