Armen Yeritsyan, the Rule of Law Party (RLP) candidate for mayor, took the initiative of “pinning back” the ears of impudent officials and their impudent kids. www.aravot.am inquired of him how they were going to do that with Ashot Papayan, aka Turbo, a member of the Republican Party of Armenia and a member of the city council who had attacked the journalist of www.ilur.am, and other Republicans who according to a supporter of the Armenian National Congress (ANC), had beaten him in Ajapnyak. “If he has committed a crime, all of us must do everything so that everyone is held accountable…. If you forgive him, he will commit a more serious crime,” Mr. Yeritsyan said during a conversation with us. In response to our question whether it would be easy to struggle against their impudent coalition partners, he said: “I wouldn’t like to single out the Republican Party or any other party, it doesn’t matter which party he is from; one should make an example of him. If one commits a crime and is not held accountable, he becomes more impudent.” We told Mr. Yeritsyan that a few oppositional speeches of the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) had convinced the ANC that the PAP had made steps toward breaking away from the government and inquired of him what his oppositional statements testified to and whether they might be attempts to break away from the government, he replied: “I don’t want to be like any other party. I say what I think. What I say consists of both party position and my personal position. Some people take it hard when I say that I will do this or I will do that. No, no, what is it supposed to mean? Break away from the government. Those are not oppositional words; those are words of the resident of Yerevan. Should one be opposition to say something like that?”
Arpine SIMONYAN
