Stepan Safaryan, Head of the Institute for International and Security Affairs, believes that the establishment of a party is mutually beneficial to both Vartan Oskanian and Robert Kocharyan. Note that today an announcement was made about the establishment of the “Unity” party headed by RA NA MP Vartan Oskanian. In an interview with Aravot.am, Stepan Safaryan noted that thus Mr. Oskanian is solving the issue of his staying in the politics, “If Vartan Oskanian returned to politics in 2012 by the PAP list, now, he obviously cannot have a seat in the future parliament. Hence, the establishment of the party is perhaps his personal interest in this field rather than for particularly the country’s development. His goal is to create a team, a name that will ensure Vartan Oskanian’s political career and the presence in the parliament.” According to Mr. Safaryan, Mr. Oskanian cannot do it alone and it is not accidental that in response to the question of Robert Kocharyan’s being behind this structure, Vartan Oskanian had once stated, “I will neither deny nor confirm.” Stepan Safaryan is sure that Mr. Oskanian “does not intend to deny the undeniable because he needs such a political support for his game… I think that all this is a story of five percent.” The politician thinks that it is strange that it is not declared in any way about the lack of the program and ideology and this also indicates that Vartan Oskanian’s entire goal is to have a seat in the parliament.”
In response to our question as to what kind of a problem the second president of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan solves as it is no secret that everybody connects this newly established power with Robert Kocharyan’s name, Mr. Safaryan replied that the second president of Armenia is solving the issue of the security of his business and the wealth, “Kocharyan needs a team to preserve his property, accumulated, stolen and plundered. These days, it is noticeable that the high-ranking officials are concerned that the four-day war opened up the topic of the return of illegally obtained wealth. Kocharian becomes more than interested in creating teams that will serve a buffer and political skin will and will not allow touching his wealth. Therefore, there is a two-sided interest in the establishment of the party.”
In response to our question of whether Robert Kocharian is also solving the issue of his return to the politics, Mr. Safaryan replied, “Kocharyan no longer has the influential tools. PAP actually as a second political factor has turned into a very regular team whose appearance in the parliament has the same chance as all other forces. There is no guarantee like it was in 2012. Now, it has the same chances as all the other parties. PAP is taken out under the control of Kocharyan. We see different factions: one supporting the prime minister, the other – Tigran Urikhanyan and so on. In this light, Kocharyan does not have the former tools, especially since the Constitution has been amended, there is no post of a president, and the matter refers to just lead the team or be an NA Speaker or a prime minister.”
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Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
