The skirmish between the RPA and the PAP has gained momentum in recent days. The confrontation between the above-mentioned political forces sometimes passes from the senior party members to the junior party members. There is an exchange of fire also on social networks at the level of Facebook status updates of the party members etc. Doesn’t the intensification of the skirmish between the RPA and the PAP in the run-up to the Yerevan City Council election testify to the fact that there is a goal of presenting the PAP as opposition? In response to this question of ours, Eduard Sharmazanov, the RPA press secretary and a deputy speaker of the National Assembly, suggested that we inquire of the very PAP colleagues whether they were opposition, an alternative, or wanted to play some character. Coming back to the skirmish, Mr. Sharmazanov stated: “The Republican Party hasn’t initiated a skirmish and doesn’t participate in skirmishes. We give a response to all political forces or seemingly political forces and their non-political reactions in accordance with correctness. The Republican Party has always thought that correctness is necessary in politics. As for skirmishes, you know quite well that there is a serious difference of political weight between the RPA and the PAP.” Karen Avagyan, an RPA MP, in his turn, stated that this was the actual work style of the PAP, in order to be able to win over the votes of a certain part of the opposition. Then K. Avagyan noted: “The PAP’s not participating in the presidential election caused a great loss to that force in itself. Therefore, I don’t think that anyone can do such a thing for the PAP, besides themselves. I am talking about winning trust in the opposition camp that they have lost recently.” Talking about the PAP’s rhetoric before the parliamentary election, Mr. Avagyan noted that we had seen its results. He stated that currently, the PAP repeated the rhetoric it had used before the presidential election, continuously trying to gain certain dividends through some statements. Therefore, K. Avagyan thinks that it is predictable what such rhetoric will lead to during the city council election. Mr. Avagyan said in this regard: “It is a fact that this rhetoric cannot solve any problem in our reality. In any case, the upcoming city council election is the political force’s last chance of reanimation, since the processes they initiated before the parliamentary and presidential elections are no longer valid.” K. Avagyan doesn’t think that there is a skirmish between the RPA and the PAP and explains: “We can see which members of the PAP speak
and to what extent they are associated with the PAP; I am not the person who should tell you about that. In any case, it is not clear to me why their party leader is silent, if they have something to say, or at least, Iveta Tonoyan or Naira Zohrabyan. I can describe this in one word as a failed political raid, when the border is breached. And every breach of the border is prosecutable. The RPA will never allow any border, be it the border of civilization, political tolerance, correctness, political culture, or any other such border, to be breached.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
