The 3rd out-of-turn congress of the “Bargavach Hayastan” (Prosperous Armenia) political party took place in the Sessions Hall of the Government building during which National Assembly Deputy Gagik Tsarukyan was re-elected leader of the party. The party also elected a council consisting of 35 members.
It turned out that in contrast to the rumors, the once strong oppositionist deputies of the National Assembly Victor Dallakyan and Tatul Manaseryan are not members of Prosperous Armenia (PA), but another deputy, who is also a former member of the Armenian Democratic Party (headed by Stepan Demirchyan) and strong oppositionist Emma Khudabashyan, is. Khudabshyan, however, was not included in the PA newly elected council. But we won’t go into detail about the congress because the dailies have already covered that. Instead, we will refer to the booklet entitled “Questions for the “Bargavach Hayastan” party” which was distributed to the members on the day of the congress.
The booklet consists of many interesting questions and answers. Let’s start with the following questions: Why does the PA want to enter the parliament? What does the political party want to do in the political field? In the answer to this question it is stated that PA is against revolutionary struggles and demagogy and is also against hiding the flaws and not talking about them.
“Our plans show that we clearly see what we want to say and do in goverment. We know the issues facing the country and know how to solve them. The intellectual potential of our political party is enough to realize the main points of the program,” as stated in the booklet.
Next question: is the wide-range membership of PA (PA officially has 370,000 members) due to the reputation of the political party leader or the party’s ideology? Based on the abovementioned booklet, the motive for PA membership is both the ideology and party leader G. Tsarukyan’s “personalization as a bright and successful individual.”
Is PA getting ready to participate in the activities initiated by the “anti-criminal front”? It turns out that the PA has decided not to participate in different kinds of political or politicized movements before the elections, nor be included in unions and other formats. In regard to the “anti-criminal front”, it is stated: “We must say that there are absurd propositions stated in the movement’s declaration”.
“What’s more, the declaration evidently shows a political conjecture and politicizes the issue for no reason. It’s clear that it is the duty of each civilian to fight against criminalization of the society and it is based on how much the party can do, but can we really claim that there is such a danger today and if that is the number one issue for the society?” continues the PA. As you can see, the PA is not going to participate in the “movement”.
Is “Prosperous Armenia” pro-government or oppositional? There is a reference made to G. Tsarukyan’s words in the answer to this in the booklet:
“We are not the opposition; we are with the people”.
PA declares that it is an “objective, political power”. Next question: What is the relationship between PA and the Armenian Republican Party? According to the booklet, the electoral masses of PA and the Republican Party differ and, as stated in the booklet, “we don’t see any current or possible issues between the two parties”.
There are many rumors claiming that the real founder and head of PA is Robert Kocharyan. What does Robert Kocharyan really have to do with PA? In response to this, it is stated in the “Questions to PA” booklet that responding to presses about this, G. Tsarukyan has said that he highly respects the role that the president of Armenia plays in the development and stabilization of the country.
“When we buy bread, we don’t think about the personality of the bread-baker. The important thing for us is the quality of the bread. Thus, our judgments about the president must be based on the flow of certain events that have taken place in the country years ago and are going on now. The rest are all about emotions and objectivity,” as stated in the booklet. As for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the PA is assured that there is no alternative to the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh and is going to try to put in its effort for the “fair settlement of the conflict”. As for the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), PA declares that the “amount and guidelines of Armenia’s participation in the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide must be based on real state interests”.
The PA has this to say about dual citizenship: “We recognize the right of the Armenian to be a citizen of Armenia and keep the citizenship of the given country of residence,” as mentioned in the PA booklet. How is the “Prosperous Armenia” party going to solve the issue of eliminating shady business and does it really guarantee the transparency of the party leader’s business? The political party gave the following answers to these questions in the “Questions to PA” booklet: “We guarantee it. In fact, our party leader sees the transparency of the activities of businessmen members of the party as a principal issue.” As for the fight against shady business, PA is certain that the government can “be effective” only by consistently reducing the shade and legalizing small, medium and large profits.