On October 1 the parliament organized hearings on the topic of the Protocols and the Process of Developing Relations between Armenia and Turkey, during which many politicians, representatives of parties and experts expressed their opinions.
However the main opposition power, the Armenian National Congress, did not take part in these hearings. “The Armenian National Congress did not take part in the hearings, because as it was said these were organized for the purpose of demonstrating only,” says ANC spokesman Arman Musinyan. He says the incumbent government has agreed to sign “the shameful protocols and they will have to sign, and the parliament will have to ratify it and will not oppose”. To our question whether it would not be better to go and say everything there in order to deliver their message to the audience he said that they will say everything they want to say during an upcoming rally. He says this is more effective. In addition, he says that if the ANC participates in such imitation games proposed by the government, they will become a tool in the hands of the government too. In answer to the announcements of other political powers saying that it would be good if the ANC participated in the discussion as well he said, “They know the opinions of the ANC activists from the media, thus I think it did not change too much,” says PA faction secretary Aram Safaryan, “however, from the point of view of political culture it would be better if there were more speeches during the discussion”. A. Safaryan believes the ANC is an integral part of our political sector and our society. “Also I would like to inform that during the hearings the concerns and worries of the society were spoken too. Even though I have some disagreements about the format of the hearings because 5,5 hours during one day is a very short term for 60 speeches and it is not enough for people who want to understand every detail of the issue. Anyway I think it was a useful discussion,” said A. Safaryan. He also says that the hearings were useful and important not only due to the fact of the discussion and participation of political powers but the media coverage as well. “I think that the media owes to the political sector because they did not cover all the aspects of concerns of all political powers,” he said. We wander what the ARF officials think about these hearings because ultimately these hearings did not change anything in the initial protocols and they will be signed anyway. “Every person who participated in the hearing will say that it was a real discussion because the organizer of the hearing, the committee on foreign relations, had invited experts, politicians, lawyers and other specialists to express their viewpoints. It was a real professional discussion and there were conflicts of opinions as well,” said ARF faction secretary Artyusha Shahbazyan. “Certain powers who have interests other than the national interests are saying that it is very important that the issue was discussed in the parliament. We know these people, and they say they did not participate in the discussion because it was a show. But they are jealous with us because the ARF is a very active opposition power now,” said A. Shahbazyan. He believes the only goal of the ANC is to help Levon Ter-Petrosyan become president. “For these people the issue of helping Ter-Petrosyan become president is more important than the dangers that we see in this process of Armenian-Turkish relations. In a word, this goal to be elected president is more important for them than the issues of the Armenian-Turkish relations and Karabakh. This is their nature; they have always been like that,” said A. Shahbazyan by perfectly playing his role as an oppositionist.