The situation has been tense in parliament for the past three days: boycotts, tense questions, and protests by beating on tables. We asked newly-elected Civil Contract deputy Vigen Khachatryan about how the opposition promised that it will not let the authorities get off the hook and whether or not they have been successful.
He responded, “I do not think that they have adopted the right behavior. It will be an unhelpful demonstration, and I hope they will understand that parliament is not the place where people can get off the hook or not.” The opposition also promised that there will be snap elections in a year and a half. Vigen Khachatryan does not believe that this prediction is realistic. “We will work for five years.” When asked about his motivation for joining Civil Contract in difficult conditions- right after the defeat in war- and if he believed in the party’s ideology and promises, he responded, “Nothing motivated me. I never believed that I would return to politics after more than 20 years of a hiatus. I simply received an offer to unite and support their efforts, and since I believe that our state has entered a very responsible phase, everyone must support it within their means so that we can come out of this difficult situation as soon as possible. All those who became deputies have taken on a serious burden and responsibility, and they must realize that every day.”
In response to the question of how the opposition claims that this government is incompetent and the situation in the country will not improve until the negotiator, the prime minister, changes, Khachatryan responded, “Anyone could have such an opinion, but our people decided that it should not change. The people’s decision should be respected, and the state and public interests should be served, not group or narrow party interests. It is a loss to that group, that party, and the country.”
In the parliament session hall, Civil Contract member Vagharshak Hakobyan spoke about the mandate they had received from the people. In response to the question of what we should understand by that “steel mandate” – persecution of former community leaders, pressure, Vigen Khachatryan answered, “Of course not. This implies the application of the principle ‘everyone is equal before the law.’ This implies that there must be the rule of law, from which it follows that every criminal must receive their assessment of justice. It is not persecution. It is another thing to accuse a person of a crime that they did not commit. It is also inadmissible to refer to the judicial system, the legal system. They should neither carry out orders nor protect the criminal. We need an independent legal system.”
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In response to the question of how the pro-government deputies are considered to be “pushing a button” to carry out the dictates of the team leader, and if he can, for example, oppose in case of disagreement, Vigen Khachatryan answered, “I am a new person in this team. Before making a decision, there is a clash of open thoughts and disputes in any team, especially in the faction. But it is very interesting that it does not end with getting upset or leaving each other. If there are 5 opinions, one is accepted, which must be implemented.”
We asked if that was the case on the Civil Contract team because the deputies who left My Step said that there was a cult of personality there, Khachatryan answered, “How else should they justify their departure? It is not a matter of a cult of personality. Of course, there is a leader that many people listen to, whose decisions they try to implement. But I have not been here for a month, yet I see the serious and sharp discussions that are going on. I see it. During the discussion of the candidates for the commission members when they were talking about what they had done, I had a question: well, why is the public not informed that you are doing so much work? And that, in my opinion, is one of their weakest points. The negative attitude towards that team is more of an artificial image than it really is.” Upon our surprise that this is often called a team of populists, and is that not true, Vigen Khachatryan assured that he sees from the inside that it is not like that at all.
Hripsime Jebejyan
