– How would you comment on the recent resignations and how are they directly linked to pre-electoral procedures?
– It is a fact that these resignations are linked with pre-election processes. It is very evident and everybody can notice that. If we discuss the statement of Hovik Abrahamyan, according to which the function of the head of the RPA campaign hinders him from being the NA chairman, we will see that these resignations and rest fully fit the logic of the pre-electoral period. Although the RPA is trying to externally show that there are no problems in its reproduction in fact it has serious concerns as a ruling force and has to rely on the use of administrative mechanisms to overcome the elections because of the limited political support. And here they signify the people, who are able to provide results during the election procedures. Hovik Abrahamyan was told to be the head of campaign to provide the desired results for us and if that happens you will return to your previous post.
– In the previous elections Abrahamyan headed the pre-election campaign and meanwhile held his post. In this regard, don’t you think that his justifications of resignation are not that grounded closer to parliamentary elections 2012?
– I can also add that in 2003 Serzh Sargsyan having been the minister of defense in 2003 headed the campaign of Robert Kocharyan. Moreover, Sargsyan didn’t quit the Prime Minister’s post when he was running for president. He participated in the elections and continued to be the Prime Minister. Thus, this pretense is merely words. The only thing is that Abrahamyan is made to resign in order to motivate him to provide the necessary results for elections and promising that he will return when the necessary results are registered.
– There are rumors that during his visit to Moscow, Serzh Sargsyan has revealed certain “conspiracy” and as a result he dismissed Hovik Abrahamyan to get rid of the supporters of Kocharyan. What do you think about this variant?
– That variant is from the genre of conspiracy. I don’t believe that because no fact is brought up in that regard besides some assumptions. Of course, currently Serzh Sargsyan uses the principle “hit your loyalists so that the non-loyalists and outsiders get scared.” Most definitely Sargsyan took up these steps to affect his chapters. The move of the key players shows that the government has serious concerns. The fact that assumptions are made to Sargsyan is doing this because of the threat from Robert Kocharyan are realistic because people understand that the Armenian National Congress is no more a serious threat for Serzh Sargsyan. Therefore, if Sargsyan initiated special moves in his personnel and had to form such a situation he had to so do and it’s not conditioned by the return of Levon Ter-Petrosyan or the possible activation of the ANC. There is a bigger problem. Yes, perhaps the concern is that the return of Kocharyan is quite expected because there is no inspiring hope of the improvement of the country’s social-economic situation. In this case, some people take advantage and spread rumors that “conspiracy” is revealed. What conspiracy can there be? I exclude that because we mean the people who have gone through a long way together.
– At any rate, from whose team do you consider Hovik Abrahamyan? Sargsyan’s or Kocharyan’s?
– I don’t use assumptions when speaking. At any rate, the publicly pronounced word has a big value. As the Russians say, the public word can’t fly and you can’t hunt it. When Recently Hovik Abrahamyan was asked about the possibility of appointment of Robert Kocharyan Prime Minister he said that the RA Prime Minister works well and there is no need for Kocharyan. By the way, the return of Robert Kocharyan is becoming a public demand because the Armenian economy is gradually deteriorating. And I don’t exclude that someday there will be people, who will go out and demand that he should return to politics. I vision this if there is no essential progress in the reduction of poverty in the country. Now we are in the stage of regress and new poor citizens are emerging under the current regime. So this is a serious challenge and I don’t exclude that. As of your question, I’d like to mention that if a politician like the NA chairman says that we have a Prime Minister and we don’t need Kocharyan to come back then it must be really serious. You should agree that only a few people would agree to give that answer. And if Abrahamyan is making such a statement it means being accountable for the change of further plans. Indeed, today we have a very interesting situation. Suspicion is the worm that gnaws the administration from inside and it might abolish the government. This suspicion demonstrates how weak this government is. The government realizes this as well. Everybody is suspicious of everybody and this is the atmosphere that displays the behavior of the representatives of the incumbent government. Days ago the former chief of police Alik Sargsyan was saying that his resignation was a surprise for him and in each of his sentence he would signify his thankfulness to President Serzh Sargsyan. He was saying that even if he evicts, expels or deports him he will remain loyal to him. This manifests the environment in the government.
– Yesterday Abrahamyan stated that the reason of his resignation is also the fact that the elections of 2012 are going to be a cornerstone to prove our ability to conduct democratic elections and that he was going to invest all his efforts to reach this. Do you think Arbahamyan can be a guarantor of such elections?
– There is a big fear that the upcoming parliamentary elections may be the ugliest and direst elections in Armenia’s history. If there were extraordinary elections one or two years ago they wouldn’t turn into primaries by taking into account the fact that those would be followed by the launch of the presidential elections. This is where the state of mind of Sargsyan is quite explicable. But he could have avoided that if extraordinary elections were held one or two years ago. The NA elections should be left free. If the President of the country wishes to get re-elected and wants to do it in a convincing manner he needs to hold free and fair NA elections. It would have been a big achievement for Sargsyan. This would be a solvable matter if the two elections were split in time. And now extraordinary elections are impossible. And the ANC with Ter-Petrosyan have realized that. This situation will be much worse if the situation makes Serzh Sargsyan head the RPA list. This will be highly undesirable for him. The list should be headed not by the President but by the future Prime Minister because the President of the country should serve the role of the arbiter among the parties of the country. In this case he will appear in scandalous elections and turn into a politician with vulnerable legitimacy. Can the 20-25 seats in the NA justify this? Is it worth paying that price? Can you imagine that the three Presidents of Armenia head the three lists of the main running parties? This in fact devaluates the meaning of the NA elections. During the NA elections the ideological and political directions of the parties are being rectified and the attitude of the society to those is being reflected. Political technologies came to substitute the political race, which mildly said are not so clean. They mostly rely on the factor of force. Of course if Alik Sargsyan is replaced by Vladimir Gasparyan and the latter is tougher, it becomes clear that the government awaits not very easy days. And this impulse is conveyed to the society, which becomes very alert about the future.