What “absurdities” have Armenian Popular Party representative Ruzan Khachatryan and Dashnak Alvard Petrosyan found during the pre-election campaign?
“The most absurd thing is that those parties that are quickly distributing electoral bribes, stand on stage and say to the people to not take bribes,” said Khachatryan at the “Hayeli” club on Monday. “It is obvious that we are talking about “Prosperous Armenia”. The Republican Party is also doing amazing things with its new leader. The party has begun appealing to the people by calling them “dear”, which is very unnatural, and is also trying to convince them to not trust the oppositionists.”
Although Petrosyan has also noticed many absurdities, she was unable to recall any one of them. She tried to present one of the steps that her party had taken and find out whether or not it is considered a bribe.
“A couple of days ago the Dashnaktsutyun had purchased all of the tickets for my “Yes mi tsar em tsirani” (I am an apricot tree) stage production,” said Petrosyan. “I said ‘dear people, I am giving you a spiritual bribe’. I don’t know, is that a bribe or not? But, according to me, it is not a bribe.”
During the conference it turned out that if the Dashnaktsutyun had done that 1-2 months ago, then it would have not been a bribe. But since we are in an election campaign, then buying tickets for the spectators is a bribe. After clearing this issue up, the speakers went on to topics concerning the upcoming elections starting with the fear of the people, the falsifications, up to the investigations recently conducted at the homes of Vahan Shirkhanyan and Alexan Arzumanyan. According to Khachatryan, that investigation clearly has a political subtext, and if there are any political articles touched upon, they must still be confirmed. According to her, with this the authorities are sending a warning to the other political parties just days before the elections. Khachatryan is certain that the people fear that the governmental parties are using their levers during the public meetings and are forcing the people to come to the public squares.
“Serge Sargsyan said during his rallies that whoever was forced to come to the rally could turn around and leave,” said Khachatryan. “Who would risk leaving?”
Alvard Petrosyan, however, did not agree that there is a great fear among people in Armenia. It is clear that in such cases, the Dashnak politician had to compare the fear with the fear during the time of the previous authorities, and it is also clear that based on the results of her comparison, we are living more daringly now. According to Petrosyan, there used to be more fear before. After all, the previous authorities stopped the activities of the Dashnaktsutyun and arrested the leaders of the party. Now things are looking up for Dashnaktsutyun. But Petrosyan complained that the Armenian opposition is weak and the government also grows weak and wilts when the opposition is weak. The former Armenian Popular Party “super-unification” has been divided into parts. It is obvious that Ruzan Khachatryan wouldn’t agree with this. She doesn’t agree with the standpoint that the Armenian Popular Party is mixing up the oppositional field.
“First of all, our party has not been divided. Some members have simply left,” said Khachatryan. “Secondly, we are not mixing up the oppositional field. We have always kept our promises to date.”
At the end of the press conference, the speakers remembered with envy the French presidential elections, which were conducted more fairly, and that that country is more democratic than Armenia. Although Segolen Royal lost, she exclaimed “Long Live France”. According to the journalists and Alvard Petrosyan, Armenian politicians still have not reached the level to say “Long Live Armenia”.