Rule of Law party secretary Mher Shahgeldyan sees a connection between the last big rally against funded pension system and noisy interviews of the second President of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan. “It was interesting that the rally with regard to timing coincided with Robert Kocharyan’s interview, in which he presented his approaches. We view these interviews as an application to enter the political life and expression of positions in this regard. Of course, no secret that the relationship between the second president, PAP and ARF are quite close, they have a history, and a number of MPs from both parties immediately expressed positive views to Robert Kocharyan’s views,” said Mr. Shahgeldyan, today, at “Post Scriptum” press club.
Mr. Shahgeldyan did not want to touch upon the access of Robert Kocharyan into the political arena, as well as his interviews and big rally, but only said, “I presented my observations. That’s all. We’ll see what developments will follow.” Rule of Law is the third political force, which connects the big rally organized against funded pension system to Robert Kocharyan. Recall that earlier Petros Makeyan, president of “Democratic motherland” party, and SDHP, had expressed an opinion about Kocharyan-rally connection. Tigran Martirosyan, member of “We are against mandatory” initiative, a non-partisan, in the conversation with us told that Robert Kocharyan has nothing to do with their struggle, moreover, with the last big rally. According to him, such statements are illogical and far from reality. “There’s no such a thing, it has been six months since this fight existed, and if Kocharyan was aware of the problem, it was discussed under his ruling, why he was not manifested until now. He could have expressed his opinion on social issues, it is normal, to connect it with forces of the past, creating a dark stories, is not logical.”
He did not agree that the PAP is providing the rally against the funded pension system with people. “I do not want to address the issue at all. It is not true.” Tigran does not think that the participation of representatives of parties in a civil initiative will make the struggle politicized. “The parties did not participate in our actions, but the NA factions, and the difference is great. The NA factions present the issue in the state instances: the Parliament, and Constitutional Court. Whereas, the parties can express their support or not, no one is against it.” The motto of party participants “Serzhik leave, Aerzhik-a criminal” and similar becomes a cause of slight differences between the non-partisan initiative members, but, according to Tigran, “It’s not the theme. Naturally, based on today’s social situation, the motto “Serzhik leave” is topical. I do not think that by replacing the president, prime minister or other official, the question to be solved. Mechanisms should be developed for the public to have the opportunity to apply these mechanisms, to impel its opinion to any authorities, be able to take and deliver its concerns to the end user.”
As said by Tigran Martirosyan, time will show whether the most active participation of political figures will help or hinder in achieving meeting their requirements, and did not want to draw parallels between the struggle against 150 dram and them. “The struggle for 100 dram is still underway, since the issue has not been finally resolved. They have chosen that path, we have chosen this path, let’s see which one will produce better result (he means that the fight against 150 dram was not politicized). Then, it is not necessary to choose the same directions for solving all problems.”
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Arpine Simonyan
