The former head of the Heritage faction of the parliament, the founder of Heritage party Raffi Hovhannisyan refused to comment on their party member Zaruhi Postanjyan’s critics addressed at the Armenian National Congress and said that the ANC “had made crucial strategic mistakes during the recent elections.”
Last week Zaruhi Postanjyan said that the ANC, which allegedly tended to become the only opposition power, had failed the exam and did not enjoy the trust of people.
According to Raffi Hovhannisyan, the recent city council elections were against the human norms and Armenian spirit, thus the elections were not consistent with the law and expectations of people. “I am sorry that as a result of this election the level of resistance and honor of our statehood and nation fell down. Not only the election day, but the organized procedures, preparation and conduct of the elections, as well as the outcome had been decided in advance and were not connected with the citizens’ constitutional right of conducting free elections,” said Raffi Hovhannisyan. In answer whether he agrees with the opinions of Zaruhi Postanjyan he said, “As for the opposition, generally I think that it was a national failure. We have failed and have not found de-jure solutions for our problems and challenges, and we should not create an impression that the EU, the world or monitors will send us a lighthouse. We had an opportunity and failed it. Now we have to wait till the next elections and hope that during the next elections we will succeed in providing people’s participation in the processes and provide alternatives. I think that it is time for all opposition powers to look into their organizations and see where their mistakes were. Yes, the elections were violated, but what other could we do to make people feel where they belong and have another result through participation?” In order to get a specific answer we asked Raffi Hovhannisyan whether he thought that the ANC candidate had really failed the elections because “he did not enjoy the trust of voters.” In answer to this question the latter said, “I will say my personal opinion now, and it is not the official opinion of the Heritage, and time will come we will inform the official position as well. Now it is not time to raise small, separate flags. There is a specific and constructive message from one pole, which says that we have certain things to do as a nation. Being a small team the Heritage has done a lot to keep this national position stabile and strengthen it. In the other pole there is an incentive to raise the flag of democracy, civic rights and CC. Everyone is raising their small flags. Everyone should drop these small flags, return the flag to the people, save the national and civic flag, and everyone should analyze their own mistakes. As a citizen I would be happy to see the ANC, Heritage and ARF to launch a series of discussions to discuss the mistakes and establish an arena for cooperation. I think that such contact and discussion is very important, thus everyone should start from correcting their mistakes and failures.” In answer to the question whether he agreed with the opinion that the ANC was working with a team of people who had become old he said, “I am for the right of every citizen to express a free opinion. Any opinion has the right to exist and it is not about agreeing or disagreeing with them. I believe that both the ANC and ARF are sustainable political powers and they should drop their small flags and establish a tradition of a broader opposition format.” In answer to our question whether he agrees with Zaruhi Postanjyan’s opinion that the ANC received so few votes due to the fact that it does not enjoy the trust of voters he said, “I don’t want to comment on what Zaruhi Postanjyan said. I only want to admit that the elections were widely violated and against the interests of Armenia, thus no one should look for benefits either in the pro-government or the opposition sectors. Either everyone or no one is professional, thus I think that we should criticize ourselves and move forward based on what we have learnt from our mistakes. I think that the opposition should have got more votes. The results would be different if the opposition coordinated its strategy otherwise.”