The Dashnaktsutyun will present a list of 100 people for the upcoming Armenian parliamentary elections. The list will consist of political activists and there will be a reduction of non-ARF members. This is what ARF Bureau representative Hrant Markaryan said during a press conference held on Monday at the “Friday” club. Markaryan informed that it’s very possible that Deputy Defense Minister Arthur Aghabekyan gets nominated as a deputy candidate in the ARF list. But what is the possibility that Aghabekyan becomes Defense Minister after the elections? According to Hrant Markaryan, that’s a different story. He also mentioned during the press conference that he is not planning to be nominated and that he knows that member of the ARF faction Arayik Grigoryan is going to be nominated based on a majority electoral order. The Dashnaktsutyun will finally determine the proportional list one week before handing in all the lists to the Central Electoral Commission during the extraordinary session of the Supreme Council. As for the upcoming presidential elections, as Hrant Markaryan stated, the Dashnaktsutyun will participate with its own candidate which, according to him, means that the ARF will not back any other candidate.
“We’re going to have our own candidate,” repeated H. Markaryan and said that that candidate was not going to be Armenian Defense Minister and head of the Republican Party board Serge Sarkisyan.
The remainder of the press conference mainly consisted of many general formulations and numerous allusions, especially when journalists recalled that after the 2003 elections, the ARF announced that part of their votes had been stolen, to which Hrant Markaryan responded:
“It’s kind of hard to steal our votes. But there is something else going on here. When the number of voters is artificially increased, the percentage rate of your votes goes down.” He also added that electoral falsifications are centralized and decentralized in Armenia. There were falsifications during the previous elections and it’s clear “who they were talking about”. H. Markaryan believes that based on what’s going on now, “even the people who don’t totally accept the Dashnaktsutyun will vote for us if they have any self-esteem and if they are thinking about their future.” So, if voters accept this logic, then it’s highly possible to see the Dashnaktsutyun receive a majority of seats in the future parliament and, as a matter of fact, the strongest defender of the ARF, as the strongest anti-Dashnak, will be the Armenian National Movement. It’s nice, right? But the 11 mandates that the ARF received after the previous elections goes to show that, at least officially, there aren’t that many people with self-esteem in Armenia. And since the number of people with self-esteem hasn’t really increased in the past four years, perhaps the elections won’t really differ much from the previous ones. In a word, it turns out that it’s still too early to talk about the Armenian National Movement backing the Dashnaktsutyun-whatever.
Hrant Markaryan doesn’t agree that the ARF is a closed structure. He says that although it’s not that open, however it’s more open than the other political parties. According to him, the Dashnaktsutyun is the only democratic political party in Armenia.
“We have the solutions to every problem. Social issues will be solved. There is the opportunity for that and Armenia has the potential. The only thing left is the political will of the political party for which power is not a means of getting rich, but rather serving the people and the country,” mentioned H. Markaryan.
Markaryan says that if a majority does not form in the National Assembly and it becomes necessary for the ARF to help form a majority, they will then negotiate and thus decide whether to be governmental or not. “But if we don’t form part of the majority, then obviously, just like in other countries, we won’t be part of the government. In that case, we also won’t want to help form a majority because that will give the ARF a special status, just like during the past four years,” announced the ARF Bureau representative and added that the Dashnaktsutyun isn’t afraid of taking responsibility and does not regret being governmental. Well, if the ARF doesn’t form part of the majority, then it will become the opposition; however, it won’t be like the opposition that Armenia has today.
“We will become a normal opposition, which will wait for the next elections in order to change power and set rules and regulations in the country through the means of elections…We have an opportunity to achieve in these elections. The ARF is not going to be a minority. We have general social differences. When I say social, I mean shady economy, corruption, tolerance, lack of punishment…We really differ from the other political parties, even the opposition, with our opinions on these issues. The opposition was also a government; we have felt the power of the opposition. We are the alternative political party; the alternative, which will make it so nobody, forces anybody to do anything in this country. That will only be if the Dashnaktsutyun comes to power in Armenia; of course, that will also happen without us,” said the ARF Bureau representative.
What does the ARF have that the Hanrapetakan (Republican) or “Bargavach Hayastan” (Prosperous Armenia) political parties don’t have?
“No, no, nobody is inferior to us, but we’re better than them,” mentioned Markaryan. In response to the question on the ARF working with Hrant Vardanyan, Markaryan stated that it’s not that suitable to have an even larger ARF work with Hrant Vardanyan.
“We can cooperate with political parties, organizations and countries,” said Hrant Markaryan and informed that the Dashnaktsutyun respects Hrant Vardanyan and believes that “everything is going to be alright in that aspect”. Markaryan added that the ARF hasn’t considered making a proposal to Vardan Oskanyan to join the Dashnaktsutyun, but if the Foreign Minister appeals to them, they will consider it and accept him based on the ARF order.