The RPA’s decision to participate in the elections and its decision to include Vigen Sargsyan and Davit Shahnazaryan on its proportional list will make the elections more interesting. Regardless of how much anyone agrees with these politicians, it is interesting to listen to them, and debates that they will participate in (if any are organized) will be spectacular.
Overall, the RPA has two problems, one of which is unresolvable, and the other which is unlikely to be resolved. The problem that is unresolvable is that any argument made by the party, even one written in the Bible, will not be accepted. People will reject it, they will spread rumors, and the argument will receive an overall negative response. Not only will the members of the ruling party and its supporters spread the rumors, but all the participants in the campaigns will do so as well. The party that is hated by most of society is a wonderful target to use to gain political dividends. Speaking about visions of the future is difficult; doing so requires knowledge and effort. It is extremely easy, however, to talk about how the RPA robbed the country. Especially since that’s mostly true.
The problem the Republicans face that will be difficult to resolve is being in “visual contact” with the people. But I will write about that another time.
About Davit Shahnazaryan. If he wants to be on Nikol Pashinyan’s pre-electoral list, it’s understandable that there will be doubts that he wants to be near the “authority trough,” or that he simply wants to become (stay) a deputy through taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the leader loved by the people. About 50-60 people on the list will be in parliament (though the possibility is not excluded that the motives for being on the authority party’s proportional list may be honest ones). But when a politician joins the list of the most hated and ridiculed party, whose visions of being in parliament are very foggy, then it’s illogical to make any accusations towards that politician. In my view, the RPA is a platform for Shahnazaryan to voice his opinions on the Artsakh conflict. The rest of the political parties participating in the elections will either support policies put forth by the authorities, or they won’t risk critiquing the policies, knowing what kinds of insults will be hurled at them if they do so.
Regarding insults… We can sympathize with those people since insults are a cry for help.
Aram Abrahamyan
