Head of the Bright Armenia political party Edmon Marukyan answered reporters’ questions in Vanadzor. He said that the campaigns went just as they had planned. There were several difficulties, which were mostly tied to the lack of finances and resources. Marukyan once again stated that they are fighting for second place. “After the revolution, that is essentially first place. And we expect that Armenian citizens will solve that problem with their every step and every vote. It is a fundamentally important circumstance in the new Armenia for Bright Armenia to be the second political party in the new parliament. And our emotions and meetings show that people are saying that yes, you have the be the second force. Now Bright Armenia and Prosperous Armenia are in second and third place.”
The members of the political party paid their respects in Vanadzor in honor of the victims of the 1988 earthquake. Marukyan said that the term “disaster zone” will officially not be used when people living in small trailers after the earthquake will be living elsewhere. “If I’m not mistaken, during Kocharyan’s administration, the name “disaster zone” was taken out and “development zone” was used in its place. But that’s absurd. A disaster zone or country develops with words? Thousands of people still live in these trailers, and at the same time, people were stealing endlessly from the country,” Marukyan said, and presented his suggestion. “The money returned from all the theft needs to be used towards solving the trailer house issue. This is how I plan to solve the problem. This should no longer be a problem in the new Armenia, and it needs to be solved quickly. This is an issue of dignity and basic human rights. When it’s said that, for example, Sashik will be returning 30 million dollars, or the others, that money needs to be used towards solving this problem. We need to buy apartments from a second market, give them to the families, and get them out of those trailers. The Prime Minister agreed with this suggestion. He said that 2.5 billion needs to be returned to the state budget, and that this problem can be solved using that money. We can use 50 million dollars to buy apartments in Gyumri and Vanadzor for these families. I don’t know how much money will be necessary in Spitak.”
Tatevik Ghazaryan
