– You have been the Prime Minister of Armenia for three years now and nominated by the Republican Party of Armenia. You have been a member of that party for 2,5 years now. But during these years it seems that you have never managed to fully merge with the RPA. You even get “attacks” from the party front. Why has not your full “republicanization” taken place?
– I was in Alaverdi only two days ago and met with the members of the RPA. Moreover, this has been the second meeting of mine with my party comrades in Alaverdi. It proceeded in a very warm environment. I had the honor to hand in their party tickets to 330 new RPA members. A week before that we were in Vayots Dzor marz with hundreds of Republicans who joined me to visit Garegin Nzhdeh’s tombstone and the church there. There was a similar event organized there and hundreds of young people have received membership tickets and party pins from me personally. I have many friends within the RPA and I have very close relations with them. But taking into account the fact that the RPA is the largest party in the country it is understandable that there can be people within the party, who wouldn’t fully agree with the Prime Minister and his work style. I find it very natural. It is impossible to have contradiction in any big organization. I don’t exclude that such contradictors may exist within the RPA as well. And that is totally Ok for an organization which is managed based on democratic principles. I think that our society and the experts quite well understand this. I think that it is totally normal for any big organization. Any party that moves closer to elections first of all starts debates within the party. So when the party determines its platforms and messages these debates should end. I think that is a good thing and parties being live organism, need all that for the development of accurate strategies. Sooner or later this will become a common practice in Armenia.
– You are criticized not only by the opposition but also by your coalition partners and this gives us ground to assume that you are the weakest link of the government. And if the government ever has the need to get rid of someone from the government for the purpose of appeasing the society, that person might be you.
– I think people don’t waste too many efforts on a weak link. I think the situation is critically vice versa because serious political analyses show that this is the strongest link of our government, who implements democratic and progressive reforms. By this I become a target. I would also like to ask from you what kind of criticism you have heard from within the coalition.
– The Prosperous Armenia raises certain criticism of the policies of the government and often blames the Prime Minister of that.
– Of course, you have the right to draw assumptions based on contexts but the reality is that if the government consists of the ruling coalition then all of the parties of the coalition carry equal responsibility for the actions and policies of the government. And that includes the RPA, Prosperous Armenia and Legal State. We work as a joint team and we are all accountable for the work done. None of the parties of the coalition can act opposition within the coalition by criticizing the government. There is no government policy that would be implemented with the discontent of any of the ruling coalition members. We work as a joint team and work in a team environment.
– When following the sessions of the parliament it becomes clear that there is certain internal conflict not only within the coalition parties but also within the RPA. And when the discussion of the government projects at the NA it often becomes obvious that you and NA Speaker contradict each other and probably the reason is that Abrahamyan wished to be Prime Minister back in the day.
– We don’t have any personal problems. Al we have is normal human relations, normal communication even with families. And I think quite often such analyses on part of the media often are the imagination of certain people. That is a very dangerous way because if you take out any sentence from the context you may interpret or misinterpret the actual information and content. In this regard I am always trying to be correct in my speeches. I am always willing to give comments on what this or that issue is connected with
– How possible do you find the option of you having the post of the NA speaker and Abrahamyan the post of the Prime Minister. Such scenarios are being circulated.
– We are a team within the party and so we will do what the party will decide. If our party decides to make such changes in the personnel of course we will be complaisant. But currently there are no such discussions or plans.
– RPA is a party with differing poles. There are lower caliber leaders in different circles of the party, who are trying to have their own teams in order to be protected and supported in a high level competition. For example, the names of Hovik Abrahamyan and Karen Karapetyan are mentioned as ones, who are trying to establish their own teams. Are you trying to establish your own team in the party?
– Quite honestly I have been a member of the party for two years now. So far I have never noticed any team divisions. I have never witnessed such things during my visits to the chapters both in Yerevan and marzes.
– Recently the former head of Erebuni community council Mher Sedrakyan wasn’t able to recall your name when speaking to us. It was considered as an intentional deed by the media. Do you two have any contradictions?
– I think that it was turmoil created artificially. It was created by the media but later faded. I think that every person may be mistaken during an interview. It’s natural. There is no need to make a world disaster out of that.
– You are a member of a political team. M. Sedrakyan or some other oligarch in the party with a criminal reputation may often bring more votes to the party and this makes them very useful. But if we compare you with your activity in the executive branch with the mentioned oligarchs it turns out that the level of efficiency of your work is not that high. Doesn’t this fact concern you?
– We indeed hold discussions and social polls as well in order to identify our strengths and weaknesses as well as our achievements. We also do these things to understand what the society is disappointed of and what needs to be done. We very well know the weight and influence of each politician in the party.
– What is your value and weight during these polls? Can these lead you to the first spot on the RPA list as they often say?
– Sometimes we argue that I should be on the top spot of the party and the party often argues that I shouldn’t be there. We have read all that in the media. The versions are numerous and contradictive. Let me say that all these matters will be determined within our party. The party hasn’t yet started to discuss these matters and the latter are mostly discussed by analysts. The pollsters analyze where each politician will appear on the list. All these analyses are very interesting but the RPA hasn’t yet made a final decision on that.
– Do you also exclude the possibility of by-elections?
– What is the difference between the elections and by-elections?
– In this case, the demand of the opposition is to form a fair government via elections, which will resolve the issues of the society and the country.
– As an opposition I myself put forward that thesis in 1991. It has not lost its modernity during the last 20 years. Any opposition attempts to use this thesis. I wonder if the opposition has enough influence to lead the people in that very direction. In my personal opinion, objectively there are no such critical masses, who demand special elections. Especially, if we take into account the fact, that there is very little time left for the successive elections.
– Don’t thousands of the participants of the rallies represent the masses you are talking about?
– We are carefully following the rallies, the theses addressed by people participating in the rallies; we are seriously studying them trying to understand whether these theses are supported. Moreover, we consider all the reasonable suggestions by the opposition and try to carry them out. Regarding the matter from this point of view, I don’t consider there are critical masses, who demand special elections.
– A part of these critical and discontented masses keeps on immigrating instead of presenting demands. According to statistics the number of immigrants reaches a dangerous point.
– What are we supposed to do? Should we do our best not to let these critical masses escape from the country and let the revolution take place? In case we want people to stay in Armenia, we should make life better in the country than abroad. But even when life in Armenia is improved, the immigration of the critical masses do not decrease. The masses supporting the government increase. Believe me, there is no government who wishes to have lower reputation than the opposition.
– Can you substantiate why constituencies should vote for the RPA. You are going to visit various regions of Armenia and ask for votes, aren’t you?
– RPA managed to establish sustainability in the country. We were able to respond accordingly to the global economic crisis, to carry out activities to minimize its negative impact on our economy and citizens. We implemented large-scale social programs and increased social payments and pensions even in case of economic crisis. People appreciate that, since they are able to differentiate between the objective and the subjective and understand that RPA succeeded in confronting the challenges the country faced and lead people to the future.
– RPA decreased the countries budged and it is now less than 3 billion dollars.
– Since when have we been counting our budget in dollars?
– Most probably, since our economy was based on transfers.
– If we count in dollars, we should count by real purchasing capacity and compare the consumer basket to that of American and European. We should consider the real solvency of dram in Armenia and solvency of dollar in the United States. Of course, we had serious issues during the crisis. Decrease of GDP is the first index of the crisis. Even in those circumstances we did the impossible not to decrease budget and social expenses.
P.S. Please read the next part of the interview on economy in our next issue.