What happened to the “Rule of Law” party recently showed once again that there is no political system in Armenia whatsoever and pro-government parties don’t have the opportunity to make their own decisions without the consent of the president.
The ARF criticized the “Rule of Law” party, hinting that if the ARF formed a majority, the levels of corruption, intolerance and social injustice wouldn’t be that high in Armenia. But it seems as though the authorities are currently keeping the ARF on one side and are not attacking.
“Don’t the federalists fear that one day they might be in the same situation?”
This was our question to member of the ARF Supreme body and head of the National Assembly constant committee on foreign relations Armen Rustamyan, to which he responded:
“Our party decides its destiny for itself and not non-members of the party. They have tried to break us up, but it hasn’t worked out and that shows how strong our party is,” said Armen Rustamyan.
But doesn’t the Armenian Republican Party fear the possibility that it will find itself in the same situation if it goes against the authorities and criticizes Robert Kocharyan?
“It’s not always that the president and the coalitional parties come to terms on certain issues. But the issues have always been solved in a civilized manner. Each coalitional party has had the chance and the political will to express its opinion on this or that issue. I think the personal factor has to play a minor role in the country’s political system and we should place more emphasis on the ideology. I am certain that the coalition-president relations are not based on personal relations,” said Armen Ashotyan from the Armenian Republican Party (ARP).
Until then, the “Rule of Law” party’s decision to leave the coalition and National Assembly chairman Arthur Baghdasaryan’s resignation won’t really have an influence on the political field in Armenia and won’t lead to a political crisis. At least this is the opinion of the other two coalitional parties-the Armenian Republican Party and the ARF.
“There is currently no political crisis in Armenia,” says member of the ARF Supreme Body and National Assembly MP Armen Rustamyan. According to him, the two remaining parties of the coalition are continuing to work on the coalition’s memorandum. As for National Assembly MP of the Republican faction Armen Ashotyan, he thinks it’s unnecessary to talk about a political crisis when the political situation in Armenia hasn’t even reached that point.
“Any change in politics requires a change in the rules of the game. But there is nothing unusual going on here. What happened was what was expected to happen,” says Armen Ashotyan.
What’s interesting is that on May 2, during the last four-day session of the National Assembly, former chairman Arthur Baghdasaryan announced that the coalitional parties will be ready to leave the coalition in case of conflicts.
“If any internal or foreign political conflicts arise between “Rule of Law” members and the other coalitional parties, then we will simply leave the coalition. We won’t leave our colleagues in a bad situation if we’re talking about serious disagreements. I think that the principles with which we are moving forward are going at the same pace as foreign politics,” said Mr. Baghdasaryan back then.
A week later, Baghdasaryan announced that “Rule of Law” was going to leave the coalition and that he was going to resign from chairman of the National Assembly, claiming that there had been serious disagreements between “Rule of Law” and the other coalitional parties. What really happened between the coalitional parties during those couple of days that made one of the parties decide to leave? Armen Ashotyan confesses that there actually had been some conflicts among coalition members since the founding of the coalition because each party had different ideologies.
“I don’t think that there is anything unusual. There had always been disagreements and they just didn’t spark. What’s out in the open now actually started a long time ago. The coalition was founded by parties with different ideologies and their cooperation was strictly tactic. Their disagreements were mainly based on their different projects,” says A. Ashotyan about the coalition’s split. Besides that, according to him, “the “Rule of Law” party had entered the coalition and tried to confirm out-of-party relations without having an inner party system. It’s obvious that that’s the reason why half of the faction members left. Meanwhile, the party that wanted to be the biggest and most stabilized, really needed to be unified itself,” says A. Ashotyan.
As for Arthur Baghdasaryan’s announcement regarding the disagreements about Armenia’s foreign politics, A. Ashotyan says that that wasn’t the case.
“There haven’t been any discussions about foreign politics. It’s hard to say on what issue the coalition is more pro-European and on what issue it’s more democratic. It’s not like the first to announce that it’s pro-European and goes along like that,” says Ashotyan.
Perhaps the opinions that “Rule of Law” was punished for being half-oppositional serve a firm basis. In reality, according to Mr. Ashotyan, although “Rule of Law” has criticized this or that scandalous bill, however it has helped in the voting of each bill.
“If they are pointing out the privatization program, I must say that they confirmed the bill with their votes and opinions. That was apparent for everyone,” says the MP.
After all this, A. Ashotyan is of the opinion that “Rule of Law” automatically transferred to the opposition. If you are not with the authorities, then you are obviously on the opposition’s side. The question is, will Arthur Baghdasaryan become part of the constructive or brutal opposition?