President of DPA Party Aram Sargsyan brings up some details
– Mr. Sargsyan, when you declared about your termination to cooperate with Seyran Ohanyan and Vartan Oskanian by the previously announced format, the impression was that the problem was connected with occupying a place on the electoral list. If we go back, were there other problems too?
– The list has a very important meaning but the main question was that the concept of an “alliance” failed, no commission was formed and the decisions were not discussed jointly. We as leaders of three parties did not meet with Seyran Ohanyan to hold discussions and arrive at decisions. Decisions were discussed during separate meetings, or there were discussions where the adopted decisions were constantly changed. The main objective for us was not to have one or two representatives in the Parliament but to understand what programs we want to implement in the case of winning or having a big representation in the parliament. And this was not decided. And of course, when a problem arose by whose whim and what decision should be made, we could not exist in this format. It is excluded for anyone to dictate his will. I can never cope with the fact that someone should tell me: I have decided, and I should agree or disagree with it. The decisions must be arrived at by everybody but it did not happen.
– Were Robert Kocharyan’s decisions dictated?
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– I do not think so. In any case, I have not seen Robert Kocharyan’s shade there but I’ve seen Samvel Babayan’s shade. As to who with whom and what, I cannot say, I am not interested in such connections or ears, I do not discuss such issues. I am discussing what refers to the principles and ideas, otherwise, I have nothing to do in any format. If I am not mistaken, even Vartan Oskanian was informed from the press that we have made a statement to withdraw. So, now think whether there was such an alliance or not. Or, someone decides that Raffi Hovannisian is coming to join the alliance, he arrives at the last minute and it was decided that they must be given much more opportunities. To close the mouths of some people, I consider it very important to talk about the statements that allegedly DPA has few human resources. We had invited everybody to the congress to see the party’s resources. We have never announced that we are hundreds of thousands, tens of thousands: we have our definite electorate and I can say for sure that none of the parties in the alliance has it. DPA has many branch offices, and the ORO Alliance applies to these offices to cooperate, while DPA offices refuse as they abide by the party decision.
– “Ohanyan-Raffi-Oskanian” alliance is an established fact. In your assessment, what are the opportunities of the alliance?
– When forming this alliance, I was thinking that again a principle is violated in terms of equality of the leaders of political parties. What are the opportunities, it is difficult to say because the campaign has not started yet. But I do not have any idea of what electorate or what human resources they have. Time will come and we will see. We wish good luck to everyone. I think that the withdraw of the DPA and the “Third Republic” from the non-established alliance, certainly, left a big impact. Anyway, I have heard many words of regret in these days, during the meetings and telephone conversations regarding our withdrawal. I think it will have an effect on the newly formed alliance.
– Is “Ohanyan-Raffi-Oskanian” alliance truly opposition? Do you believe the opposition stance of the leaders of the alliance?
– All orations, speeches and documents, however, prove it. I almost do not doubt that they are opposition. It is hard to be certain because I have a bitter experience. Surely, we were moving forward as it was agreed upon which suddenly failed.
– Your headed party announced that they are going to monitor the electoral process. Will you support any political party or an alliance? Will you orient your electorate toward any direction?
– So far, we have no such a desire because no political party or alliance voices our position. Which is that the system cannot allow to bring the country out to real development. This system needs to be dismantled step by step, in parallel form new public relations in implement major projects in true solidarity conditions as the challenges are also very serious. We were thinking that at this stage, the forces which support the change of regime should be consolidated but as we can see, the forces which have been in the sources of the establishment of this system or are the users of the goods of this system take part in the electoral process. We had presented 20 elements and had mentioned the ways to implement them. Now, we have heard from somewhere the replication of those elements. If they can fulfill them, we are not against it. We had submitted those recommendations to the Government as well. We will form fact-finding groups to observe the process of elections. Then, we will publicize our assessment and conclusion.
– Are these elements coming from RPA, or you mean 15 elements of “Tsarukyan” alliance?
– Both … everybody says they are the same missions. Of course, they are the same but it depends on who and what is offered for the solution of these problems. The main question is whether everybody accepts that this system is defective. The ruling wing is comprehensible: their task is to be reproduced, and what about the oppositions? They are already saying populistic things: we will increase pension fee by AMD 25 thousand, we will make the minimum wages AMD 80 000. Do they understand that in this case, everybody should come out of the shadows, or the rich should bring their tens of millions to the budget because, at this point, it is impossible to take money from other places? The problem is this: who says and what he says.
