PM Serzh Sargsyan started his pre-election campaign in Yerevan by meeting with citizens of Nor-Nork community.
Before Serzh Sargsyan’s arrival a number of singers were singing nearby the church of Nor-Nork. Aramo and Emma Petrosyan, Arsen Grigoryan, Alla Levonyan, Anna Khachatryan and Shushan Petrosyan and many other singers have announced about their decision to endorse Serzh Sargsyan. The mayor of Yerevan, ARP Nor-Nork community campaign manager Ervand Zakharyan, the head of education department of Yerevan municipality Onik Vatyan, NA deputy Rafik Petrosyan and his son were at the concert too. The organizers of the meeting say that over 7000 citizens have come there. Before making a speech Serzh Sargsyan put flowers on the memorial monument of descended soldiers and lighted candles in the church. The archbishop of the Church Ararat wing Navasard Kchoyan accompanied the PM too. “Such meetings are confusing people, some people are getting angry. However, I am asking you not to answer with anger and with the same actions as they are doing because our purpose is not only getting more votes during the elections. Our goal is to advance Armenia and change the moral and psychological situation, developing happiness and trust in the society after the elections,” Serzh Sargsyan said.
During the past five days Serzh Sargsyan visited a number of regions, where he spoke about the activities that a president should do in order to be respected by people after tenure too. Candidate Serzh Sargsyan said that the president should make direct contact with people and should not rely on the contact through Mass Media. “I think that during the past 8 months, i.e. after the parliamentary elections I have broken the opinion of the society that the authorities are alienated from the society and officials are afraid to go out to the public and even hear their critics,” said Serzh Sargsyan. According to him, all what is written in his program is the minimum limit of his wishes and he wants to do more. “When we were working on the pre-election program I thought that my program should be general since the existing Constitution envisages different provisions concerning the president. However, in consideration of the fact that our president is still responsible to people for everything we decided to draw some figures too. These figures are to show that in a short period we are going to live twice better than now. I am saying this during all my meetings but it doesn’t mean that Nor-Nork will be enlarged twice or if someone has saved money he will have twice more money. It means that the minimum wage and stipends will be increased twice so that we can reach that goal. I think that all we have done, including the promises that we have given before the parliamentary elections and all what we have done during these seven years, are good achievements. Certainly I agree that there have been many shortcomings, that there are many problems, but if we compare the situations, any fair person will say that there are good changes, but these changes are not enough to the extent of being satisfied”.
P.S. Teachers and directors of Nor-Nork community schools attended the meeting too. Even the 197th school had prepared a poster writing “School 197”.