Interview with RPA Parliamentarian Samvel Farmanyan
– Why did you decide on the second day of the sit-in to go on the Baghramyan Avenue and build a wall between the police and protesters? Was it your initiative or a party assignment?
– It was, certainly, my initiative, although I realize how unconvincing it may seem to those who even in such situations have no manliness to make a sole decision even to wash up or for those whose manliness is just suffice to catch a fish only in a dirty water, relying on the unawareness of the protesters or the tension of the situation. On the first night, the police used special measures, and the initiative of building a live wall between the protesters and the police was aimed to be an extra guarantee that no such measures will be applied by the police, although the police top authorities had already made statements about it. This situation once again comes to prove what I have had the occasion to repeatedly say that the political system in our country is in crisis and the citizens have lost the trust in political parties and the politicians, which our political system has fully earned over these twenty-four years of independence, and in this context, the artificial division of the government-opposition, today, is even enough to make a cat laugh.
– In fact, you are sure that the police have employed brutal force and you were going to prevent it. Is it your attitude towards our police that have been improved in the last two years as the police chief asserts?
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– The use of force by the police against the peaceful demonstrators and the journalists is unacceptable. These protesters, overwhelmingly are wonderful young people, with whom any country and nation would be proud of, express in fact the opinion of entire society and symbolize the ideas of demand, dignity and independence. The behavior that the police demonstrates in the subsequent days until the moment of this interview, cause only admiration, and we must admit that it is also a major achievement, despite political and some civil circles would wish the events in Baghramyan Avenue have a completely different course of development.
– What did you feel when the protester, to put it mildly, did not accept the presence of the RPA lawmakers at the Baghramyan Avenue? Moreover, quite unpleasant expressions were voiced addressed to your fellow party member.
– What do you think, how the protesters should treat the representative of the political majority, when in their eyes, you are the author of the decision of the electricity price hike at the moment, no matter how it is far from reality or some people are unaware of your stances during the serious parliamentary discussions on the issue. This is natural. I am more than impressed with the peaceful demonstrators’ determination for ridding the ongoing protest from the true motives of receiving public indulgence by various political parties or from no more no less destructive influence of politicians having the problem of establishment. All of this actually is one-tenth significance. Today, everything must be done to ensure the demonstrations to continue peacefully, and the police to discontinue using special measures against peaceful demonstrators, and we, the politicians, should not just look or catch a fish in a dirty water, but to present tens of formulas every day for solution of the problem, one of which might work out and be a short-term or a long-term solution for the situation.
– Were you reprimanded by your fellow party members or the superiors for your move?
– I have already an immune for accepting such funny questions as a joke. I do not know who the party fellows are who can or cannot reprimand me. Only the President of Armenia can reprimand me, and I was never reprimanded by the President for my actions. In many cases, it was the opposite. There is no need for heartfelt mediators in my relationship with the President of the Republic, and I think that the interested political circles should have realized it long ago.
– Yesterday, the Prime Minister announced that anyway, the electricity tariff will not be revised. Why is the government so obstinate?
– The government-proposed solution is applauded. This is already an important indicator that the ear of the government is open before the public sentiments. However, it is evident that it is a prescription to partly overcome the consequences, which does not meet the public’s expectations. I think that the search for thorough solution of the issues should be intensively continued and the right solution that will meet the demands of the peaceful protesters, on the one hand, and on the other hand, would void the country’s energy system from the shocks and we would again not face the fan switching will be found. I am sure that it is possible to find such a solution and I do not doubt for one second that the President of the Republic will find this solution.
– Is it possible for you to revise your membership to the Republican Party, as you often express disagreements in the previous parliamentary sessions on various matters with respect to the movements and the burden of responsibility of the ruling political force, to which you affiliate?
– Such questions already become ridiculous. I have an absolute confidence and respect with the President of the Republic. The conclusions are left with you. I have had hundred occasions to say that my understanding of the political majority is different. I do not think that being a political majority means failure to have your own opinion or to express it if you have the sense of responsibility and compassionate, without violating, of course, the political and faction discipline. Such totalitarian thinking, if you have noticed, are more typical to the opposition forces rather than the parliamentary majority. I do not gloat, but it is a fact. If this were not so, surely, today, we would have the opposition political forces in the role of expressing the public sentiments.
– What do you think about the movement underway? How will it end?
– The decent dialogue has no alternative. The peaceful demonstrators, on behalf of the public, are demanding the cancellation of the decision on the electricity price hike. At first glance, meeting such a demand without additional solutions and steps, as the experts say, will lead to the collapse of the entire energy system. The demonstrators or the public have no commitment to finding out the solutions or additional steps that will allow sufficing the protesters’ just social and apolitical demand without casting a doubt on the operation of the energy system. This is first and foremost our, the government authorities, and also the entire political system’s responsibility, and the reasonable solution, in any case, should be found very quickly and offered to the public. And here, the Parliament has a task to do. I have no doubt that such solutions will be found, and the power of the government is in the willingness to go ahead to the requirements of its own people and not vice versa.
Interviewed by Nelly GRIGORYAN
