It’s been several days since the Dashnaktsutyun party was engaged in active discussions. The bureau is holding sessions.
An ARF MP Artyusha Shahbazyan says that the party is discussing current issues within the party and matters relating to the Armenia-Turkey relations. However, according to the MPs, they are not demanding the resignation of the RA President Sezrh Sargsyan. “We made a statement several days ago. We are not going to make a new statement every other day, are we?” says the MP. According to our information, within the ARF there is serious controversy regarding the demand of the President’s impeachment. Shahbazyan considers this kind of information “nonsense.” According to him, such rumors are circulated to mar the reputation of their party. There are rumors that the low-level members of the party, who do not benefit from governmental posts, demand that their superiors should claim for Sargsyan’s impeachment. But the leadership of the ARF so far feels enough about demanding the resignation of the foreign affairs minister Edward Nalbandyan. “I am very sorry that I had to watch live the ceremony of signing the protocols. I felt sick about that,” yesterday told the journalists the head of the ARF faction Vahan Hovhannisyan. Several members of the ARF in the Diaspora also demand the impeachment of the President. The thing is that the majority of the leaders of this party both in Armenia and Diaspora have business interests in Armenia. And many other members are just afraid of losing their jobs in the middle and low circles of state institutions, where they got hired before the ARF got deflected from the coalition. There have been various publications about the businesses owned by ARF leaders in Armenia. Everybody knows about the hotel complex and casinos owned by the former minister of education Levon Mkrtchyan and his brother. The business interests of the former deputy-minister of defense Artur Aghabekyan were also known. Moreover, he has dozens of hectares of fertile land not only in the liberated areas of the NKR but also Armenia. Recently the residents of Zovuni village showed that behind the gates of the military base the former deputy-minister owns lands. Aghabekyan established a farm there, where he breeds expensive and exotic birds. The former military officer definitely knows that it is forbidden to establish such a farm near the military base but perhaps his previous post helped him a lot. Aghabekyan also has a shooting range in almost downtown of Yerevan on Mamikonyants street. The range is named Aspar. And besides that the Dashnak members have already reached to privatized enormous areas of fertile land in various parts of the country. It has already been publicized that Vahan Hovhannisyan owns land near the Armenian-Turkish border from the north. According to our information, the latter also has a 40-hectare land in Sasunik village of Ashtarak. Hovhannisyan also builds a factory in that area to reproduce the harvest, which grows in his lands. The former governor of Aragatsotn Gabriel Gyozalyan has allotted enormous lands to almost all the leaders of his party. According to our information in Parpi village Hrant Margaryan has 10 landing areas, where he has built two humongous villas. One serves as a summer house and the second one is used for top meetings of the party and reception of the guests from the Diaspora. A former governor of Aragatsotn, current NA MP Hrayr Karapetyan also has hectares of land in Aragatsotn marz. Former minister of agriculture Davit Lokyan also has several farming businesses. Let us add that Lokyan has managed to find profitable jobs for all of his relatives. For example, his nephew works in the control service of the President’s administration. Moreover, the Diaspora representatives of this party also own certain lands in our country. The Dashnak members of Armenia and the Diaspora also have lands in the NKR, Shushi. So it is not quite true that there are controversies between the dashnaks of Armenia and Diaspora. “They are saying that the government is acting like a traitor.” They organize rallies, blow balloons reading “traitor” but so far in this whole Turkey-Armenia process the most criticizing slogan of their rally was “president, do not recede.” Armen Rustamyan was uttering these words during the rally. If they say something sharp the President will cut their ears. Anybody close to the dashnaks can say that their complaints and the demands for the President’s impeachment are consented. “Remember that when the ARF members were released from jail, regardless of how well they’d serve the government and to what extent they’d benefit from the governmental assets, the charges against them were not dropped. The government doesn’t drop the accusations in order to use against them any time they wish. Therefore, it is not quite true that the ARF is an opposition,” told us a former dashnak member, who didn’t want to say his name.