Independent deputy Viktor Dallakyan has reaffirmed his view that the purpose of the law on amending the “Law on TV and radio” was closing radio “Liberty”. Dallakyan explained his view with the fact that they could not include the mentioned issue in the agenda of the special session of the parliament, as it didn’t have anything in common with the program and activities of the government. The fact that the authorities squeezed that bill into the agenda for adoption means that the authorities want to close that radio station as soon as is possible.
Viktor Dallakyan believes that the authorities were not able to pass that bill due to the people’s negative reaction, foreign pressure, intergovernmental competition, the fact that the parliamentary majority was not organized, and the good organization of the parliamentary opposition. Furthermore, Dallakyan sees the “hand of God”, as 65 MPs took part in the voting instead of the required 66. However, Dallakyan is not sure that God will help in September too, when the deputies return from their vacations and the first thing they will try to do will be to vote for the bill coming from the president’s office. This is the best expected, since they may just call a special session of the parliament tomorrow and bring that bill up for a vote, thus punishing those deputies that have already managed to leave for vacation to Europe and other destinations. According to our information, just following the voting session, the president’s office demanded the voting summary to see which political powers did not help Robert Kocharyan’s wish come true. They found it out that almost all representatives of ARP were present, but most of the members of PA and ARF parties had not appeared. That same day, the coalition leaders were “called” to the president’s office to give explanations how this happened. Answering to a question as to why, in such cases, the responsibility falls on ARP, since the coalition consists of three parties, Dallakyan said, “The ARP has the necessary number of seats in parliament to form a government alone. It has 65 seats. Why did it form a coalition?”
What will happen to “Liberty” in September? Dallakyan thinks the answer is very simple: “They will do their best to cut off Liberty’s voice before the presidential elections. The board of National Television wanted to do that with the help of the parliament, as it is afraid of making too much noise,” the MP said, and noted that now the authorities are trying to do with radio “Liberty” the same that they did with A1+. “I don’t feel the need to give advice to anyone, but I believe both Heritage and LS have to be active in that matter,” petitioned Dallakyan.
During the press conference, Dallakyan also discussed the upcoming presidential elections of 2008 and said that there is competition for a government within the government: on one part, the president that does not want to be the youngest retired person and wants to keep his power as much as he can, and on the other part, the person that “occupies” the prime minister’s seat and wants to have maximal power. As a result, he thinks two main candidates will run in 2008, one of which will be Serge Sargsyan, and the other one will be someone chosen by Robert Kocharyan. Yesterday Dallakyan hinted that the mentioned person to be backed by the president might be the deputy who abstained for the bill on amending the “Law on TV and radio” during the voting session. As for this person, it is the former justice minister and the existing head of the standing commission on legal and state issues, Davit Harutyunyan. According to our information, Harutyunyan had been instructed by the president’s office to abstain in order not to damage his image. Also, as the president’s office has not made a final decision as to whether Harutyunyan will be the alternative candidate, they aren’t making rapid steps yet. By the way, ARP members accept Davit Harutyunyan as a member of Kocharyan’s team, and are not particularly “enamoured” with his actions. However, Viktor Dallakyan does not think the existing prime minister will agree to give the prime minister’s seat to Kocharyan if he is elected, but does not exclude either that after the presidential elections of 2008 the prime minister, NA majority, and the president may represent the same party. “But it will remind of the ANM attempt at unity with the “Republic” bloc in 1995, when a monolithic government formed for a short period,” said Dallakyan. By the way, he didn’t exclude either that the authorities may nominate one more “government” candidate, from the ARF. “The parliamentary powers, which have the majority and the prime minister’s position, are becoming dominant in the country. In the given case the president becomes like the English Queen, since he can’t fire the existing prime minister without the approval of the parliamentary majority,” explained Dallakyan, and added that there is competition between the existing president and the prime minister to have more power and it may be done through diminishing the mentioned power.
As for the opposition, according to Dallakyan, they can be a serious counterbalance to the governmental candidates if they have learned certain lessons from the parliamentary elections.