Despite some “natural, direct, unfortunate and minor impediments”, the “Heritage” political party’s campaign is holding strong around Armenia, and is on the rise. This is what leader of “Heritage” Raffi Hovhannisyan said during a press conference on Wednesday. He informed that the party was going to visit the Avan community of Yerevan where recently, according to Hovhannisyan, four guys came out of a BMW, pushed-and-shoved the female students distributing “Heritage” party booklets, and took the booklets away from them.
According to Hovhannisyan, the car belongs to Robert Petrosyan, who is a resident of the Narekatsi district of the Avan community. The political party has already appealed to the police.
“We hope that the investigation will be effective. But the least we expect is a public apology, as well as compensation for the damages caused,” mentioned Hovhannisyan.
He also said that he had talked with head of the Avan district Taron Markaryan, and the district head had promised to help solve the case. As he got back to the topic of elections, the leader of “Heritage” mentioned that they are sure that on May 12, the people of Armenia will answer “yes” to the infamous question “Are you the owner?”
“We are finished with asking questions. The moment for getting answers is near. As a result, we will have a successful election, and victory; we will form a majority with our citizens and favorable parties and will form a government of national solidarity that will lead our country to a new era,” he announced.
Hovhannisyan is convinced that “this time Armenia does not have the opportunity to commit an error”. He believes that this time, unlike previous times, the observatory missions, especially the European observers, will guard themselves from “going after cosmopolitan goals” and will really steer the observatory mission towards observing, reporting and securing democratic elections. The conference speaker remarked that a balanced field is not secured for the parties participating in the elections. That, according to him, is manifested by the renting of the auditoriums and marquees, and other cases. He informed that the party has appealed to the corresponding bodies and it was said 4-5 months ago that there are 50 free marquees, however, “when they saw whose photograph it was and what was going to take place there, those 50 marquees were no longer free”. Now they say that there are no free marquees, and that they will inform them if anything changes.
According to Hovhannisyan, Armenia is close to a turning point. He mentioned some registered cases of violations and obstacles during the pre-election period and informed that they have found errors in the election lists and they are getting ready to present them to the corresponding bodies. Hovhannisyan finds that the “obstacles have been modernized” compared to the previous elections. During the press conference on Wednesday, the leader of “Heritage” also said that when the party visits different cities and villages and it just so happens that they come face-to-face with other political party offices and headquarters, and if “Heritage” has time, they enter, greet them, and “together pledge that this time the elections in Armenia are going to be free, decent, and worthy for Armenians, unlike the previous ones”.
“That pledge has been made with the Armenian Republican Party, the “Prosperous Armenia” party, the ARF, as well as our oppositional allies,” he said. Hovannisyan did not exclude co-operation with any political party, but he denied the rumors flying around in the presses claiming that “Heritage” has made an agreement with the authorities. With regards to the viewpoint that the biggest surprise during this election is going to be “Heritage” coming to parliament, Hovhannisyan said the following:
“I think that people are slowly starting to follow us, and on May 12 they will have the chance to reflect the actual situation and the real reputation of “Heritage”. We don’t have this kind of organized membership. We have a wide range of people who have a liking for our party. We are going to lead our campaign to the finish, until victory.” With regards to the 2008 presidential elections, he mentioned once again that they are going to the parliamentary elections to form a majority and a government of national solidarity after which “it is a matter of technique and it is not that important who the next president of Armenia will be”.
“We would like for the people to finally elect the next president. After that we will lend our hand to the new president,” announced Hovhannisan, and added: “It seems to me that the ups-and-downs of my political odyssey had to do with the fears of some circles that, by creating an equal field and equal conditions, there would be no competition during the presidential elections. I will not go down to that level. I want the president of Armenia to be the president elected by the people and to be trusted by the people. Unfortunately, today, it is not like that.”
Hovannisyan also remarked that he would be out of the country for the next couple of days because he was going to participate in the international conference in Brussels where, according to him, there will be European, American, Russian and world leaders and political figures.
“This time there will be sessions on Turkey-European Union relations and we will have the opportunity to meet our colleagues from Europe, America and other continents. There will probably be some U.S. presidential candidates and, as always, I will try to present Armenia’s approaches to the politicians gathered there,” he said.