The recent announcement of the RA Republican party board, saying that the party is not going to nominate its board member, the head of its headquarter of Ajapnyak community, Arman Sahakyan for the community head’s position, has created a state of chaos among party members. Arman Sahakyan didn’t start the chaos, but rather his father, Galust Sahakyan-head of the Republican faction. Republicans say that Galoust Sahakyan thinks that the party let him down by making such a decision .
The Republican party members that gave this information say that the party board had the right to not vote for Arman Sahakyan because he resigned from being the deputy mayor and decided to get nominated as a community head without consulting with the party and without considering the party’s interests. In regard to the decision made, some Republicans say: “If they didn’t punish Arman Sahakyan it would be worse for them because there would be chaos during the upcoming parliamentary elections and they would make decisions on their own without consulting with the party board. Do you understand what that means? If the party board advocated Arman Sahakyan, that would serve as a firm basis for the other members to make decisions solely as well and later they would not be able to control the processes”, said our source from the Republican party and added that this is the reason why the board punished that member so that later if its members want to be nominated they would consult with the party board. Parties usually don’t make such decisions and are mainly agreed with the authority figures. “168 Hours” whether Galoust Sahakyan had agreed with either Serj Sargsyan or Andranik Margaryan. They assured us that the mentioned issue had been discussed in the party but each time he was told that the party didn’t think it was good to nominate him for the community head. “This was what A. Sahakyan said and he was asked not to publish any information as well. In spite of that, he didn’t follow the decision of the board and the board couldn’t do anything else but discuss that issue in the board and make a normal decision”, say our sources form the Republican party. We couldn’t ask any information from Arman Sahakyan because his cell phone was turned off all day long. I called the Ajapnyak community headquarter of the Republican party and were told that the reason A. Sahakyan had turned off his phone was not the fact that he didn’t want to talk to journalists, but the fact that he had gone out to visit the schools of the community to congratulate children on the first day of school. .
I managed to find out from the Republican party that only three persons have voted against discussing the issue of Arman Sahakyan in the board and those members are Arman Sahakyan, his father, Galoust Sahakyan, and his uncle, MP Ashot Aghababyan (61 out of 64 members voted to discuss the issue). Later, the press department of the Republican party made an announcement, which states that the party board made a decision not to nominate Arman Sahakyan for Ajapnyak community head’s position or advocate his candidacy, and those not going along with this decision will be punished by the administration. As for the mentioned administrative punishment, according to the by-laws of the party, in such cases members may get written remarks, their membership may be stopped for six months or they may lose their membership forever.
Arman Sahakyan gave an interview to “Azatutyun” radio station and said that he would take part in the elections. We can’t say which of these administrative norms will apply, but our sources from the party assure that the board will not be satisfied with a remark only and will act if necessary.
In regard to our note that the board would not make such a decision if the party had not reached an agreement with “Nig Aparan” union concerning the community head’s position (the current community head is a member of that union) our source said, “Maybe, it is politics, and if you want to solve global problems, you will have to give something instead to others as well. You can’t do whatever you like everywhere. Others want to have benefits too. The party can’t ignore its general interests in favor of only one member”.
It turns out that Galust Sahakyan is of the same opinion, but with some small exceptions. “It is normal that the party has a strategy and solves global problems, I don’t see any problems here. The party has its strategy and its interests and should work in favor of its interests”, said Galoust Sahakyan and added, “They usually make decisions and go along with the decisions that correspond to the interests”.
In spite of the announcement of the party board that if Arman Sahakyan does not follow their decision he would be imposed administrative punishments Galoust Sahakyan brings up the announcement about his son. “I am proud to see my son so decisive and purposeful”, said Galoust Sahakyan and added that all that his son was doing was “self-sacrificing”.
P.S. By the way, A. Sahakyan thinks that the decisions of the party board are normal, he does not have bad relations with his party and is not going to drop his membership. It is not clear whether the board of the party will take any steps to impose administrative penalties or not, but our sources say that it wil definitely happen very soon.