Finally NDU chairman Vazgen Manukyan reached his goal. During yesterday’s congress of the party he received unanimous nomination by his political party to contest next year’s presidential election for the third time.
Vazgen Manukyan thanked the delegates of the conference and said with a joke the most difficult step, the nomination, has been taken, the second step, becoming a president, is easier. In Armenia it is as easy as falling off a log, Vazgen Manukyan said in a joke. This gives us grounds to assume that during the congress there would be people to oppose him and be against his nomination as a presidential candidate. In fact it turned out to be true because according to our NDU sources there were people in the party board, who were against Manukyan’s run. If not fully than partly Manukyan’s speech was aimed against the former government (despite the fact that his eloquence was so much poorer than Artashes Geghamyan’s), which was guilty of 1996 elections. In his speech, however, he gave a serious overview of the present situation in Armenia, and an evaluation of the past and the present. Meanwhile, the leader of the NDU thinks the secret of development of Armenia is the fair combination of these two ideas. He mentioned that the courts must be independent from the Government, in order not to be corrupted; besides local governing bodies must be given more independence. “The chiefs of the regions must be elected by the public not assigned,” said Manukyan. “When we reject the national idea, the idea of freedom does not work, when we reject freedom, the national idea does not work. Both are interrelated,” Vazgen Manukyan says. According to him, for a change of situation in Armenia it is necessary to replace the system rather than persons therefore it is necessary to come together around ideas, not persons, and people will go for this unification, for if people go for such unification, success is guaranteed, and after coming to power the president cannot forget about people and avoid responsibility, saying one thing and doing another thing. In this context, Vazgen Manukyan says a president whom people trust can form a good government if he comes to power because the parliament majority cannot oppose to a president who enjoys the confidence of people since such a president will be stronger. He hints at the opinion that according to the amended Constitution the government is formed by the parliament majority. Vazgen Manukyan thinks the events of the recent years in Armenia are a chain reaction from 1996. “The process of privatization proceeded not in the form of competition (he refers to the former government – L.S.) but based who their loyalist is. They sat down and mentioned with paper and pencil, who is going to own the factories. This system was launched in 1995 by which a group of people would lead the masses.” The best way of making time work in favor of Armenia is to form a free Armenia. The leader of the NDU thinks that after election the future president of Armenia must change the Constitution because people did not adopt the referendum in either 1995 or 2005. After ensuring the adoption of the new Constitution by people the president should hold a new election and ensure a government formed by the will of people. Vazgen Manukyan urges the political forces to come together for these ideas and structural changes. "We live like serfs in a country, where the elections mechanism does not work at all, which lacks political and economic competitive capacity," the NDU Chairman stated in his speech. According to him, to get rid of the authorities at any price has become society’s dictate, but according to the NDU leader, this approach is not so right, "as all this is not only conditioned by personalities." According to V. Manukyan’s observation, the disgraceful political processes in Armenia are based on the already formed peculiar system and are the logical continuation of one another. "The year 1998 was conditioned by 1996, the incidents of October 27 were conditioned by 1998, 2003 was conditioned by October 27," V. Manukyan said. “Give freedom to Armenians and watch them develop all the spheres,” Vazgen Manukyan says. Besides, he thinks that Karabakh should settle the issue of Karabakh through negotiations, and Armenia has no right to consider returning territories because it is the rights of Armenia. Moreover, Vazgen Manukyan says we cannot achieve peace through returning territories, but we will weaken Karabakh and force Azerbaijan to wage a war. Speaking at the congress of his National-Democratic Union Manukyan urged both political forces and the public “to rally around ideas rather than personalities”, which he said is the only guarantee of success. “But we have to make sure that the team that comes to power not base on the existing model. They task is going to change and reform the system. If the person doesn’t have an intention like that the easiest thing for him will be to be corrupt and pillage the government just like his predecessors,” said Manukyan referring to the petitions of the radical opposition. The latter has also praised the political forces present at the session hall. “I don’t want you to unite round my personality. You must unite round an ideology. It is not difficult to find a leader.” Vazgen Manukyan announced yesterday and expressed a belief that only “universal national movement” can save the country. As potential partners on this way the leader of the National Democratic Union pointed out ARFD with whom they have passed a long way and have lots of ideological generalities, “Legal State”, with their reformist aspirations, “Heritage” with whom he doesn’t see any difference; neither ideological, nor in the national issues. But even this didn’t help him to receive the consent of political forces to enforce him during elections. ARF representative Armen Rustamyan also welcomed Manukyan’s congress and his decision to run the presidential race. The upcoming presidential election is crucial to the fate of the country and people, to setting Armenia onto the track for democracy and freedom, stated the deputy leader of the Legal State Party Mher Shahgeldyan. The secretary of the Heritage Party Vardan Khachatryan said the leader of the party Raffi Hovannisian did not come to the conference only because he is in Moscow now. But he mentioned that they are planning to run with their own candidate. Of course the chair of the SIM party Hrant Khachatryan didn’t say they were going to support Manukyan during the presidential run but he made it clear that the former government should apologize to Manukyan for 1996. Chairman of the formgotten National Consent Party Aram Harutyunyan said that he had always been against Manukyan’s accession into the Justice alliance, which included people, who deceived him during elections. Put shortly, Manukyan’s congress was hosted by those politicians, who needed an occasion and a microphone to continue the anti-campaign against Ter-Petrosyan. Interestingly, the National Democratic Party and Arshak Sadoyan’s National Democratic Alliance, two parties which had once come off from the National Democratic Union, have reunited in this stage to support Vazgen Manukyan. Despite Manukyan’s urge not to make candidates “idols” by referring to Levon Ter-Petrosyan because the leader must be a flag it was obvious that he is someone like that for his previous party friends as they think that NDU starts and finishes with Manukyan.
P.S. ULP chairman Gurgen Arsenyan, HRAK party chairman Harutyun Arakelyan, Samvel Babayan, Albert Bazeyan, Aram G. Sargsyan, secretary of the LPPA Edward Antinyan and others were also present at the NDU congress. However, none of them welcomed NDU’s congress and nor did they congratulate Manukyan’s nomination decision.