The “Veteran’s Union” party has decided to get active before the upcoming parliamentary elections. As honorable president of the union Hamlet Hovsepyan said during an interview, the Veteran’s Union will soon try to unite the “Land Defenders Union”, the “Soul Ordeal” and other organizations and call on them to participate in the upcoming elections.
“We will soon invite all similar organizations and call on them to join the Veteran’s Union as a political party. I believe and am certain that these powers will carry on a great mission come election time,” says Hamlet Hovsepyan.
It is worth mentioning that out of all the NGOs founded by veteran soldiers, only the “Veteran’s Union” became a party, while the others stayed as NGOs. According to Hovsepyan, there was a time when the union was scared of getting into politics and let the authorities handle the job.
“But now we see that there are illegalities everywhere in the country, it’s a state of chaos. Taking that into consideration, the Veteran’s Union decided to enter the political field. Our goal is to take part in the elections, make it to the parliament and raise our issues,” says the honorable president.
He is amazed to see that people look at the veteran as someone with no education or profession. However, Hovsepyan assures that the union includes smart members with different professions.
“We have pedagogues, directors, professors. If they were the authorities, we would all be living better lives now because they are close with the people and understand their problems,” he says and adds that they have appealed to the National Assembly a couple of times asking them to pass laws that may make social life easier. But nothing is being done. They are not going to tolerate that anymore and this time they will take the initiative.
“We have legendary people who didn’t die and they are the ones creating a better future for the country,” says Hovsepyan. In his opinion, people don’t leave Armenia due to the lack of jobs or the poor social/economic status, but because of the “injustices and the corruption”.
“When will these authorities have enough? They grab the millions, but from who? How did state officials get to have thousands of hectares of land and factories? Currently, Armenia is a place for thieves and we’re just not going to put up with that,” says Hovsepyan. According to him, if things change just a little in the political field, then some authority figures may escape overnight.
“They are all scared. Did you see what happened with “Rule of Law”? It’s because the people standing next to Arthur Baghdasaryan were like him. The same goes for the Republican party. If the Republicans don’t get power, their members will also flee,” says Hovsepyan.
In his opinion, the veterans must fight against the fraudulence during the upcoming parliamentary elections. Even if they don’t make it to the parliament, then they will at least lower the level of fraudulence and forbid the “easy-goers” to make it to the parliament.
“This is also a battlefield and we have to come out victorious. The opposition always says that there was fraudulence. We must show the world that we are civil people. We have to explain to the people that you won’t save the country by giving bribes,” says Hovsepyan.
The previous elections have proven that the authorities not only spend their financial resources, but also their administrative resources while committing fraud. The fraudulence goes on with the consent of the police. In response to this, Hovsepyan assures that it’s possible to solve that problem by placing 100 people at polls instead of just one.
“Then we’ll see who’s going to feel free. What shaved-head, what police?” he says.
However, he adds that the people shouldn’t leave the police on one side because they also want to see fair elections.
“The police want to see the shady money make it to the state budget and get paid more for what they do,” says H. Hovsepyan.
However, the “Land Defenders’ Union” and the “Soul Ordeal” party members don’t agree with that and say that that will never happen. According to vice-president of the “Land Defenders’ Union” Ara Ketikyan, “the “Land Defenders Union” was the first union in its kind and the Veteran’s Union broke off on its own. They should be the ones joining us.”
As for the “Soul Ordeal”, member Albert Bazeyan says that there can’t be a joining and that the veterans of that union are members of different parties and must go along with what the other parties say.