Eduard Sharmazanov claims that pressuring him is practically impossible
“Shall Hovik Abrahamyan and I take each other’s hands and engage in a round dance, so that everyone sees that we are in a very good mood. Don’t worry, everything’s fine, both my and our political team’s mood is very good, and we are currently dealing with problems facing our people,” Eduard Sharmazanov, the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, said in response to Aravot’s question whether Hovik Abrahamyan, the National Assembly Speaker, really wanted to pressure him. As early as after the Yerevan City Council election, there were publications in the press that National Assembly Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan who had managed the RPA campaigns during both the parliamentary election and the presidential election was jealous that Eduard Sharmazanov, his deputy in the parliament, managed the RPA campaign during the city council election. According to those publications, jealousy swelled in the post-election period when the young Republicans exceeded the results shown by the older RPA members in previous elections. The press mentioned these controversies again the other day and asserted that during the four-day session of the National Assembly, Hovik Abrahamyan and Eduard Sharmazanov were presiding sulkily and didn’t talk to each other. “Both politicians and our partners from the press should know quite well that it is practically impossible to pressure me, even with the best will in the world. It is just ridiculous, and I would like to advise those who live in a glass house not to hurl stones at others, since that stone may cause that house to collapse on top of them,” Eduard Sharmazanov added.
Talking about the discussions on the Cabinet’s program and the behavior of opposition and alternative forces in the parliament in recent days, our interlocutor said: “All around the world, from Australia to the US, the opposition criticizes during the discussion on the Cabinet’s program, and the Cabinet shows what it has done and what it hasn’t done. However, as opposed to the aforementioned countries and any other country, in our country, the opposition only criticizes, not sharing its thoughts, except for Hrant Bagratyan, an Armenian National Congress (ANC) MP who shared his thoughts. However, it is common around the world that if criticism doesn’t contain an alternative program, it is worthless.” Our interlocutor thinks that the parliamentary discussions on the Cabinet’s program showed that the political majority’s arguments were more substantiated and expressed more clearly “than those of the opposition that was just complaining.”
Although the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) parliamentary group voted against the Cabinet’s program, the alternative PAP didn’t criticize, as opposed to the opposition groups. Yet in the not so distant past, the PAP would fiercely criticize both the Prime Minister and the Cabinet’s work. Aravot inquired of the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly whether the PAP’s vote wasn’t a surprise or unexpected for the ruling majority, particularly given the fact that the PAP leader had stated that the party he led couldn’t be opposition. Eduard Sharmazanov responded: “The PAP decides for itself how it votes, but in any event, we don’t have sleepless nights thinking about how the PAP will vote. The PAP’s vote, whatever it is, neither worries nor concerns us. It is their problem. It is important for the ruling political force to carry out its program, because in that case, society’s condition will be improved, and gradually solve those many problems – injustice, corruption, poverty – facing our compatriots. We are interested in improvement of our society’s condition and will do everything necessary to gradually improve society’s condition.” Speeches “for the sake of the nation” stopped being a novelty for Armenian society and stopped consoling our compatriots long ago, particularly given the fact that the talk about the rise in gas prices has already caused an increase in prices of food and everyday items, and although not a large mass, people in Armenia took to the streets to protest against social problems for the first time; isn’t the ruling party concerned about this? In response to this question-remark of ours, the National Assembly Deputy Speaker said: “We are concerned about any event that may worsen the social condition of the residents of Armenia even by one percent. That increase in prices affects the budget of Eduard Sharmazanov’s family too, also my friends and my relatives. It is not that we live in luxurious mansions far from Armenia and are unaware of that. That is why the government, the Cabinet try to find alternative resources – subsidization, compensation etc. – in order to ease the social burden. However, for some reason, it seems to everyone that the Cabinet, the government has put gas in its pocket and raises or lowers gas prices whenever it wishes. No one says that as a result of active interference of this government and the head of state, the gas price in the Republic of Armenia has been the lowest in the region. The Russians sold gas even to their closest ally, Belarus, for 189 dollars. I have said on one occasion, and I repeat that gas prices are determined as a result of negotiations, based on the market.” Referring to the arguments made and assurances given by the authorized agencies during closed discussion on gas prices in the parliament, Sharmazanov says that gas prices will be as low as possible. And the Cabinet will try to moderate social dangers awaiting needy families, using its “tools.” Sharmazanov reminds that the process of serious changes has started in Armenia, and it manifests itself in increasing the minimum wage by 10 thousand drams as of June 1.
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“In the past five days, we haven’t heard from any opposition or alternative politician an answer to the question what they would have done, if they were in power. Fine words butter no parsnips. It is not only about criticizing; it is the easiest thing to do. People whose political force’s former prominent representatives are not with them any longer talk about trust. Even their parliamentary partners are not with them today. People whose moral
background cannot be considered pure even with the best will in the world lecture about morality. Everyone talks about the government’s quality, who will talk about the opposition’s quality?” our interlocutor says, not avoiding to admit once again that they also have many shortcomings, problems, but they are ready to listen to healthy proposals of oppositionists. “That is the difference between them and us. Yes, we can make mistakes, and we have sometimes made them, we can fail, but unlike oppositionists, we don’t look for the reasons of our failures in the rival opposition camp. One should be a realist; no proposal was made by oppositionists during the discussions on both the Cabinet’s program and the gas prices, except for Hrant Bagratyan’s proposal.”
We inquired whether the Armenian side was going to raise the issue of Russian military bases in Armenia during the negotiations on gas prices with the Russian side. Let us remind that the Russian Federation doesn’t pay for the military bases, moreover, Armenia makes utility payments. “The anti-Russian hysteria that was noticeable in some MPs’ speeches in the past few days has been strange to me. The Russian Federation is our strategic partner; neither the Russian Federation nor Armenia make concessions, the two countries are allies, given their national interests. Yes, the national interests of the Republic of Armenia demand that we have close political-military, cultural and economic relations with the Russian Federation. 21 years of the existence of the Republic of Armenia have proved that the political-military cooperation of the state of Armenia with the Russian Federation is the most productive. People who make such arguments are either far from reality or aim at driving a wedge between Armenia and Russia. Besides being in the political-military interests of the two countries, the military bases of the Russian Federation in Armenia are in our country’s national security interests,” Sharmazanov said, reminding that this didn’t mean that the Republic of Armenia should not enhance its relations with the EU and NATO.
NELLY GRIGORYAN
