The passions around the Heritage party are heating up. Although the party wing, which consists of MPs, shows that nothing happened and that they are only cleansing up the party a part of the party activists claim that the Heritage is disrupted. Ever since the late night decision of September 9, the de facto change of power within the Heritage the party doors have been closed. Zoya Tadevosyan, Movses Aristakesyan, Artur Sardaryan and many heads of branch offices have for the third day now gathered in the park near the Heritage party and hold discussions in the cafe instead of being inside the party office. The heads of the branch offices of Arabkir, Kentron, Ajapnyak, Erebuni and other communities of Yerevan are confused and are waiting for the final word of their leader Raffi Hovhannisian in order to determine their steps. As of the steps then several of those are being discussed. The most discussed option is that the party should convene a new congress. Those party members, who are for this option, are sure that the 90% of the party members will stay with them instead of the MP wing of the party. Thus, it will become possible with the demand of the 2/3 of the party members to oust the bureau members, the newly elected chair and the deputy-chair. They are also discussing the option of filing a court suit against the 6 members of the party bureau and demand their dismissal. “All these options are still in an immature state and are still being discussed. After checking the opinions of all the activists of the branches we will apply the most democratic methods to determine the next states of the party. It is not excluded that we will simultaneously apply for of the options,” says A. Sardaryan, who was the head of the party branch in Kentron community. The members of the party, who have been ousted, find it nonsense that they are blamed of cooperating with the Armenian National Congress. “It is a quite natural process. It is totally normal for an oppositionist to cooperate with another opposition party representative. It would be very good if the Heritage had determined its political course form the beginning, whether it is an opposition or a pro-government party. During the city council elections we stated that we were endorsing the opposition and by saying opposition we meant the ANC. So all this is a result of political uncertainty,” says Tadevosyan. “This question is fully illiterate because they first instruct people to do one thing and then they blame them of supporting the ANC,” says Sardaryan. “As a result of such an illiterate activity we don’t have any representatives in the city council,” responds a Heritage MP Armen Martirosyan. “Hovhannisian has established a strong party and doesn’t have any intention to mingle with the party issues. He has more important issues to take care of. Armenia is facing lots of challenges and he should try to resolve those. Let them do whatever they want,” he said. In the words of the member of the Heritage board Anush Gharibyan the new deputy-chair of the board Rafik Hakobyan called him and threatened, “if she is not with them she will be ousted from the party.” Tadevosyan pledged to collect signatures among rank-and-file party members demanding the Heritage board’s resignation. She also made clear that she will not step down as CEC member. Under Armenian law, Aristakesyan is next in line to replace Hovhannisian as a member of the National Assembly by virtue of his position on Heritage’s list of candidates in the 2007 parliamentary elections. Aristakesyan said that he will take up the parliament seat. The third dissident, Khachatryan, is already a member of Heritage’s 7-strong faction in the 131-seat assembly. Hovhannisian, who founded Heritage in 2002 and is still regarded as its top leader, is reportedly not in Armenia at the moment. He has not yet commented on the bitter infighting that could significantly weaken his party and ultimately damage his own political career. Nor has the U.S.-born politician explained why he decided to quit the parliament. "The Heritage Party will be put up for auction. The more you pay, the better for you," says Zoya Tadevosyan. "The board made the decision to get rid of honest people, serve the authorities’ interests and disband the party as today the Heritage has no financing because of the crisis. Heritage has even assigned its territorial structures to collect money for its further survival," said Zoya Tadevosyan. She thinks that eventually Heritage will become a pro-government party thanks to the painstaking efforts of party’s spokesman Hovsep Khurshudyan, head of the Heritage Party’s parliamentary faction Armen Martirosyan and Stepan Safaryan. Armen Martirosyan has never been a true oppositionist. He was Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovhsepyan’s "stooge." He had a shop and never paid taxes as the money went into the pocket of Aghvan Hovsepyan’s brother." In Ms. Tadevosyan’s words, Hovsep Khurshudyan is playing "a grey eminence" and she is glad to have the honor of leaving "these rascals." It is no secret that one of the initiators of regulation of the Armenian-Turkish relations is the US. The Heritage party is also considered a US project. As they say Hovhannisian is now in between of two alternatives. One the one hand he cannot oppose the interests of that country and on the other hand being a representative of the Diaspora cannot vote for these protocols. So he decided to leave both the party and politics in general. The society is well-aware of the insatiable intentions of Hovhannisian to be elected President. He hasn’t been able to u for president because he doesn’t have a 10-year citizenship. But 2013 is not too far away and he indeed thinks of running again. But he doesn’t have the previous political fame. Becoming covert my help him to avoid the responsibility of his party and the challenging issues that the country faces. His party comrades also have questions to him, which he avoids to give answer to. Does Hovhannisian still have the same enthusiasm and zeal to run in the upcoming presidential race? “I should mention with pain that this dream of all the Heritage members has faded due to wrong policies of the Heritage. Our people have become smarter after being cheated many times. You don’t enter the same river twice,” says Tadevosyan.
