– Mr. Abrahamyan, Levon Ter-Petrosyan in his speech often says that only a little part of the society is politically active. Does this mean that the ANC does not have enough supporters to coordinate them and win the city council elections?
– One doesn’t have to know even about the surveys of Shota Vardanyans (he means Aharon Adibekyan – A.A.) to understand that the Congress has about 60-70 per cent of the votes. Even more, it is very strange that the PA is in the second place but not the RPA. Levon Ter-Petrosyan means the political passiveness, in other words the more people go to vote the more votes will be given to us. The votes of those who don’t go for voting are stuffed, Garegin Azaryan will vote instead of them. People should be politically active. And if the elections are violated again, we will go out to streets. After that the government will be faced with a dilemma either to respect our opinion or to kill 10-20 people again. I don’t think they have so many resources. Plus, this time people may not listen to us any more and it will be impossible for them to make them come down.
– In the pre-election period there were rumors that the political powers competing in the mayoral election were serving for the RPA. Now it seems that they are fighting for power. Even there have been bloody clashes. What do you think about this?
– I think there is no conflict on the top of the pyramid; the conflict of the government is on the bottom of the governmental pyramid. These people endorsing the interests of the RPA or PA are not protecting the ideologies for the sake of Yerevan. In fact the governmental propaganda is imitating this picture. These are just people enrooted in criminal systems, who have personal antipathy or problems with each other and have conflicts related to their interests. It is natural that there are conflicts of interests in election periods. Sometimes the behavior of the lower levels of the governmental pyramid becomes incontrollable for the upper levels. It is not excluded that this conflict may bring to serious clashes in several communities. The one to be responsible for these things are the police because every time such conflicts take place they say that nothing serious has happened. The main criminal conflicts are between the RPA and PA. It is the first independent election for the PA and I don’t know how long this independence may last for them. In any case the lower part of the governmental iceberg fully consists of criminal systems. The elections are held through the criminal systems and commission. The brochures and platforms are the upper part of the iceberg for the purpose of performing a political demonstration to cover the real criminal activities and efforts in the environment where the police are very passive. If they do their duties or even try to follow the law, and if the police chiefs come up with announcements aimed at punishing culprits, I believe there will not be bloody clashes. If the ANC involved in such debates, the government’s reaction would be strict and it would be resisted and pressed down.
– What do you think about the fact that even the pro-government parties vow to enlarge the green areas in Yerevan and fight corruption if people give their consideration and vote to them?
– When I watch the official campaign of the pro-government parties, sometimes I see them surprised on how they have embezzled and spoilt everything. Who did stop them to do that so far? I remember the fake intelligentsia representatives who endorse the authorities; they used to protect the area near the chamber theatre when this area was given for building a cafe. They were begging the government not to build a café there but now they are endorsing the same government. If the citizens of Yerevan really want a change, if they want to be the owner of Yerevan again and have their rights and responsibility for their city, they should trust the ANC. The city is in this situation due to the government. During the past years Yerevan was without a caring hand because whatever was built was not in the interests of Yerevan but in the interests of a group of people. For example, if a high rank official wanted to build a gas station somewhere they didn’t try to make the place and architecture of this gas station consistent with the city architecture but did the vice versa because the gas station had an owner but Yerevan did not.
– Yesterday Hmayak Hovhannisyan said that after this election the ANC will be faced with an issue to change its format. Before now there have been announcements that not all the powers of the ANC have the same opinion and stance to certain issues. Do you think that the ANC may break to several parts after the upcoming election?
– As all the other political alliances, the ANC has its historical beginning and the end. However the strong ideal of recovering the constitutional order in the country brings them all together and the other issues become secondary. It is up to the positive behavior of the leaders of the other parties and Levon Ter-Petrosyan.
-You have worked as Yerevan’s mayor and you perfectly know about the political, economic and social potential. What is the strength and power of Yerevan if the authorities are afraid to lose?
– Even in that period, when the mayor did not have much power and rights, he was the fourth person in the country. The first person was the president, and after him the speaker of the parliament, prime-minister and the mayor. And now, when the mayor is elected by public vote, he has a strong and real power. In the hands of a smart and strong person it is a power, due to which they can show to the world and country how one can bring everything under the rule of the law.
– You have also worked as the police chief, what do you think about the legal proceedings of the case of March 1?
– The scenario that the authorities wanted to use to manipulate the case of March 1 was failed because there was too much fraud there and it was impossible to hide it. Plus, the law-enforcement bodies are not professionally educated, as a result of which the case failed. For the purpose of judging one more demonstrator they spoilt the entire judicial system. Especially they spoilt the public prosecutors’ institution, which handled the investigation of the case. As always, at the end it turned out that it was the fault of the police because due to the illiterate management of Haik Harutyunyan this strong institution of the police, which is essential for state administration, became a secondary tool in the hands of the national security service. The police, which used to be the guarantee of protecting the law and people, have become a proof of facts in the court.
– Mr. Abrahamyan, there is an opinion, according to which with their speeches Levon Ter-Petrosyan and the other opposition leaders deprived the authorities from the opportunity to escape from “March 1”. In other words, as a result of the fact that the opposition threatened to punish for the electoral violations, embezzlement and violence the authorities had to do anything in order not to lose the power. The opposition vows to punish now too, don’t you think that there is a risk that such violence may happen again?
– No, this is a wrong opinion. The one who respects his own nation would not ever commit such an awful crime against his nation. The authorities had raped the opinion of people, they had violated the elections and wanted to hide it. They did it and they must be punished for that, they will get a payback. I don’t suspect at all.