The Armenian Revolutionary Federation has published its election campaign program. To have a seat in the parliament, the ARF, like many other political parties and alliances, gives many promises but the ways to the fulfillment of these promises are not mentioned. “Artsakh, security and foreign policy”, this section of the ARF program reads, “We strive to survive as a nation, build a Free, Independent and United Armenia, hence there is no alternative to building a powerful and our security ensuring state.” The Armenian Revolutionary Federation believes that there is no separate Artsakh issue, the Artsakh issue is an integral part of the Armenian issue and the Armenian Cause, “Our position on this issue remains unchanged, Artsakh needs to be reunited with Mother Armenia. The independence of Artsakh is a temporary solution of tactical importance for us.” ARF’s opinion on the security is as follows: “We must ensure the security of our country ourselves, knowing very well that only the threat of war prevents to be prepared to war. In this respect, the statements about unilateral concessions only bring closer and make the threat of war more real.” The Federation offers in its program to make efforts to involve Artsakh in the negotiations on its future as a full party. With the logic of nation-army concept, ARF offers Azerbaijan or as mentioned in the program, the oil dollar of the opponent to oppose to our scientific mind. The program reads, “To boost the establishment of military-industrial complex based on local scientific and technological notion. The opponent has oil dollars, we have talented scientists, inventors and engineers.”
The Federation suggests the salaries of officers and soldiers comply with the requirements for a decent livelihood, “The officer and the soldier who risk their lives every day should not experience material hardship.” As to how much is the decent livelihood mentioned by the Federation for the officers and contract servicemen is not clear, the ARF does not indicate any number or a salary size. But the Federation has not considered one thing: to ensure decent livelihood, the soldier also needs a decent weapon on the battlefield rather than as mentioned by the Prime Minister, military equipment with poor quality kerosene or weapons of the 80s. Otherwise, what decent livelihood requirements when you are going to face the door of the death. And of course, the ARF would not be the Armenian Revolutionary Federation if it had not addressed the Armenian-Turkish protocols and the Genocide.
The Federation recommends “to make the Armenian Genocide recognition and compensation issues an integral part of Armenia’s foreign policy agenda; to exclude any action that can weaken the process of the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide; to form necessary resistance against anti-Armenian plans of the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem; to cancel the Armenian-Turkish protocols contradicting our national interests.” Regarding the relations with Georgia, the ARF recommends to build them on the principle of friendship and mutual respect of national interests. “As a leading principle in the foreign policy, to consider the fact that the Armenian statehood is the guarantor for the implementation of national goals not only for the citizens of Armenia but all Armenians,” say the ARF member in their program and promises to do everything for the full involvement of the Diaspora Armenian in building a statehood.
The ARF says, “to exercise a full strategy to overcome the challenges facing the Republic and different segments of Armenians, to identify and use the nationwide potential. The Federation does not specify how to engage the Diaspora Armenians in the affairs of the Armenian statehood, let’s say, only with funding or, for instances, with broad powers in the process of political decision-making.
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