– Almost all political powers have declared the coming year as an important pre-election period and they have already started to take some steps. No matter how strange it sounds, the opposition is left out of this process. What can you say about this?
– First of all we must list which parties have declared the coming year as an important pre-election period. This is all planned out by Robert Kocharyan because it is difficult for him to stay president as long as he can. Knowing Kocharyan, I am sure he is trying to solve a problem for one week, or maximum the problems of tomorrow. The senseless announcements made by the president and the head of the national security department are proof. In other words, the authorities have created this myth of pre-election period to be secure in 2006. I don’t agree with them. As for the opposition being left out of the process, I think this is just a fable which is not true and which is talked about not only by the governmental, but also by the oppositional press. They all want to assure people that the opposition has lost the competition and is already left out of the process. I don’t agree with them because both victories and losses are comparative and not stable. We must pay our attention to another thing: whether it was good for people or not, they had losses. If you pay attention to the real processes you will see that now, in spite of some of our mistakes, the opposition has more public resources than the authorities. This is evident; most people hate the authorities and are suspicious of some oppositionists.
– Aren’t you afraid that the authorities may take advantage of the fact that the opposition is out of the game right now and may create new fake oppositional powers to fill this free space?
– To be honest with you, I believe that to found new parties means to create artificial powers. We have very important problems both in our country and in our foreign affairs, which are more important than founding new parties. And in order to keep people away from all this this, the authorities are forming imitation political parties. But the worst thing is that our country is being left out of the processes, and from this view we shouldn’t already care whether the opposition is left out or not. So whose fault is this? Of course this is the bad of the authorities. As for the opposition, although their estimations could sound bad or good, anyway those were honest and fair. But anyway the opposition struggled, showed everything to people and also showed a way out of the situation. The opposition even tried to organize rallies on the basis of democratic principles; even we tried to come to terms with the authorities to organize fair elections. And now they are starting to moan and groan and ask for food like a cat that is not fed due to poor behavior.
– Recently Smbat Ajvazyan announced that the opposition was clarifying some ideological issues and then everyone would be taught a lesson. Have you decide who you will join during the coming elections?
– Based on forming our ideologies, I think our party’s fourth meeting was very important, where we presented our political approach and our place in foreign affairs. I think this was the right way and we are on that road. It is natural for to be pressured by geopolitical forces because our authorities caused serious problems in our region. Foreign countries are tired of our problems and now they are trying to force us to go along with their solutions. The opposition must not only bring up internal political issues, but also foreign affairs issues favoring our country. In contrast to other countries, we have chosen a path to take. Now even the Russian first channel speaks about the end of the CIS cooperation, but before when I used to speak about not depending on them, a lot of people were blaming me by saying that there was no one else to give us gas. So what now? Do they give us gas? Do they think that the Armenian-Russian relationships will get better only by organizing a Russian year in Armenia and vice versa?? This is absurd. Of course relationships have not improved. Russians have their interests and Armenia has interests too. If Russia has a chance to keep playing a key role in the world by using its economical leverages for a long time, Armenia doesn’t have such a chance. I think there will be big pressure during the presidents’ meeting in February, during which the Karabakh peace settlement will also be discussed. This is the reason why a lot of international organizations still keep on talking about the issue of the Constitutional referendum and don’t agree with the results. So, if these organizations and people don’t agree with these results, why should we take part in the elections of 2007 when elections are not fair and are far from being democratic? That is why we are trying to organize new elections. As to what the world will say to this, that is a different story. It is clear that Russia is being irrational: the Russians are trying to obligate us to go along with their approach, which goes against our interests and considers Armenia as a province. Their officials are not afraid to call Armenia as their “fore post”. They are trying to make us go by their rules by using some leverage. For us our independence is more important than anything and I will always struggle to protect it. Ernest Hemingway says that no one lives life fully besides bull fighters.
– It seems that the ruling pyramid is divided into two parts: those who advocate Kocharyan and those who advocate Serj Sargsyan. Andranik Margaryan says that Serj Sargsyan is with them and as for Kocharyan, he is supported by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the Legal State, the newly established “Alliance” and “Developing Armenia” political parties, who want to have a majority in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. Do you think that the “Republic” may join the “Republican” party in the future so as not to let the parties supporting Kocharyan move forward?
– I’ll be honest with you: this tendency is not clear yet. I am also not sure that Kocharyan will rely on the “Developing Armenia” political party because capital always looks for “comfortable corners”. The difference between the parties of Serj Sargsyan and Kocharyan is not so big. And I don’t think there is any ideological difference here. Both these “groups” are against organizing fair elections, they have both organized false elections in this country and these two powers don’t have any clear orientation in foreign affairs. So if they have founded two teams, this means that they have done this for the purpose to cooperate later. This is more logical than to say that they may involve a party from the opposition in their team. If their approach in connection with the Karabakh conflict is the same that our approach, I will leave all our internal political issues aside. The Karabakh issue is the most important one for me. In this connection we are ready to cooperate with any power that will advocate a good solution and will provide peace in Karabakh for our brothers living in Armenia and in Karabakh. Of course I am ready to cooperate. As for the other issues, they have no approach: their approach is complimentary. As for this approach, the world is already starting to deny it. Complementary approach always brings to such a situation that our situation is: leaves out of the processes. The whole world says that Georgia doesn’t get gas, but they forget that Armenia doesn’t get it either. You can’t get any information regarding the situation in Armenia from any news broadcasting channel, starting from CNN and ending up with Euronews, although there is no such country in the region. Armenia has become a country that is invisible and swims in different fields. We are like a bean. And the reason is that the authorities and some oppositionists have tried to show their power by swimming from this field into the other. It is not good to be rich among poor people; it is not good to have resources and not take part in the ongoing processes.