“I have numerously said that I would stay in politics for ten years only, and these ten years starting from 1988 coincided with new hopes in 1998. That is the reason I stayed. You cannot leave everything like it is, you should find someone that would be competent enough to replace you, and that person is Haik Babukhanyan. I had to be sure that I would give the party to trustable people. Alas, it didn’t happen”, said Hrant Khachatryan and added that he was resigning to save the party, nevertheless, the party did not exist as a party any more and accordingly the party didn’t need any leader not depending on whether the mentioned leader is good or not. By the way, yesterday Mr. Khachatryan said that the territory of the party that covered 140 cm, where as well as the editorial office of “Iravunk” newspaper was located, was the property of the party since he had managed to buy it directly through negotiations.
As for Haik Babukhanyan, who will be declared as the president of the mentioned party, he will be engaged in politics actively. He will try to do that not depending on whether he may be success or not.
It’s not correct
Haik Babukhanyan is considered the one that made Hrant Khachatryan to resign. We talked to Haik Babukhanyan concerning the abovementioned issue.
-How do you feel after the resignation of Hrant Khachatryan?
-I am ready to work since he has told me that he was going to resign and thus I am ready to work now.
-Do you think that what you did is more moral than what H. Khachatryan did to save the party since he was the founder of that party?
-I have as much part in the foundation of the party as H. Khachatryan, furthermore, all the 120 members of the party have that much part in the work of the party as well. Your question does not concern the moral point; your question concerns the by-laws of the party, which provisions are being fulfilled now.
-It is said that for the purpose of attracting some CRU members you have provided money from the budget of the “Iravunk” paper to cover the education payments of their children and as well as have given gas to them, is it true?
-No. Those who spread such rumors should not do that, but instead of that, they should apply to the revision and control department of our party and present them certain facts that would witness what you said. I do not care about the other things at all.
-Don’t you care either about the announcement of Karen Vardanyan saying that your are “Judas” and betrayers and should be isolated from the society?
-It is hard not to be able to accept the loss… They should be able to accept their loss as a man, have enough braveness to accept their loss. I think that it is their tragedy that they are not able to accept their loss as a man.
-Could you please tell us about the methods that you used to replace the CRU leader? One day we may need those methods to replace our chief editor as well…
-Why did I use that? Your question is not correct because I have not replaced him. Furthermore, I was not nominated for that position and petitioned our party members to reelect Hrant Khachatryan in that position and they did it. The rest things are the right of Mr. Khachatryan and he is the only one that may decide whether to work in that position or not.
-Some members of your party have accused you in criminal activities inside the party, i.e. they are accusing you in the same thing in which you are accusing the authorities. How can you say that you are joining all the parties that are going to struggle against crime? Why do you refute those members that are trying to prove that you are a criminal as well?
-There are only two members in our party that have accused me in that thing. 95% of the party members voted for me, those are 280 members; they voted for trusting me and supporting me. As for the rumors that some people have spread, I have ordered our control department to check up the facts that they have developed. If they find any facts that would contain at least one issue-based fact, but would not be a political order, I will resign. If yes, the ones that have tried to harm the reputation of our party will have to give an answer on the basis of the by-laws of the party.
-Have you met Hrant Khachatryan since his resignation?
-No.
-Don’t you want that or what?
-I think he is my friend and I always want to see him.
-Do you think he thinks that you are his friend now?
-I think yes.
Robbers!
After the resignation of Hrant Khachatryan his advocates did not leave the party, one of which is Karen Vardanyan. “Thanks to God there are normal people in the CRU, however no one agrees with the fact that these people that do illegal things may stay in the CRU (Haik Babukhanyan and others). They can’t go till the end”, assures K. Vardanyan and adds that on the basis of the Constitution they will punish those who have made a revolution illegally and will discover all their illegal activities. “Most of us haven’t fallen in shock like H. Khachatryan. H. Khachatryan was in shock because of the fact that his closest friend, Haik Babukhanyan, could do such a thing with him. This is one of the facts for his resignation. Besides that, he had to do his promise too. However, the first reason was dominating since there is no sense to continue working if your closest person is doing such things”, said K. Vardanyan concerning the resignation of H. Khachatryan.
Concerning the fact that Haik Babukhanyan said that all the abovementioned announcements criticizing him were baseless and sabotage K. Vardanyan advised us not to look for facts anywhere else and advised only to read the first statement of the 10th summit of the board after the voting to discover the “crime”. The problem is that there were 296 participants in that meeting, however, only 276 of them were given with ballots for voting. According to the by-laws of the party, voting, especially voting that concerns persons, are valid only if the number of the votes provided are more than the half of the members. The most number of votes were given to Gegham Grigoryan (127 votes), but because of the mentioned provision of the by-laws he cannot be considered elected either. “All of them were given few number of votes. It looks like someone may come from the street and say that he is Babukhanyan and is elected in that position. Those people are criminals since they have agreed to do illegal things. They say that they are board members, however, they violate the law”, says K. Vardanyan and notes, “They write in their papers all the time that the authorities are illegal, they give electoral bribe, etc., but they are doing the same thing. The fact is the statement. This is the same as illegally electing MPs. Now the same thing is done by the CRU board members. In the given case, the moral point of Hovhannes Galajyan does not differ from the moral point of MPs that are elected illegally. He violated the law himself. He changed his face; he used to criticize violators and advocate people, but now he has become like the ones that he used to write about. He does not have a right to say or write such things any more. Now anyone in the country may ask Haik Babukhanyan, Hovhannes Galajyan, Sargsyan Kerob, Tatoyan Rouslan and Grigoryan Gegham “Who are you, robbers?” This is the reality”. K. Vardanyan reminded us about a fact, according to which once H. Khachatryan asked the board to give him all the facts that witnessed electoral violations and would clearly discover those cases, but H. Babukhanyan made the board to make a decision not to give them. “That was sabotage and a trial to hide illegal documents”, says K. Vardanyan.
By the way, K. Vardanyan told us an important thing: “The only paper that didn’t cover the latest press-conference of Hrant Khachatryan was “Iravunk”. They say that the mentioned newspaper is independent. Instead of that, it wrote an article about the latest board meeting with a manner that looked very like the articles of the communistic party in the Soviet Union. The title of the article was enough to understand what it was writing about”, said K. Vardanyan.
P.S. According to our information, Haik Babukhanyan is doing the abovementioned things in order to be able to be elected MP in 2007. It is said that H. Babukhanyan has arranged with Arthur Baghdasaryan to be included in the electoral lists of “Rule of Law”. Instead of that, he has to advocate the “Rule of Law” in their newspaper and criticize all the powers that may criticize the “Rule of Law”.