On Saturday RA Defense Minister Serj Sargsyan attended the meeting of republicans, where he stayed for some time and then after the RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan concluded his speech, he left. According to some politicians this was a political step by Serj Sargsyan to show everyone by whom RP will be backed during the coming parliamentary elections.
Besides that Serj Sargsyan said that some nonpartisan ministers might be involved in the lists of RP during the coming parliamentary elections. “Serj Sargsyan was with us in 2003, he was included in our lists and is one of our representatives in the government”, said Andranik Margaryan. We asked A. Margaryan whether he knew anything about the news that NA member Gagik Tsarukyan was going to found a new political party and whether they would be able to compete with that party in the future and he answered: “Tsarukyan’s party exists now too, but it is not active. And they are the ones to decide whether to mobilize their power or not. RP is always ready for competition not depending on how many parties there are. There were 30 parties till that moment and now it is the same for us whether this number is 30 or 40”.
NA vice speaker Tigran Torosyan was clearly showing in his speech that he was disappointed about their colleagues from “Rule of Law” and their speeches. He said that they had to revise the role of the coalition members and had to play a key role in the NA in the future. “RP must always be a leader in the NA. The number of our advocates and representatives in the NA is more than those of any other party, and we must prove this during discussions. RP must be a leader in the NA. We are going to enter a more difficult period for politics so we have to mobilize our power and do our best. We must do our best not to let anyone undermine our success. We are responsible for the future of our country; that is why we have to clarify our relationships with the other coalition powers. We must do our best to develop our ideas as a party, which is the majority in the NA and coalition. On the other hand we must bear responsibility too”, said Tigran Torosyan. By the way, ARF deputy head Vahan Hovhannisyan made a speech too and said: “If someone asks me whether I am satisfied with our relationships with RP, I will say that I am not, because we have more common philosophical fundamentals”.
Galoust Sahakyan said that he didn’t like that some political powers lied to people by saying that the achievements of RP were a result of their efforts. “Most of the achievements in the social field during these past years were a result of our efforts and the efforts of some other parties that cooperated with us”, said Galoust Sahakyan. Then he spoke about populism and it was already clear whom he meant. “Even sometimes they blame us in being passive and not being “populist”. We must actively work in political groups and do our best to show to people what these announcements really are”, threatened G. Sahakyan meaning “Rule of Law”. In Galust Sahakyan’s opinion, Andranik Margaryan thinks that there are shortcomings in their activities too. He clarified what he meant regarding those people by saying: “I mean these people are those politicians who try to do more than they can and bring up problems that they can’t solve”. Answering to a question regarding whether there were these kinds of people among coalition members, A. Margaryan said: “Why not? There are these kinds of people both among the coalition members and among the members of our party”. Regarding the question concerning whether the coalition was weakened or not A. Margaryan said: “RP works to make the coalition stronger, but not to collapse it”. When speaking about the coalition A. Margaryan said that political powers must work together, but not try to develop their interests by harming the work of other powers either in the NA or in government, because in both cases no one can escape their responsibilities. “The coalition is responsible for both developments. Often they mean the government by RP and the NA by “Rule of Law”. I mean this when saying that political powers shouldn’t harm each other in order to develop their interests. Sometimes the coalition representatives say that the shortcomings of the coalition are a result of RP activities and the achievements- a result of the coalition activities, but it is not so”, said A. Margaryan.
Regarding the announcement of Arthur Baghdasaryan concerning the violations of the Constitutional referendum process A. Margaryan said: “We said the same thing that A. Baghdasaryan says in the coalition statement. I don’t understand why he decided to make such an announcement and what kind of new facts he had, because before that we had discussed this issue with the coalition powers and came to a final arrangement, and we hadn’t planned anything like that”. We asked A. Margaryan whether he believed that the Constitution had really been brought up and he answered: “Legal experts say that there were no violations”.