Guilty and fighting fright

06/02/2010 Armine AVETYAN

“Fright and vanity are a standard both in Armenia and Europe. I have said that this is the seed that results in a situation when there are political prisoners both in Europe and Armenia as a part of Europe. One may witness destroying of the Armenian culture and not to do anything here or there. In Europe people are elected in high positions who are refusing the fact of the genocide officially,” said founding member of Heritage party Raffi Hovhannisyan concerning excluding Zaruhi Postanjian from the Armenian delegation to the PACE and electing Mavlud Chavushoglu in the position of the PACE president.

It is not about the Heritage party only but the Armenian state and society as well. I think it is a challenge to the Armenian society. It is enough for every person to say that he is the representative. Neither the ANC nor ARF or any other political power can be the only opposition force. I think the society should unite and make the political parties understand that they are not the only one in this country. If it continues we will be deprived of our vote, we will complain about the external world, but if this continues this way we will lose our vote,” says Raffi Hovhannisyan.

The founder also spoke of the future cooperation between the Heritage and ARF parties. ARF representative Armen Rustamyan and Heritage member Zaruhi Postanjian have criticized each other in Strasburg. During the PACE monitoring session Postanjian said that the ARF cannot be opposition and represent the Armenian opposition’s opinion in relation to issues concerning March 1 as it used to be a part of the power at that time. ARF faction secretary Artyush Shahbazyan says if Postanjian’s opinion is the opinion of the Heritage as well, it will be hard to cooperate with each other. “We should clarify this issue,” he said. Will the Heritage discuss the issue of cooperating with the ARF after this incident? The ARF has been struggling against the Armenian-Turkish protocols. The ARF and Heritage are politically stabile powers and should have found a solution for this problem. Raffi Hovhannisyan thinks there has been pressure concerning the recent processes happening around Karabakh conflict settlement and Armenian-Turkish reconciliation. Furthermore, he believes such pressure will continue. “Being in the first government 18 years ago, and later with the opposition, I have always been for the development of diplomatic relations without preconditions. But the Turkish official policy has brought to a point where there are preconditions. We should recover the balance. If Turkey continues insisting on preconditions, the Armenian party should develop preconditions as well because the lack of balance cannot result in constructive approach in politics or diplomacy,” said Raffi Hovhannisyan. Mr. Hovhannisyan also spoke about the processes that are happening in their party, specifically the rumors about dropping the membership of several activists of their party. “I am the only one guilty for that. It is easier to say this. I am the one that asks for pardon in the name of others. I am taking the blame of mine and others on me,” said Raffi Hovhannisyan.