Yesterday the ARF presidential candidate, Vahan Hovhannisyan said that the struggle will be harsh and promised not to hit any political powers down the waist in case no one does it with them. Otherwise Mr. Hovhannisyan assures that they will do the same. As for their standpoint concerning the previous authorities, Mr. Hovhannisyan will speak about it during the pre-election campaign.
“What can they remind us? People are so tired of what they have been saying all along that I don’t think that their information is demanded by people. However, if the competition starts that way, it will be very disgusting and we will do our best not to let it take place,” Vahan Hovhannisyan said.
Despite the general meetings of the other political powers, which used the opportunity to address critics to the previous authorities, namely to Levon Ter-Petrosyan, such speeches and critics were not spoken during the ARF general meeting (neither any names of the existing authorities were spoken). Armen Rustamyan said that the people want neither the existing authorities nor the previous ones “since it is a choice between the bad and the worst, which is a backward step”. “The debate between the existing and the previous authorities will create an opportunity to evaluate the way our country has passed better and discuss what the real guarantees are, which can provide the further secure and stabile development of our country,” A. Rustamyan says, “It is also clear that such comparisons of these two powers should not be done for the purpose of blaming any of them. Such comparison of two systems looks like comparison between two types of turbid water. If they are trying to make political estimations, it is late on the part of the existing authorities. On the other hand, it is better late then never, but I think that it should be done before so that to make the purpose of change of authorities in 1998 clear, thus creating a better ground for deep changes. If they are giving estimations to the actions of the previous authorities, a question originates. Who are the judges? There was time when they were trying to confess and excuse”. According to ARF’s candidate Vahan Hovhannisyan, the problem of our country is the fact that the law and the reality are different and we are faced with a choice whether to leave under the control of the ones who have the law in their hands or under the control of the law. “Dashnakcutyun chooses the second option,” said Vahan Hovhannisyan, whose party has cooperated with the existing authorities, which, according to their point, are included in the first group. Mr. Hovhannisyan presented many other shortcomings too, which undermine the cooperation of ARF with the existing authorities. “Today it is a time for fake fame in our country. It existed both during the ANM tenure and during the Soviet times. The word “fame” has been connected with the criminal world and specific behavior that it refers to hardly pronounceable nicknames, which bearers, through that fame, are trying to use the state for their personal purposes. Why is it so? The answer is very simple and the society has nothing to do with it: the fame can rely on power and material resources only. It can’t rely on education, intelligence; it can rely only on power. This is the sickness of our society, which is an obliged sickness. It does not mean that the holders of the power and money are free of talent, education and intelligence. It is not so. However, it is not the factor due to which they are supported. It is a pity, but they are supported for their power and money. This reality faces us with a choice between the power and ideologies. Dashnakcutyun chooses the second option. Such power, which is based on moral fame and the law, is created due to competition, which helps to create a civic society. All the powers participating in the competition for power are loosing eventually, including those who seemingly have won, because the victory vests in bureaucracy in such cases, which tends to staying out of control. Why do we have to make a choice between the past and the present? It is enough! We are choosing the future,” Vahan Hovhannisyan said and added that the judge of political competition is the society, “just judges should not be bribed”. Concerning Vahan Hovhannisyan’s statement regarding “bribing the judges” PM Serzh Sargsyan has said to journalists the following: “I think that self-criticizing is always beneficial to people”. S. Sargsyan believes there was no critic addressed to him in the speech of ARF. “The first imagination is not true and I would like to advise everyone to read the speeches of Hovhannisyan and Rustamyan carefully and see who they criticize. Second, each of us should understand that those speeches are available not only to the 300-400-500 people sitting in the hall, but also to the society. As one of the ARF candidates said, the judge is the society. The judge makes a decision and forms our ratings based on our actions, including the speeches. Thus if you say things, which are not true, if the judge does not believe you, the judge gives you ratings equal to 0, 1, 2, 3. In a word, everything is normal, it is a political competition and everyone has a right of choice,” Serzh Sargsyan said. According to Sargsyan, generally everything, including critics, are natural “I have always preferred the political competition better than the level of personal insulting, thus from this view there is a development in our country”.
Some time later we asked Vahan Hovhannisyan to comment about their cooperation with the parliamentary majority, specifically to clarify how they can cooperate with a political power, many of the actions of which are not acceptable for them. “I will give a simple answer: despite the outcome of the elections, notwithstanding the fact whether the future president will be from ARF or another power, we will continue our cooperation with ARP. ARP is one of the leading political powers of Armenia. We can’t do as Levon Ter-Petrosyan has done and say that we will meet with everyone besides ARP. Why don’t they want to meet them too? We don’t accept such attempts to separate the black and white, perform hate and liquidate each other. Notwithstanding who the president is we will continue cooperating with ARP. This is not the meaning of the problem”. We think there is no need for extra comments.