The situation in Armenia is calm, the upcoming National Assembly elections will be conducted freely, fairly and transparently, everything is normal, there are no real distractions during the pre-election campaign, etc. In short, “it’s all good”. This was how adviser to the president of Armenia on national security issues and director of the political research institute adjunct to the president, Garnik Isagulyan, presented the situation on Friday at the National Press Club.
Judging from Isagulyan’s speech, the shootings, assassination attempts and explosions of party headquarters taking place during the pre-election period are minor details. The fact of the matter is that Mr. Isagulyan proposes not tying the “criminal events” that have taken place with the pre-election period. According to him, those crimes simply coincide with the pre-election period.
“I don’t think that what happened to the offices is unusual enough to be worth drawing attention to during this kind of an election campaign,” he said.
Really, what is the problem? They are just explosions. What is so surprising about that? Perhaps what Isagulyan meant was that more was still to come…So, it is not worth paying attention to similar “minor” cases. So…whatever.
The adviser to the president believes that the events that are not worth paying attention to will not have an impact on the general image and results of the elections. According to him, there are political parties that have structures around the country that are, as Isagulyan says, going to have the greatest impact on the election results. According to Isagulyan, there are both left-wing, right-liberalist and centralized parties among all the political parties that have real chances of being in parliament. The left-wing force, as he says, is the ARF and the center is the Republican Party. It turns out that “Prosperous Armenia” is the right-liberalist force.
“Armenia has entered a new election period during which the structures, certain people and political party members play a great role, and it is difficult to hope for successes with populist announcements or strong speeches,” assures the adviser to the president of Armenia and adds: “I have never suspected any election, but these elections especially are going to be free, fair and transparent. Nobody should have any doubts about that.”
Isagulyan, who is also leader of the “National Security” political party, announced on Friday that their party supports the Republican Party. In fact, it turns out that the institute of political research adjunct to the Armenian president, run by Isagulyan, periodically conducts surveys on the opinions of Armenian citizens. As a result of those surveys, Robert Kocharyan currently has a very high rating.
“Not only does the Armenian president have a high rating, but also his rating is much higher than the ratings of all the political parties put together,” announced the adviser to Robert Kocharyan. Isagulyan explained that the “very high rating” of the president is due to the fact that the people appreciate the peace and stability of the country.
“The people mainly tie the issue of maintaining peace with Robert Kocharyan. I think that perhaps it is due to both his behavior and immediate actions…all that has an influence on the people. The people see the economic growth and connect this with Robert Kocharyan. I think that this is the real reason Robert Kocharyan’s rating is high,” explains Isagulyan.
As you hear the announcements made by the latter, a question comes up: Can it be possible to have the people, as a nation, ask Kocharyan to run for the third term as president, which the Constitution prohibits? Most probably not. Better yet, even if the people ask as a nation, Kocharyan will not agree to that request, because he highly respects the Armenian Constitution.
“When you say that there is no chance for a third term…and, the president has announced several times that it is excluded. It doesn’t matter because the people mainly see Kocharyan as president even during the next presidential elections,” says Isagulyan. Since it has been mentioned several times that the upcoming National Assembly elections are going to essentially determine the 2008 presidential elections, will there really be a calamity in Armenia in 2008 or will there be some kind of desert or emptiness? If the society trusts Robert Kocharyan that much and he is not going to run again (as Isagulyan says), then the people will find themselves in a rough situation. In response to the question, the presidential adviser said:
“That is not what that means. It means the following: Robert Kocharyan’s word during the next presidential elections referring to whom he sees as the next president will be of rather great significance.”
As far as the next president is concerned, Isagulyan announced that he said a long time ago that he thinks that Serge Sargsyan is the most suitable candidate for the 2008 presidential elections. However, Isagulyan is certain that Robert Kocharyan will remain in the political life of Armenia because “many issues are conditioned by Robert Kocharyan”. He also believes that Kocharyan has done his job well, in particular concerning the Karabagh conflict, and in general foreign policy and the maintenance of stability. Perhaps it is not worth reminding Isagulyan about the humiliating failures of Armenia’s foreign policy during the past couple of years. Whatever…it is clear that there won’t be a “color revolution” in Armenia because in Armenia “state institutes are developed and will prohibit any anti-constitutional act”.