“If I am assured that a political party will be beneficial for the country, then I will be in the party, why not?”
This was the response of president of the Armenian World Congress Ara Abrahamyan said regarding the newly founded “Union for Armenia” political party and his support.
During a press conference, Mr. Abrahamyan reassured that he is not just going to follow-up on Armenia’s internal political life. He says that the reason that he will participate is that there are approximately 500,000 Armenian citizens living in Russia.
“Due to that, I just can’t show them that I don’t know anything about the internal political life in Armenia or that I don’t agree with everything. However, I am a citizen of the Russian Federation and I am not going to interfere, but rather take part in the processes based on the law if, of course, that will be beneficial for Armenia.”
Ara Abrahamyan stated that although the Armenian World Congress has only been around for the past two and a half years, however there is still much to do. The congress has visited 27 countries and they have all agreed to support the AWC, but the congress hasn’t been able to reach the same successes as the Union of Armenians of Russia and create a unified structure.
“The reason for that is that we and the foreign communities were not ready. There were some disagreements. Some political parties just can’t get along…For example, I have met with Dashnak (federalist) Hrant Margaryan a couple of times. He is my friend and very patriotic, but you don’t continue working with someone after you go separate ways,” said Mr. Abrahamyan.
Abrahamyan was doing his best to restrain himself and not make any brisk announcements, but everyone knows that the Dashnaks have, shall we say, privatized the right to take care of the Genocide issue and consider it dishonorable to work with a newly founded organization, much less become a member. But according to Abrahamyan, the newly founded organization is working towards that.
“More than 50 people have worked on the genocide archives of 30 countries and a three-volume book has been published. We have also formed a group of scientific experts from 17 countries…but we can’t work on this alone,” said Abrahamyan.
Mr. Abrahamyan doesn’t see any action taken by the Russian authorities towards crimes against Armenians.
“The crimes are aimed not towards Armenians, but people with dark colored skin. This is common in all countries.”
Despite that, he said that they have expressed their negative opinions about the work done by Russian police.
“Our lawyer is currently instituting legal proceedings on the murder of Vigen Abrahamyants and we will keep you updated on the results,” said Mr. Abrahamyan.
In the end, there was a question about the business environment in Armenia, which also has a political context. Mr. Abrahamyan has surely talked with the MP businessmen who have left “Rule of Law” and knows about the “high” level of business protection in Armenia. Ara Abrahamyan also gave a short answer to this:
“Although there have been many changes in the past couple of years, for example in the legislative field, however if we compare with other countries like Cyprus, we see that there is still much to do. The most important thing is the businessman’s trust in the government, but there is a worry over the fact that a businessman can lose his entire business due to some disagreements.”