Paruyr Hayrikyan’s initiative to organize periodic meetings with oppositional leaders, as it was expected, has become a process of looking for “mines” within the opposition.
Following their meeting at Congress hotel of Yerevan on August 28 people started speaking about the fact that they have already found a “mine” within the opposition, who is Shavarsh Kocharyan. He was discovered by Ludmila Sargsyan and “Rule of Law” member Hovhannes Margaryan. The latter was not present at the meeting despite Ludimila Sargsyan, but he said it concerning Shavarsh Kocharyan due to the fact that latter had criticized their party. In a word, the scenario to which Hayrikyan’s initiative had to follow and for which it was established has started. The problem is that Hayrikyan is not the initiator of this action, but the implementer. In reality the authorities have initially assigned this responsibility on undiscovered politician Ashot Manucharyan. However, as Manucharyan’s name doesn’t inspire credence and thus the oppositional parties would not agree to take part in his initiative in order not to be accused in being pro-governmental, the authorities have decided to assign this responsibility on Hayrikyan and keep Manucharyan undiscovered. Yesterday we couldn’t make contact with Manucharyan and we were told that he was not at home and would come late at night.
Also many oppositional parties think that Manucharyan is connected with this initiative. Among such powers there are even some participants of the discussions organized by him in cafes. Even after the recent meeting many participants have understood that this initiative may not support the opposition besides hindering its success. The first step was the action organized against Shavarsh Kocharyan. The problem is that the political powers that are participating in the action named “Metelitsa” are those political powers, which are known as oppositional parties that are working for the governmental powers. For instance, all the parties participating in the latest discussion have been criticized in having ties with the authorities. As for Hayrikyan, he is known as the advocate of Kocharyan’s rights. Recently Hayrikyan said that the leader of “Republic” party, Aram Z. Sargsyan, who hasn’t participated in the mentioned initiative, is “going mad” (it proves that the main goal of this initiative is staining the opposition).
Yesterday we asked Shavarsh Kocharyan what the real reason of this demarche against him was, to which he answered the following: “recently during one of my interviews I said what would happen if Ter-Petrosyan came. I think the reason is my announcement. They don’t want to see their mistakes and I think that is why they said it”. He didn’t want to discuss Ludmila Harutyunyan’s critics addressed to him and said in surprise, “She was sitting near me and smiling”. We asked Sh. Kocharyan who had invited him to that meeting, to which he replied, “Paruyr called and convinced me to attend the meeting. They’d be better not to invite me.” To our question whether he is going to take part in the further meetings he said that everything depends on the future steps and if the initiative turns to be serious he will. Anyway, after the recent meeting it became clear that the participants of this initiative are going to accuse each other in collaborating with the authorities and will “liquidate themselves”. In addition, there is nothing surprising in the fact that the mentioned process has started from Shavarsh Kocharyan.