“Perhaps, Raffi Hovhannisyan tries to instill new culture, but I don’t think that it will lead to better Armenia, particularly given the fact that we saw and realized that there were possibilities of cooperation,” Hovhannes Sahakyan, the secretary of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) parliamentary group, said during a conversation with Aravot yesterday, analyzing the “swearing-in” that had taken place in Freedom Square and the events that had followed. Today the RPA MP also thinks that there is a possibility of cooperation, “But one cannot consider everything in that dimension, to instill new culture whose purposes are unknown; some strange culture is being instilled in our country.” Taking into account the current fragile situation, our interlocutor tries to be correct while giving assessments and making statements, “Although, as an Armenian, I have my own opinion on all this and my attitude toward it, which are stricter, more abrupt and more radical from the viewpoint of assessments.” In response to a question whether the situation would become tenser because of the clashes that had taken place between police officers and protesters and because there were people who had been taken in, our interlocutor said: “I think that the kindness, songs and dances, the image that Raffi Hovhannisyan has formed, I don’t want to say the image of pseudo revolution and hello…, but we have seen nonetheless that Raffi Hovhannisyan couldn’t control the situation at least at that moment and prevent that minor clash, which one shouldn’t even call a clash. Who benefitted from that? No one benefitted.” The RPA MP reminds the statements released by the police in recent days regarding compliance with the law and mocks: “I don’t know which country’s legislation Raffi Hovhannisyan is guided by, where there is diarchy, a tradition of violating the law; in what country can a person who has won 37 percent of the vote come and ‘reign’ etc.? Let us not lead the people to a clash on that path of pseudo hello and revolution, let us not deepen the divide.” Reminding that one could achieve positive results for the country and society, only in case of unity, our interlocutor makes the following appeal for restraint to Raffi Hovhannisyan and his supporters, since the latter “have apprehended the Eastern technologies quite well – to tear themselves to pieces, to call the mass media with bleeding noses, clothes covered with blood, to spread on social networks and create a certain impression. I cannot imagine that any police officer may lay a finger on Raffi Hovhannisyan or any protester.” In response to a question whether the government would use brutal force, he said: “There is no country around the world, where the government and the police are so restrained. We understand that they have been taught certain technology, but if the president of the country says in his inaugural address that he realizes that there are problems and points out those problems and says that the messages have reached the addressee…, what else can we do, what else can we wish? Or perhaps you have a special program that there must be a clash and publicity.”
Aravot Daily
