Although the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairimen revealed the Karabagh conflict negotiation principles, however, Armenian political figures refrain from talking about that and are waiting for something to happen. They’re actually waiting for the out-of-turn meeting of the Republicans to be held on July 22.
According to head of the National Assembly Republican faction Galust Sahakyan, the fact that the Armenian authorities are not focusing on the Karabagh conflict shows the imperfections of the political field in Armenia.
“It seems as though oppositionists are hoping to come to power through the means of the Karabagh conflict. As for the authorities, they are not answering to concrete questions,” said Galust Sahakyan.
Sahakyan is of the opinion that there won’t be any significant changes in the Karabagh conflict in 2006, but “there will be some functions besides the diplomatic ties.”
Head of the Republican faction believes that all political parties must unite as one to resolve the Karabagh conflict and he doesn’t see anything bad about the announcements made by OSCE Minsk Group American co-chairman Matthew Bryza and the remaining three co-chairmen. He says that those announcements are simply “investigative” and “create a new environment in order to better understand how this will be looked at in Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
According to Sahakyan, the American side is not making announcements about the Karabagh conflict, rather “it wants to be in favor of the Azerbaijani side” judging from its economic interests. He adds that this uncertainty will only last 15-20 days. G. Sahakyan believes that the best thing would be to reveal all the documents having to do with the conflict negotiations in order to analyze further. As for the internal political field of Armenia, head of the Republican faction says that “there are no developments” and the current doze is the reason why all political figures are drawing their attention to the Republican party and the upcoming meeting..
“We have some plans for the upcoming parliamentary elections and that’s why we will have the meeting,” he says.
Galust Sahakyan is worried over the split of the opposition. In fact, he says that there is practically no opposition in Armenia, but rather “scraps” of the opposition. Sahakyan usually makes the right predictions and says that the Republican party will play a huge role during the 2008 presidential elections. In regard to the rumors flying around that Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan may join the Republican party, Sahakyan said that if that happens, it won’t be unusual because Serge Sargsyan was elected as one of their deputies during the 2003 parliamentary elections.
“So, we have always worked together and do until now,” said Sahakyan and added that the main issue today is to strengthen that tie.
“It’s up to the minister of defense to decide whether or not he wants to join the party. We’re going to coordinate forces again and this time the Republican party will get somewhere (…). Regardless of the cooperation, Serge Sargsyan is the state/political figure who has played a major role in Armenia and has served the country,” said G. Sahakyan.
During the interview, head of the Republican faction also touched upon the voting code. According to him, the more the authorities approve the proposals made by the oppositionists about the voting code, the more the oppositionists come up with new ones. The Republicans believe that they can approve all the proposals, even the ones that the Venetican convention disapproves. But G. Sahakyan says that if the thumbprint proposal is approved, “then you have the problem with getting the finger bloody. So, we have to pay close attention to this.”