“The Prosperous Armenia Party asks what Yerevan this is, what is going on in Yerevan, why there is lawlessness in our country. However, they voted for all the decisions as one man, along with the RPA. And now they are surprised,” www.aravot.am talked with Gurgen Gasparyan, a member of the PAP and a member of the Yerevan City Council, on this criticism of the Hello Yerevan Coalition today. He assured that “the PAP voted against many issues in the Yerevan City Council, abstained from voting on many issues, raised many issues. The city council’s rules of procedure, according to which the city council functions these days was written by us. The main discussions took place in commissions, where there were heated discussions. Many issues are not put on the agenda, and the residents are not aware of them. They are put forward in a commission. As to the issues, which we voted in favor of, I am ready to take responsibility for each question voted in favor of. There is official information; it is not just according to me.” In response to our question what prevented the PAP from declaring itself opposition, if they struggled against the government, he said: “We are an alternative force. I want to repeat that we are always with the people. What does it matter what we declare ourselves or how. It is obvious and visible. It is visible that we are
with the people, isn’t it? The Yerevan City Council stood by the people also when the booths were being dismantled. When they wanted to dismantle 243 booths, we didn’t allow them. And dismantlement of booths was stopped after that completely.” In response to our question why the PAP hadn’t been with the people when the people had been in Freedom Square after the presidential election, he said: “The PAP is always with the people. Members of our parliamentary group visited Raffi Hovhannisyan; who says that they were not with the people?” In response to our observation that it was not about the visit during the hunger strike, there had been no representative of the PAP in Freedom Square when people had gathered there to protest, Gurgen Gasparyan said: “Now, did a representative of the PAP have to be there? If I say we are with the people, we are with the people.” In response to our question how we should realize that they were with the people, Mr. Gasparyan urged us to ask their party spokespersons that question, and they would answer. We asked the member of the city council to answer on his own behalf, why he for one hadn’t been in Freedom Square, say, on April 9. He answered the question with a question: “What on April 9? Should we go and be there? We participated. Perhaps we didn’t participate with our presence, but we participated with our actions. Let me remind that it was the president’s inauguration day, at which we weren’t present.” As to the fact that several members of the PAP were nonetheless at that inauguration, the PAP member said: “There were people present, but it doesn’t mean that the whole party was for all that and was present.” We asked to clarify whether the PAP members who had gone to Serzh Sargsyan’s swearing-in had gone on their own initiative, he said: “You can say so, yes. I think there was no party decision on that.” We also inquired of the PAP representative whether there were guarantees that if I, as a voter, cast my vote for the PAP, they wouldn’t sell the seats to the RPA, once they got them. He replied: “I am talking about the city council of the past 4 years, which has done work and hasn’t sold any seats. Isn’t it a result when booth owners do their business these days; we stood up for them and didn’t allow? Or the idea of minimarkets or cigarettes and spirits or property tax privileges, I can enumerate many things.” As for our question why they were not distinguished from the government, Gurgen Gasparyan didn’t know the answer; he urged us to address that question to those who didn’t distinguish. We also inquired whether they had broken away from the RPA in spirit after they hadn’t formed a coalition with the RPA. He replied: “We hadn’t been with them in spirit anyway. We have always had our opinion. During the coalition when the small and medium enterprises act was discussed, our members voted against it. What does it matter whether we are in the coalition or not? We don’t support something that is against the people. We are with the people.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
