People think that external factors are very important for the upcoming presidential elections, namely they think that the agreement and support of third countries may play an important role during the elections. Can the external factor place an important role during the upcoming elections?
During a discussion held at the National Press Club (NPC) former SC deputy Aram Mailyan expressed his opinion on the mentioned topic and said that foreign influence on our elections is “from the national folklore genre”. He said that, for instance, both the West and Russia are interested in elections in Georgia, but no one cares about elections in Armenia. Why? “Because it is a long time already that Armenia has left itself out of international competition, international and regional cooperation, has become like an island and ethnic territory”, Mr. Mailyan said and added “They are just examining to see what purposes this ethnic territory has. For this reason I think there will not be any support to recover democracy (I mean recovering but not developing as there has been time when we had democracy) or any economic impact”. The other participants did not agree with the estimations of Mr. Mailyan and said that the issue of Artsakh and other issues are placing a key role too. Concerning this viewpoint member of “Heritage” faction Vardan Khachatryan said concerning the issue of Karabakh that we have transformed from the field of challenges into the field of threats, which has been witnessed by the Azeri defense minister’s recent announcement that a war with Armenia is inescapable. “On the other hand, on November 14 the co-chairmen have proposed such provisions, the negotiations of which they are trying to drive to a certain point through pressure,” he said. LS faction member Mher Shahgeldyan thinks that from the view of having legitimate authorities in Armenia the interests of all geopolitical centers may correspond. ARF member Ruzan Arakelyan suggested to found a strategic analytic center in charge of making analysis concerning this important “phase” for Armenia. She thinks that such important phases are the periods between elections. She thinks that it is important to analyze and see what the impact of external forces was on the elections and what such impact has changed. Tatul Manaseryan said that he worried about the fact that according to the recent information, “in Armenia import growth rates exceed export growth rates by 300%”, which he thinks is an economic catastrophe. “There is an absolute dependence on one country. This is an economic threat,” Tatul Manaseryan said. The head of UCR, Hrant Khachatryan, said that it is a long time that Armenia is not on the Moon or Mars and is “available for all the countries”. According to him, Armenia and the Armenian people are not acting as a common system and that is the reason why the external influence is so big. The president of “National Agreement”, candidate for president, Aram Harutyunyan said, “like any product, democracy is subject to exporting too”. “We may say that the biggest countries are successfully maintaining status-quo on Armenia,” he said and added that the estimations of observers are not a standard for us and the most important thing is that the society accepts the elections as it would like it to be. Edward Antinyan suggested first of all to clarify what foreign factors mean. “If we are speaking about serving the interests of foreigners here, it is something else. In order to think whether they are coming to check up us or not, we should first of all make it clear whether we consider ourselves as a member of international institutions and a part of the civilized world. I think that the organization, which member we are, is not a foreign institution to come and check up us”. NU member Anahit Aghoyan repeated Vazgen Manukyan’s idea that “the Armenians are a world nation”. “It means that we should integrate with international institutions and be governed by the human and other relative rights. It means that we can’t stop doing that since we are a member of some international institutions, which evolves the entire world and the rules are the same for all countries of the world,” he said. Ruzan Khachatryan thinks that there is some external influence. She says that such influence exists even in the US. According to Khachatryan, the Armenian people describe that issue saying that someone has a pro-Russian attitude, and others have pro-American attitude. “This means that the society is not accepted as a factor, the state is not accepted as a factor either. Politicians sell their services as in auction. They are inviting other people from other countries to Armenia, for example Kobzon, Lujkov, even Armen Jigarkhanyan…” Ruzan Khachatryan said.