The leaders of the political coalition have started to give joint interviews to the international media after the coalition establishment.
About two weeks ago the president-elect of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and the leader of the Legal State Party gave a joint interview to the American Washington Post paper right after signing the bilateral agreement. This has become a “good tradition” by including new members of the coalition. A few days ago the four leaders of the political coalition gave a joint interview to the Russian Novie Izvestiya newspaper. The reporter of the newspaper asked to of the same questions to the RPA chairman Serzh Sargsyan, leader of the Prosperous Armenia Gagik Tsarukyan, Legal State Chairman Artur Baghdasaryan and the ARF representative Armen Rustamyan. To the question why the political coalition was established almost all the members of the coalition except for Rustamyan give similar answers. “The political coalition in Armenia has been created for establishing effective government, for conducting human rights and democratic reforms. Now we are drafting the selection of the new government staff which should provide single project for the whole government. all the parts of the coalition are responsible for the improvement of the last years’ achievements, for the sustainable development, for improving the quality of life of our people, for meeting the foreign and inner problems and challenges of the country. The society will feel the positive and qualified changes in the nearest future and the first step should be against corruption,” said Sargsyan. “The society expects from the coalition government to conduct reforms, which are simple and understandable to people and will promote the improvement of people’s lifestyle, protection of the rights of small and medium businesses. We are all, the rich ones, poor ones and the average income citizens, are in the same ship. And none of us can be indifferent about how this boat floats,” expressively stated the chairman of the Prosperous Armenia party Gagik Tsarukyan. And the chairman of the Legal State party Artur Baghdasaryan as in all of his post-electoral speeches mentioned that despite the fact that Armenia has an experience of coalition governance, however this one differs from the previous ones with its intention of improving the social-economical and political life. “We are saying no to political war and yes to political peace, no to political hatred and yes to political competition,” these are the lyrical statements, which the chairman of the Legal State made, who only two months ago was conducting a political war against the government. And it’s only Armen Rustamyan, who connected the formation of the coalition with the necessity created after the March 1 events and post-electoral developments. “Right after the presidential elections it came up that Armenia needs a national solidarity. After the situation created as a result of the March 1 events it became urgent to take serious political steps and the most optimal decision was to establish a political coalition… That is the reason why today it is important to put away the narrow party interests and work on behalf of the solutions of issues, which our country faces. Today the primary issue is to recover the trust of people,” told Rustamyan the Novie Izvestiya. As a response to this statement the reporter asked his interviewees why the ANM and the Heritage, which represent the radical opposition are not included in the coalition. Almost all of them gave a similar answer to this question, which resembled to the answer of Kocharyan, which he gave during his last interview. The context of Kocharyan’s answer was approximately the following: “What dialog can there be with criminals?” Serzh Sargsyan specifically told the Novie Izvestiya, “The political coalition is based on mutual respect, understanding and solidarity. We have decided that the contradictions must be solved through negotiations and discussions. The parties should cooperate with each other and the president.” “How do you envision such cooperation with people, who don’t respect the legal methods of government formation? The new political coalition will work on behalf of all the citizens and will try to consolidate the society and reduce the tension. It will also provide relevant supervision on the activity of the government.” When answering the same question Tsarukyan said that they don’t mind dialog with the opposition, however “we think that the aggressive minority cannot dictate its illegal and unacceptable methods to the society. We are willing to discus any issue and viewpoint with any group of the society, starting from the opposition or non-parliamentary groups.” And the former oppositionist Baghdasaryan said, “There is certain margin, which segregates the political processes from illegal ones. As a result of the events of March 1-2 the processes trespassed the political logic, disorder took place in the capital and unfortunately we even had victims. And we think that these issues must be solved in the legal field as the illegal acts must be moved from the political sector to the legal.” Rustamyan answered only the second part of the reporter’s question. “Sargsyan expressed a with to work with anyone, who are willing for collaboration. Only the Heritage refused to enter the coalition because they said they got their own way. We keep the doors open. The coalition is quadrilateral and it’s quite understandable that thinks won’t be totally smooth. There will be debates. But all the key issues will be discussed and negotiated on.” In the end the Novie Izvestie mentioned that according to the recent news the political coalition of Armenia may be expanded. “It may include both non-parliamentary forces and non-party public actors.” Geghamyan’s wish came true.