The opposition’s “Justice” alliance is splitting up slowly yet surely. President of the National Democratic political party (NDP) and National Assembly deputy Shavarsh Kocharyan has decided to no longer cooperate with the alliance starting from December 20. He decided to have nothing do with the “Justice” alliance or work with them during the NDP administrative session, which took place a couple of days ago. During a press conference held yesterday, Shavarsh Kocharyan announced that his political party would not be excluded from the alliance at the moment. It was no surprise to anyone that Sh. Kocharyan was going to leave the alliance sooner or later.
The relations between Sh. Kocharyan and the alliance have been pretty rough for a long time already. The reason for the rough relations was the contradicting evaluations given by Sh. Kocharyan and the alliance regarding the constitutional amendments draft presented by the coalition. The conflict reached its climax when the alliance decided to represent Stepan Demirchyan for the Armenian delegation in the European Council instead of Shavarsh Kocharyan. Now it seems as if Shavarsh Kocharyan is offended by his colleagues and has decided to no longer “play with them”. “From now on, our political party is no longer cooperating with the alliance and participating in whatever they do, but we will reconsider joining the alliance only after the “Justice” alliance reevaluates what it has done, admits that it has committed an error and comes to the conclusion that we want. Basically, we are giving “Justice” alliance a chance so that it can decide what it wants to do and give us the opportunity to rejoin the alliance.”
This is the ultimatum that Sh. Kocharyan gave to his colleagues. If the “Justice” alliance does not reevaluate, according to the ultimatum, Shavarsh Kocharyan threatens to leave the alliance as said yesterday during the conference. The deputy added that in regard to his political party leaving the alliance- that is totally up to him due to the fact that no alliance member can take a political party out. “The process of the constitutional amendments showed that the majority of the political parties included in the alliance believe that change of power is self-aimed. That is why the constitutional amendments referendum was looked at as a means for change of power. The failure of that kind of policy was foreseen,” said Mr. Kocharyan yesterday during the conference as he expressed his disappointment of the opposition. Kocharyan does not agree with journalists when they claim that the ultimatums proposed to the “Justice” alliance are a result of the alliance taking him out of the European Council. “What they did to me is the result of deeper things which brought me to this decision,” says Sh. Kocharyan. Let’s observe one thing: the whole meaning of the announcements made by Sh. Kocharyan and the political party were aimed against the “Justice” alliance. But what’s interesting is that, according to the president of the NDP, “the one using the constitutional amendments referendum as a means for revolution” was not the alliance, but rather the “Republic” political party which forms a part of the alliance. In that case, is it right to throw the blame on the alliance?
“The “Republic” political party was the main party of the “Justice” alliance that tried to start a revolution by taking advantage of the amendments. But that doesn’t mean that there were no other members trying to start a revolution using that,” said the deputy. Sh. Kocharyan assured journalists yesterday that the political party was going to stick together and that the NDP also plans on working with other political parties. However, he did not state which political parties. “I will not mention the name of this or that political party at the moment. We are going to work with political and social organizations and individuals who remain true to democratic values,” said Kocharyan and added: “As we move along, we must be convinced that only people who believe in democracy can make the oppositionist play a bigger role; in addition, feel that they can make a difference in the country. It is one thing to be a believer in democracy, and it is another thing to not be a believer, find yourself in the opposition and dream of coming to power.”
How do Sh. Kocharyan’s colleagues look at all this? According to president of “Republic” political party Aram Z. Sargsyan, Sh. Kocharyan’s announcements should not be paid attention to. “I don’t know any political figure like him. That political figure has turned into a political instrument. I don’t consider fighting with political instruments as correct,” said Aram Z. Sargsyan and added: “The people that are fighting against each other to come to power now, in my opinion, do not have the right to give evaluations for the opposition. That person wishes to hold the position of Larisa Alaverdyan. That person is simply repeating all that Robert Kocharyan says. Similarity in last names does not have to do with anything in this case. Now, he is a part of the authorities and whatever he says does not differ from what the authorities say.”
Head of news information for the “Justice” alliance Ruzan Khachatryan is amazed to see Sh. Kocharyan give ultimatums to the alliance and only converse with his colleagues using words used in the press language. R. Khachatryan does not consider this as good behavior and in general, according to R. Khachatryan, Sh. Kocharyan has always participated in the alliance sessions. “The accusations against the alliance should not be made. The alliance has made all decisions after discussions and Sh. Kocharyan has taken part in those discussions; as a matter of fact, he has not been against those decisions. During the past years, both Sh. Kocharyan and his political party members have agreed with the projects proposed by the alliance and the path chosen to take-including the decision of “Justice” to boycott the constitutional amendments referendum,” said head of news information of the “Justice” alliance Ruzan Khachatryan during an interview with us. The only thing left to do is to understand why Sh. Kocharyan is making these announcements at a time like this.