Tevan Poghosyan doesn’t understand either why the oppositionists are engaged in “black PR”
“They would make statements against each other, but they would make those statements, in order to try to jointly find corrections of the mistakes that had been made. Such a change has taken place in the Georgians’ perception, and in a way, we should mature for that,” Tevan Poghosyan, a member of the Heritage Party parliamentary group, said during a conversation with Aravot yesterday. Mr. Poghosyan had come from neighboring Georgia the other day and made this comparison given the developments following the Yerevan City Council election. Aravot inquired of the opposition MP why the opposition camp hadn’t come to an agreement after all and hadn’t realized all the statements-aspirations, which had been made during the election campaign. “There are brilliant individuals in all parts of the opposition, everything is in order, but when the time comes, you don’t clearly understand why that issue of black PR arises. We should understand that an election is an opportunity for me to present
my opinion for the sake of something,” Mr. Poghosyan said, considering the wish of the oppositionists to unite as a step forward anyway. “People are ready to talk, agree that, say, there were certain problems, let us realize that and try to work together. By the way, working together should not be conditional on whether a certain force has been elected to the city council or not. At the end of the day, this is our country, and every one of us should work.
“Today there are 7 representatives of Hello Yerevan in the Yerevan City Council. I am sure that everyone will be very active in it, and any opposition voice will be heard in the city council, so that it is represented. Why, that will perhaps be a new approach, a new mentality that oppositionists can use that voice, if there is a wish and a perception that we can be strong together. In this sense, it seems to me that nothing is lost; one shouldn’t be disappointed. One should try to look for ways to move forward and use the existing mechanisms.” Our interlocutor hopes that we will be able to realize that the important thing in politics is what is going on and not that this is my idea, and only I should talk about it; no one else can try to carry it out. “If something changes for the better, every one of us will benefit. Therefore, opposition forces should not be disappointed, should try to find mechanisms of cooperation, also outside the city council, in order to have their voice heard in the city council.” We inquired how Mr. Poghosyan would assess the fact that the Armenian National Congress (ANC) and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), which are traditional opposition forces, hadn’t been able to overcome the 6% threshold, whereas the Hello Yerevan Coalition established just recently had, whether this was not a present given by the government to Raffi Hovhannisyan who had come second in the presidential election. Tevan Poghosyan said: “It doesn’t seem to me that the government doesn’t know what to do and gives out presents. On the contrary, they seem to have proved that the more they see, the more they want and are not willing to give out presents.” He thinks that the reason for Hello Yerevan’s success is that the coalition was based on the Heritage Party, and people took a stereotypic approach; Hello Yerevan is perceived to be the Heritage Party, Raffi Hovhannisyan’s team. Stepan Safaryan, a representative of Hello Yerevan, had asked a question the day before whom the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) would play for in the Yerevan City Council. We inquired of Tevan Poghosyan in which camp the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) would be, in his opinion. “What I think is probably not as important as what the PAP thinks. They will state, and we will know. They are an alternative in the parliament,” our interlocutor said, adding that he would like to see the PAP in the place, where they would be able to deal with issues that they had raised, along with the opposition camp.
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NELLY GRIGORYAN
