MP Melik Manukyan, Arshak Mkhitaryan, Alexan Petrosyan, Grigor Margaryan have already presented written applications to drop their memberships. Yesterday Sayad Zakharyan, brother of the mayor of Yerevan Ervand Zakharyan, joined them too. That’s not all. According to our information, Samvel Shahgaldyan, Esward Gabrielyan, Khachik Petrosyan and Arkadi Hambardzumyan are also going to leave the party. Now we understand why Robert Kocharyan has decided to punish Arthur Baghdasaryan. We may make such assumptions if we pay attention to the entire scenario of these past couple of days.
According to our information some powers will do their best to cut down the number of the Rule of Law faction from 21 members to 10 members and turn it into a minority in the parliament. At the same time everything will be done to demonstrate that this collapse is not a reason of their conflicts concerning the privatization program, but rather because their MP members don’t agree with the policy that is being implemented by Arthur Baghdasaryan. Besides that, it is expected that some other MPs that didn’t vote for the privatization program because of Arthur Baghdasaryan’s order, will leave the party too. In other words, it is expected that Arthur Baghdasaryan will be punished like Artashes Tumanyan was.
As for the members that left the party, they all say that they don’t want to make any comments and the fact is that they have dropped their memberships.
We already know the reasons why. Recently, Arthur Baghdasaryan thought he was the president’s successor and was going to be the next person to get to sit in the big chair after him. In fact, he had already started campaigning. Parallel to campaigning he was doing his best to get separated from these authorities, thanks to whom he was elected back in 2003. During this period he was criticizing the government for illegal privatization programs and was also announcing that all elections were conducted in fraud in Armenia and were violated. Later he announced that if there were serious contradictions and conflicts with the other coalition members they could leave the coalition. Finally, Kocharyan got angry at him and decided to show him who is the “boss”. As for this decision, the president has already proved what may happen to these kinds of people (the best example is the case of Artashes Tumanyan).
Yesterday the “Rule of Law” office staff was in a very bad mood. They were sad and didn’t want to give any comments. They also said that the businessmen that had left their party didn’t have anything to do with their political activities in general. From this perspective, after these members left, the party didn’t lose any political potential. “Everyone knows what happened and the press writes that too. So there is nothing surprising here. And if you think that I will say wrong things about our colleagues you are mistaken, because we worked for three years together”, said Rule of Law MP Hovhannes Margaryan and added, “this party has over 62 thousand members, and just becaause several members leave the party, it doesn’t mean that it’s the end of the world”. He is right. In fact, nothing serious will happen if several members leave the party, but the thing is that these members joined the party under administrative pressure of some powerful representatives, so if they leave the party, it will not be so difficult to cut down the number of their party members to 10 thousand. We asked Hovhannes Margaryan whether he agreed with the rumors claiming that the reason was the fact that in this recent period the Rule of Law was partly governmental and partly oppositional, which made the president angry and he decided to punish Arthur Baghdasaryan. “We haven’t changed our minds. We have always criticized bad things, and encouraged the good things. As for the black PR that is being implemented against Arthur Baghdasaryan and Rule of Law, everyone understands what’s really going on?. But the most important thing for us is the public opinion, because the public knows everything and knows who is who. Besides that, only time will show”, said Hovhannes Margaryan and added, “we can leave the coalition if there are any serious conflicts. In spite of many politicians, Arthur Baghdasaryan does not do everything just to get to sit in the big chair.”.
After all this, it will be illogical to imagine someone in the speaker’s position, whose party is a minority in the NA. And if Arthur Baghdasaryan resigns, it is quite possible that the “People’s Deputy” faction may move forward to take the speaker’s impeachment. ARF representatives don’t want to give any comments regarding this. As for Republican Tigran Torosyan, he says, “If there are developments in different factions, we should consider them as reality. As for the businessmen, the issue is different here, because as far as I know they made their decisions concerning the Rule of Law just before the 2003 elections. And their presence in the faction or party doesn’t depend on the political activities of the party. This is a very important factor and we should consider this factor when discussing the issue. But I think we shouldn’t make predictions. Only time will show whether this is the end of this process or not. And we will be able to make assumptions only after this, when the process is over”, says NA vice speaker, Republican Tigran Torosyan.