“I am also a land defender. I am also putting up my nomination to be in
the administrative staff of the Union of Land Defenders,” said Greta
Sargsyan during the conference of the ULD. The proposal might have been
accepted by all if it hadn’t been for Aram Z. Sargsyan who said the
following: “No, Greta must not join the staff because she does not
belong here and all of you must come to our house for New Years’ rather
than celebrating alone. Do not come here one by one so that there will
be no complaints. If you are going to do that, then don’t come at all.”
We asked leader of the “Hanrapetutyun” (Republic) political party Aram
Sargsyan to clarify why he went against his mother’s proposal. “I
consider my parents as the owners of this country and they must be
included in this union as owners. The people sitting here are their
children and according to Armenian custom, the elder must not be
bargained for,” said Aram Sargsyan. He added: “My mother herself is the
owner of the “Land Defenders’ Union”. Why is she proposing to be part
of the administrative staff? The land defenders of today have worked as
administrative staff members. This is all I wanted to say. If they have
any problems, they are welcome to come and solve them with us. My
mother should not be the one coming here.” In response to the question
about if there were any complaints by the land defenders when he
announced that none of them should come alone to the New Years’ party,
Aram Sargsyan said: “No, it really isn’t that complicated. I just want
them all to come together. The people who are offended are not present
today. I said that in order to make everything clear, so that we can
celebrate together, so that nobody hurts one another. Otherwise, try
and imagine Manvel coming by himself and asking why the others did not
come, another person says this, says that, proves himself right…Then
Hakob will come with his wife, she will say something….That’s why I
said what I said.”
Aram Sargsyan also stated that if he wanted to, he could come to power
through the means of the Land Defenders’ Union. “If I wanted to do
that, I could. But I don’t want that and that is why I am keeping a
distance by remaining a “Land Defender”. One must wear camouflage after
becoming a “Land Defender”, but unfortunately the government members
are the ones wearing that. I can bring up a number of examples,
including Pinocetti or Sadam Hussein or Robert Kocharyan”. Taking into
consideration the fact that there were many land defenders who
supported the authorities and that one of them was President of the
Union’s administrative staff Manvel Grigoryan, we asked Aram Sargsyan
to prove how he would be able to come to power through the Land
Defenders’ Union. “I am not talking about word of mouth, but
rather….well, both the elite and the average members of the Land
Defenders Union share my opinions and their applause heard during and
after my speech proves everything.” We asked whether or not Aram
Sargsyan was fully convinced that he could come to power through the
union after he had made an announcement stating that the Land Defenders
had to respond to the events which took place on the night of April 12,
2004. He responded: “I had just answered the question. The Land
Defenders had claimed that they had to play a very important role in
all that, and I had said yes to that, although there should not be that
kind of situation in the country where the Land Defenders’ Union must
be forced to play that role and get caught in the middle of the
opposition and the authorities. But it is evident that the “Land
Defender” did not do his job. That was Vazgen Sargsyan’s duty. A clear
example of that was the night of April 12. Of course, the “Land
Defender” did not stand up and defend its people, right?”
The battalion commander of the Kotayk region’s Land Defenders’ Union
Vahan Manukyan, who was elected as member of the administrative staff,
called on the staff to enlist non-political party members who will not
have any interest in political parties. Aram Sargsyan said the
following to this: “I am totally against that. The Land Defenders’
Union is a professional union, even though we have some political
members here. That proposal goes against both Vazgen Sargsyan’s
beliefs, and the union’s charter. That speech had motives set by the
authorities and it was senseless. The “Land Defender’s” power is all
about including the authorities, the opposition and the neutrals in the
game. This is where they widen their spectrums. I see very clearly how
Seyran Ohanyan, Andranik Markaryan and I come to terms. This is where
we can all discuss, make jokes, and point out our flaws face to face
without the interference of the mass media. This is the power that the
“Land Defender” has. Whoever says something like that doesn’t know what
he is talking about.”