– The ARF Central Committee of Western America has recently announced that they are not going to take part in the reception in Los Angeles dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Independence of the Republic of Armenia, since the President Serzh Sargsyan is going to participate in the event as well. The ARF American chapter has sharply criticized the RA government, which was followed by the reply of officer of Yerevan branch of Hay Dat which reads as follows: “We don’t have any right to proceed by personalized relations and emotional steps in the events of this level. Are there any contradictions between the ARF chapters of America and Armenia?
– There isn’t any issue. The issue was exaggerated in the media. We are often required to interpret the mentioned statement. ARF isn’t used to interpreting the statements made by the other chapter. Any statement made by an ARF chapter is a statement by the ARF no matter what, proceeding from the regulations of the given chapter. Our party acts according to ideological centralization but has organizational decentralization, which gives everyone wider opportunities to orientate according to the existing circumstances. What is to Armenia, it is a pan Armenian issue and in this sense ideological similarities exist for sure. The party does not have any serious deviation from the political program and general strategies defined by the Supreme Assembly and General Session. Many people want to conceal the reason why this issue was addressed; the invitation sent to ARF chapter in Los Angeles was not formulated in a proper way. Judging by the content of invitation it the whole event seemed to be dedicated to the President. But this event is meant to be for everybody, and these are our people who have gained these 20 years of Independence no matter if they are from the opposition or the government. This improper formulation of the invitation resulted in emotional interpretation of the issue.
– You present the announcement as a result of improper formulation of the invitation, however according to some opinions relations between ARF chapters in Armenia and America got worse, since two American representatives were not included in the new staff of ARF Bureau. Iranian wing won instead.
– Elections and heated discussions take place during ARF sessions. A body was elected by the whole staff of the session.
– Probably, corresponding activities were carried out with the delegates to have the given staff of the Bureau.
– If any activities were carried out USA representatives would not vote for the incumbent staff. They voted for the current Bureau.
– According to existing opinion American chapters of ARF are discontented with you, since you are too tolerant with the incumbent government.
– I would suggest those who have such opinions listening to my speeches and they would see that there are much stricter evaluations.
– Why don’t you demand the President’s resignation, but are contented with demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister or Minister of Foreign Affairs?
– We said change of government, which means that the incumbent government has to retire top down. Resignation is a procedural question, change of government is a matter of content, it is a specific political process. Resignation is the easiest way as I may consider my job completed by sending my resignation, what more can I do? And I think that it is a self-deception as the resignation supposes that the person has to resign on a voluntary basis. There are four ways for the president to retire described in the legislation. Resignation is one of them. The president will or will not send his resignation. However, the history of our independence period has shown that the resignation is sent only in case of a possible worse scenario (it could be worse). In other cases they will never do it. That is why we say that we have to create correspondent conditions for inevitable resignation. If we don’t create this very situation we will only disappoint people by our urgent requests on resignation and deadlines. After all, the whole resignation process is not easy itself.
– It is already 2,5 years since ARF has declared itself an opposition. Why hasn’t it created correspondent conditions for resignation?
– We have implemented this very research and came to a conclusion that it is necessary to come out with program of total change of government. It means the change of the whole system. If the system remains the same and only people are changed, everything will remain the same.
– What are you going to do to change the system?
– There are certain aspects around which powers admitting the idea of total government change should be incorporated. After coming to power what should we do in order the population see real changes in their lives? To make these changes we have to first of all reject the presidential system which creates the privileged class around itself. We say that the system has to be decentralized; there should be several centers of power which may control and restrain each other. It is necessary to build parliamentary system but not of the same quality as the one we have nowadays. The existing image of a deputy should be changed as all the accusations of deputies being involved in business are true.
– But there are many business MPs in your fraction.
– Yes, there are. This is an absorbing system. What we say is that we must refuse this system, put new game rules which would make create mechanisms of containment and counterbalance in the authorities system. Secondly, in case that my words do not stay just in the paper, the government must give the mechanism of his monitoring to the opposition. There is a situation in Armenia that the winner gets everything. The representative of the opposition must rule the battle against corruption. The opposition must be represented in all the councils created for monitoring, starting from Chamber of Audit. We want free speech. Public Television and Radio Commission must be comprised of opposition members. A commission of ethics is organized. If there is no opposition representation in that structure, they can call opposition deputy and say that he is in business: And for the government deputy they say that he is not so much in business. Nowadays, the oligarchs are planning an attack against that initiative, aren’t they? Who is the judge to make decision fairly? Change of government is necessary to shift the system.
– How do you imagine the shift of government? Are you talking about the regular or extraordinary elections?
– It is also a trick, to fool people. Our objective is to get ready for the upcoming elections. The announcement of our general gathering speaks about the upcoming elections. The important thing for us is to be ready for the elections. If you are not ready to balance the mechanism of reproduction, what’s the difference if the authorities if the authorities are reproduced by regular or extraordinary elections. If you have no tangible supervision over 2000 electoral precincts, why do you think that you will fix your victory through election? For the purpose of performing this supervision, we initiated “Vote is power” movement, which will be public. Let people come to vote and cast against ARF but for those who they want.
– Posts in “Wikileaks” website are supposed to have passed around Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Didn’t you have meetings with Joseph Pennington, Marie Yovanovitch or other American diplomats?
– We had, but it was not profitable for them to publish what we had told them. ARF is not new to “Wikileaks”. This party has followed one path for more than 120 years, which they didn’t diverge, at least for themselves. They know perfectly well that in pursuing issues in foreign politics and national problems ARF is on the same route. They have no problem meeting me personally to find out which is the ARF’s viewpoint in Nagorno Karabakh, Armenia-Turkey issues. There were numerous meetings. We are saying the same thing in all the centers. That’s why we don’t fear what they are going to publicize. And trust me, they mostly believe in that. And we think that the agents of influence and effect may be right here.
– Perhaps the U.S. didn’t signify ARF as a key internal political factor.
– So are all the others more important than the ARF? If we are on the last place on the list then I don’t have any questions.