Today www.aravot.am inquired of Armen Martirosyan, a deputy leader of the Heritage Party, whether Gagik Tsarukyan had invited him to the opening of the church. Armen
Martirosyan replied that he hadn’t been invited. As for why Ruben Hakobyan was invited and the deputy leader of the party wasn’t, according to Armen Martirosyan, “Ruben Hakobyan is an MP and the leader of a parliamentary group.” In response to our question whether he would have gone, if he had been invited, Mr. Martirosyan said that if he had been invited, he would have thought whether he should have gone or not. “Now I am more relaxed, since he didn’t invite me.” In response to a question whether he was afraid that he would have been criticized, if he had gone, he assured: “Not at all. I don’t think that Ruben Hakobyan has become a target of criticism, because he went to the opening of the church, and I don’t think there is any problem in that. Or saying hello to Serzh Sargsyan. I have also said hello to Serzh Sargsyan several times during my career. So what? What does it matter anyway? Hello belongs to God. Admittedly, it seemed to some of our colleagues on the political stage that hello belonged to Raffi Hovhannisyan, but we have explained that hello belongs to God.” When we noted that he severely criticized Robert Kocharyan sometimes, he said that the latter was responsible for the events of October 27 and March 1, his hands were in blood, then shook that bloody hand, and asked whether it was right, he replied: “Everything related to God becomes pure, is purified. In any event, I don’t think that it is correct to mix up the spiritual with the political. First of all, there is a spiritual meaning to hello. That is the first manifestation of the principle ‘Love your neighbor.’ It is not appropriate to mix up politics with an area like that. I have very good, warm relations with the youth wing of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), in particular, including Samvel Nikoyan, but it by no means prevents me from criticizing their political activities and saying that the RPA should be in the opposition camp.” We asked to clarify whether he loved Robert Kocharyan, since he had said himself that one should love one’s neighbor, Armen Martirosyan said: “Me? The idea ‘Love your neighbor’ is a different idea. It doesn’t literally mean to love. I think it is rather related to human forgiveness.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
