Yesterday a number of political parties announced about their will to collaborate with UCR in the future (Union of Constitutional Rights). For your information, the mentioned announcements are very like each other. The first ones to announce their readiness were “Alliance”, “National Unity”, “New Times” parties and the Democratic Party of Armenia (DPA).
For instance, the board of “Alliance” writes in its announcement that they highly appreciate the political role of the UCR in the process of democratic state formation and “considers that the decision made in the 17th board summit is acceptable”. The mentioned announcement writes also that they are looking forward to collaborating with the UCR in the future.
The announcement of National Unity (NU) board writes the following: “The NU has read the decisions that the board took during its 17th summit and appreciates them. The NU considers the role of “Iravunk” newspaper that covers fair and nonpartisan information, struggles against criminals and crime, and the NU is looking forward to collaborating with the UCR and “Iravunk” paper in the future”.
Answering to our question how they are going to collaborate with the UCR since the advocates of Hrant Khachatryan assure that the new head was not elected legally because the number of the votes given did not cover the half number of the participants as it is provided by the by-laws of the party, NU deputy head Alexan Karapetyan said, “It is their own business and we don’t want to interfere. But we think that the decisions that were made during the 17th board meeting are acceptable. They have to figure it out whether those decisions were illegal or not, it is their business. If those decisions are illegal they can apply to court. We haven’t had any problems with the UCR and don’t want to have it in the future either. People are coming and disappearing later, but parties stay. We have always related positively to the UCR and their paper and we will continue relating to them in the same way in the future too”.
The DPA accepted the mentioned announcement on Friday. The leader of the party, Aram G. Sargsyan, said that they had cooperated with the UCR since its foundation and thus they couldn’t be indifferent to the processes happening inside that party. “We are sorry about the decision of Hrant Khachatryan, but meantime we have said that we are ready to collaborate with the new board of the party in the future too”, said Aram G. Sargsyan during our conversation.
The head of the “New Times” (NT), Aram Karapetyan says that they are ready to collaborate too. “Yes, we are going to collaborate”, said A. Karapetyan and noted that two days before that he met with Hrant Khachatryan and talked to him, where they decided that it is worth to collaborate with their party and the paper in the future too. “H. Khachatryan is a politician that does not do anything without reasons. He is a serious person. At the end of our conversation we came to the conclusion that we should cooperate with the party and paper in the future too”, said Aram Karapetyan.
The latter says that the internal issues of the UCR are not his problems and he does not want to discuss who is right and who is not. Aram Karapetyan says that if the advocates of Mr. Khachatryan think that they are right, they can bring a court case. “If the curt makes a decision, it will be another issue already”, said Aram Karapetyan and added, “We are political parties and if they find it out that their board was elected illegally, we will not cooperate with them and will wait for new elections. However, we will continue our cooperation as long as the mentioned facts exist in the manner they are now. Both the party leaders and the ministry of justice are keeping silence. We will continue our cooperation with the UCR; we have good friends there. Besides that, those people that left the party are good friends for us too, that is why I think they should find a solution themselves. When I said that there are agents in oppositional parties, whose job is to divide parties, your paper wrote that it was funny and I was looking for agents. Now you can see the results with your own eyes; it is what is happening in the UCR. The same scenario was prepared as well as for the “New Times” and “Rule of Law”.
Answering to our question whether the ones that divided the UCR and as well as the friendship of Hrant Khachatryan and Haik Babukhanyan of 20 years were agents too he said, “I think yes. Besides everything that factor helped the process too. This is my own opinion, besides that, I have some information as well”.
By the way, we asked Aram Karapetyan what he would think about those parties that would agree to continue their cooperation with the NT in a couple of days if he were removed in the same conditions as the UCR leader. “I wish it doesn’t happen with any party. I don’t exclude any possibilities because everything may happen in this life, but I wish neither of the existing parties falls in a situation like this, I don’t wish that for any parties starting from the Republican and ending up with the NT parties, I don’t wish that because it is human tragedy as well. However, I am saying it again; when we see that the man is struggling and does not give up, we are ready to collaborate. What can we do if the man wants to resign and can’t do anything? I hope the UCR will not change its political orientation, and if it changes, we will not collaborate with them in the future for sure”, said the NT leader.