When the president announced that the Constitutional referendum had to be conducted just like the ring-dance, a lot of people guessed that the organizer of the “ring dance” (RA general prosecutor Aghvan Hovsepyan) would join them to say “yes” to the Constitution. And they were right.
Yesterday the “Nig-Aparan” patriotic alliance organized a meeting with the purpose of petitioning its members to say “yes” to the Constitution.
The leaders of the alliance used aphorisms by Hovhannes Tumanyan, Aristotle, Dostoyevski, Carnegie and the citizens of Aparan. And the head of “New Generation of Vaspurakan” patriotic alliance Marine Fahradyan (who always said that the national traditions must be continued) said that the constitutions of European countries, which were considered to be the most democratic, had been written by Mkhitar Gosh.
Aghvan Hovsepyan’s speech was mainly addressed to those people who were intended to say “no” to the Constitution. “I felt pity when I read the announcement of one of our well-known politicians (Vazgen Manoukyan), that if there would be no referendum, the authority’s power would be weakened. We had to leave this principle long ago (i.e. defining that much bad is much good). But it is not clear for whom it is going to be good. Probably for a lot of people who are led by their own sensitive temptations. I think it is the time to leave this principle”,-said Aghvan Hovsepyan. Then the general prosecutor spoke about the opposition: “They announce, that the Constitutional Draft is good, but petition people not to participate in the referendum because this is not carried out by them and they don’t represent the authorities. I don’t understand this either. When are we going to do that? When are you going to be part of the government to realize this? In November? In December? In two years? Or maybe in 30 years… When?” According to him the constitutional amendments are very important because the existing Constitution has already played its role and is too old. And MP Liova Khachatryan (from Aparan) announced that no Constitution could be excellent and they can always say that it could be better. According to him the Constitution is the reflection of our life, and at this phase we are not ready for something more: “Of course we could have a better one. We could stop torturing ourselves, flying to Venice. We could just simply ask a kid to download the constitution of a developed country, then we could change some terms there and present it as our own Constitution. But are our citizens, our country and our economy ready for this kind of Constitution? I don’t think so. The Constitution is the reflection of our life. There must be as much freedom in judicial power as we are able to bear now.” Ex-member of “Azgayin Miabanutyun” Napoleon Azizyan (a citizen of Aparan) said that he was an oppositioner. But he was not going to deny things he agreed with. For instance he couldn’t say that the tunnel of Dilijan, the bridge of Davitashen and similar types of buildings were not important because of the fact that they were built by Robert Kocharyan, meaning construction was headed by him. “If they say this, they’d better try not going through the tunnel when going to Dilijan, not walk in the asphalted streets of Yerevan, because these projects were carried out by Kocharyan. I don’t want to be an oppositioner by saying this. I’d like to say the same concerning the Constitutional amendments. It’s closer to democracy”,-said the MP. Meanwhile he petitioned people to organize a good party after the Constitutional referendum gets approved.
The head of Syunik region (the head of “Syunik” patriotic alliance) Surik Khachatryan was there too. In response to our question concerning the reason as to why they intended to vote for the Constitution, he said: “How can we say “no” to the Constitution? The citizens of Syunik region first of all want to keep their national traditions, but now we can’t say that we can develop well only by keeping the national traditions. In all cases we have to join the EU”. Than he said that Armenians were strange people, because those people who were against the Constitutional Draft in 2003 were for it now, and those who were for it then, are now against it”. It turns out, that the government was against the Constitutional Draft in 2003, but it announced that it was for it.
By the way, the slogan of “Nig Aparan” was very artistic: “We are going to participate and say “yes”, because “yes” is like the morning light of the country, “yes” is a hope for us, “yes” is for us”. L.Khachatryan assured that they were going to write an anthem for the referendum like they had done for the “ring-dance”. And the anthem would start with these four sentences.
P.S. These organizations decided to found a new office so they could coordinate their projects later.