President of the Federation of Unions of Assyrians in Armenia, Irina Gasparyan, has not yet become familiar with the draft on the Constitutional amendments. However, she is familiar with the amendments on the ethnic minorities. She told Aravot.am that the offer of the Yezidi about the involvement of the ethnic minority in the National Assembly is not close to their heart and they have argued a lot with the Yezidi on this subject. “I think these quotas are very wrong because we are already working with the MPs and the National Assembly. We are citizens of Armenia and we cooperate with the MPs on the matters of our political and public activities. We have an example: the NA Deputy Speaker Sharmazanov is Greek by nationality. Consequently, any minority representative can be included in the list. Yezidi have also offered this issue, we constantly argue with them explaining that it is not necessary, but they consider that quota is necessary. I think it is unnecessary,” said Irina Gasparyan.
Arkady Khitarov, Head of the Union of the Greek NGOs representing the “Elpida” Greek Community, on the contrary, is encouraged by the offer of the Yezidi. He considers the involvement of minority representatives in the National Assembly a positive progress, simply he has no clue how they will be elected. “There are about nine national minorities in Armenia, and I cannot imagine how they will be involved. Of course, it would be good to have a representative of minorities there to be able to introduce out matters better there. I do not know whether there is a number of how and how many will be elected or what is meant by being involved.” Arkady Khitarov has also not yet read the draft on the constitutional amendments and is yet unable to express an opinion. The Georgian community representative in Armenia, Svetlana Namchevadze, is also in favor of the offer to be involved in the National Assembly. She also is not aware of the draft on the constitutional amendments, therefore, she was limited to giving assessments. And then, she said that she has no complaints about the current Constitution, and the national minorities’ rights are not limited under the current Constitution.
To our question of what changes she would like to see in the new Constitution, she said, “We want what all Armenians want – for the young people to have employment and do not leave Armenia and have adequate conditions, that’s all.”
Arpine SIMONYAN
