Yesterday the chairman of the “Democratic Way” party (DWP), Manouk Gasparyan has chosen a quite big format to analyze the political situation of Armenia. He started with the arrest of Zhirayr Sefilyan and continued with the predictions of 2007-2008 elections, talked about the extremely high rating of Gagik Tsarukyan and the extremely low rating of the opposition, spoke about Galust Sahakyan and even RA Prosecutor General, Aghvan Hovsepyan.
Indeed he spoke quite much about the campaign that’s started so much sooner prior to elections as well as the black PR. Before the presidential elections 2008 there is about a year and 3-4 months left but according to Gasparyan 4-5 people are even covertly or overtly fighting for presidency. The four candidates are Serj Sargsyan, Vardan Oskanyan, Artur Baghdasaryan and Artashes Geghamyan. “These people make rude mistakes and the closer we get to the pre-election year the more disappointed they will become in the eyes of the people,” says Gasparyan. “It’s been the second month since our political parties started to degrade each other. And this creates even more despair among people. I have been personally swearing the incumbent government for years but what happens right now is out of imagination.”
Despite the mentioned fact Gasparyan believes that the rating of the government is higher than the rating of the opposition of Armenia. Even his own rating slumped a bit. Gasparyan thinks that he won’t even e surprised when during elections the government doesn’t even feel the need to stuff ballots. The rating slump of the opposition is stipulated by the media blockade. Even some opposition newspapers belie the opposition. And they do this by order. According to him if this continues the opposition will have to rely on only its direct contact with people. But there is a problem here as well because the government doesn’t give any venues to oppositionists sin Yerevan or marzes to organize meetings. Gasparyan doesn’t exclude the option when in 2-3 months the situation will change – the opposition will become more active and the government’s rating will fall. Besides that the oppositionists with their current reputation among people cannot receive the support of a dozen thousand of people. “The “Alternative”, “Disobedience” movements, even the one, which I’m a member of, are not bad ideas,” says Gasparyan and adds, “But tell be please, who supports those ideas. Those must not be marred. We need someone, who’d come to actually realize those ideas and make people stand up for struggle. When I look at the initiators of those movements I suppose they cannot even encourage the residents of their buildings, not to mention the people.”
But the DWP chairman knows one thing for sure. The rating of Gagik Tsarukyan is the highest in Armenia. Can you imagine? There is almost as much trust to Trarukyan as it used to be to Karen Demirchyan. In his words Tsarukyan can make about 100 thousand people stand with just one call. However, at present neither Geghmyan, nor Aram Sargsyan, nor Stepan Demirchyan, nor him, Gasparyan cannot unite 100 thousand people. The presenter doesn’t deny that the respect of Tsarukayn comes from his economic activity and that President Robert Kocharyan supports him. That’s the reason why he’s sure that in 2007 the Prosperous Armenia Party is going to be make majority in the Parliament. Gasparyan said that his party is going to participate in elections with 4-5 people. He hopes for success because during the last local government elections the party candidates were elected despite the fact that later the head of Kanaker-Zeytun community, Arayik Kotanjyan became a member of RPA. Gasparyan doesn’t agree with Galust Sahakyan’s opinion, by which in 2007 only RPA, Prosperous Armenia, “Justice” alliance, National unity and ARF will enter the Parliament. “No matter what happens, the National Unity, Legal State, RPA and Prosperous Armenia will enetre the NA. All the others have problems with that,” thinks Gasparyan.
He also spoke about Zhirayr Sefilyan. In Gasparyan’s opinion the arrest of Sefilyan has got nothing to do with the attitude of the “Protection of Liberated Lands” NGO or with the reasons publicized by the government. The deputy mentions that Sefilyan couldn’t change the government on his own. He didn’t have that power and no political force has ever supported him. And Sefilyan couldn’t possibly make any political force to organize change of government in Armenia. He was arrested because of his quite rough attitude to Javaghk issue. This arrest is the continuation of Vahagn Chakhalyan’s arrest. In his opinion they don’t accuse Sefilyan of his attitude to Javaghk issue so that the Russians don’t get offended because the main supporter of disorder in Javaghk is Russia. “They arrested Chakhalyan to look good to Georgians,” says Gasparyan, “they arrested Sefilyan to again look good to Georgians. They found another motive not to offend the Russians. The Russians will soon make the Armenian side release Sefilyan.”